What are the NFL team roster and practice squad limits?

Answer 1

There was an article in Sports Illustrated recently talking about practice squads. It said that the players on the squad attended games but did not dress for them and did not join the team on the sidelines. Look for the article in the SI.com archives.

Answer 2

Yes...here's the section of the NFL rule book covering that:

"a player under contract to a club as a Practice Squad player is completely free to sign a contract with another NFL club during the season in order to be on the second club's Active/Inactive (i.e., 53 man) list. A practice squad player may not sign an NFL Player Contract with his Club's next opponent later than 4:00 p.m., New York time, on the sixth day preceding the game (except in bye weeks, when the prohibition commences on the tenth day preceding the game).If another club signs a Practice Squad player to its 53 man roster it does not have to provide any sort of compensation to the player's former club but it generally must keep the player on the 53 man roster for at least 3 weeks, thereby mandating that he earns in 2007 the minimum first year salary for said 3 week period ($285,000 prorated weekly).

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Answer 3

Yes. Players have to clear a 24-hour waiver period before being signed to a practice squad.

http://mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=149&f=1764&t=1186834

8-man Practice Squad:

After all teams have set their 53-man rosters prior to opening day and each team has passed 24-hours on acquiring the contracts of every other player waived by the other 31 NFL teams, each team may sign up to 8 players to occupy its developmental Practice Squad. These players practice with their teams but cannot dress on game days.

Further, any other team may claim a team's PS player on waivers at any given time during the season -- the only stipulation to this is that the team signing the PS player must immediately add that player to its 53-man roster.

A player is elibible for the PS if he: * Has no prior Accrued Seasons in the NFL * has one prior Accrued Season in which he was on the 45-man active roster for no more than 8 games * Has been on the PS with the particular team no more than 2 prior seasons (070609 CAM -- South Pasadena, CA)

Answer 4

No, but their contracts do count towards the NFL Salary Cap

Answer 5

yes, The 8 practice squad players can play in any game so long as the team keeps the active roster to the 53 man limit