Keeping Practice Squad Players??

[BuffBillsPa]

If a another team wants to claim a player from the Bills practice squad, do the Bills have the choice of adding him to their roster or losing him or do the Bills lose him without any chance of keeping him?

[TigerJ]

I believe if he's on the PS, a player is fair game for other teams, and a team (for example the Bills) does not have the right to sign a player (Martin Nance for instance) to their active squad if he is offered a contract by another team to avoid losing him. I think PS players are treated like free agents. They must be signed to a contract. They are not claimed (like waived players may be). Thus, if for some reason a PS player did not like a given team, he would not have to sign with them. The reality is you're paid only peanuts to be on the PS versus even a minimum rookie contract. If you are on a PS and you are offered a contract by anybody, you will jump through hoops to sign it. That's just the way it is.

[daquixers_is_back]

So practice squad players are not under contract? how are they paid?

[ganesh]

I believe if he's on the PS, a player is fair game for other teams, and  a team (for example the Bills) does not have the right to sign a player (Martin Nance for instance) to their active squad if he is offered a contract by another team to avoid losing him.  I think PS players are treated like free agents.  They must be signed to a contract.  They are not claimed (like waived players may be).  Thus, if for some reason a PS player did not like a given team, he would not have to sign with them.  The reality is you're paid only peanuts to be on the PS versus even a minimum rookie contract.  If you are on a PS and you are offered a contract by anybody, you will jump through hoops to sign it.  That's just the way it is.

755875[/snapback]

 

I think the real question is, if a player is on the PS of the bills and if say the Steelers want to add that player to their 53 man roster, do the bills have the

1st right to add the player to their 53 man roster when steelers request their

offer to the NFL front office ?

[Pyrite Gal]

The rules may have been changed under the most recent CBA or when the size of the PS was expanded, but my understanding of the rule is that:

 

1. Players on the PS are free to sign with other teams and there is no formal right of first refusal or waiting period to see if the old team opts to invoke their right of first refusal (if there were, then when the Bills signed a player such as when they signed Lawrence Smith from the Ravens PS, the media breathlessly would have covered the countdown until he officially became a Bill),

 

2. However, if a player is signed from another team's PS he must be signed to the active roster of his new team (this stops teams from raiding each other's PS and stops players from having their agents seek the best PS opportunity for their player). I also think that if you sign a player from another team's PS he is at least immediately guaranteed an salary at a prorate annual ammount (and may well even be guaranteed a roster spot) to stop teams from signing a player from the PS of a team they are about to play in order to get information about the opponents playbook or game plan and then they simply cut the player after the get valuable intelligence data.

 

3. Even though there is no right of guaranteed right of first refusal, teams often seem to here that other teams are interested in signing a player off their PS. Generally, this makes sense as another team sniffing around or expressing interest in a player would give that player great leverage with his team. As in the case with Jason Peters, it was actually other teams expressing interest in signing him off the Bills PS that proceeded a decision to sign him to the Bills roster. The decision to sign him preceeded the decision to make him an RT as initially he was used as a on the ST where he blocked a punt and scored a TD. He was given a OL players number but did not assume use exclusively as an OL player until after he made a less than successful intial TE appearance when he refused to notify officials he was an eligible receiver at TE even though he wore an OL # and wa penalized on the play.