NFL Practice Squad Rules and Protections: What the CBA Says About Other Teams Signing Giants Players
NFL clubs used a weekly four-player protection in 2020 and 2021. We found no current NFL or NFL Players Association document that includes it, and outlets disagree on whether it still exists.
Under Article 33 of the NFL-NFLPA collective bargaining agreement, a practice squad player may sign with another club's 53-man roster at any time during the league year. The agreement gives his club no right to match the offer and no draft-pick compensation. Its main timing limit is a blackout for his club's next opponent.
The practice squad rules the league adopted in 2020 let a club protect up to four practice squad players a week from being signed to another team's active roster. Protection began at 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday and ran through game day, and the league kept the rule for 2021, the Buccaneers' website explained in October 2021.
No document we could find settles whether that protection still exists. Article 33 did not contain it in 2020 and 2021 either, when clubs were using it, so the CBA's silence does not answer the question. The practice squad rules on the league's Football Operations site do not mention it.
ProFootballTalk reported in September 2022 that protections were gone for that season. Big Blue View wrote in August 2024 that they no longer exist. Pro Football Network wrote that same month that teams still select four protected players each week.
The Desrosiers signing
The Giants signed running back Gregory Desrosiers off the Los Angeles Chargers' practice squad Tuesday, Oct. 27, during the Giants' bye week. They placed Tyrone Tracy Jr. on injured reserve the same day, the team announced. Desrosiers is an undrafted rookie from Memphis who has not played in an NFL game.
Section 6 of Article 33 sets the cost of signing a player off another team's practice squad. The Giants owe Desrosiers three weeks' salary at the 53-man minimum, even if they release him sooner. They must also count him on their 53-man roster for three games, even if he is cut, traded or claimed before then. A bye week counts as a game. If the week he signed counts as his first, the requirement runs through the Nov. 12 game against Washington. Any salary he earns from another club during that window reduces what the Giants owe.
Desrosiers is the fourth player the Giants have signed off another team's practice squad this season:
- Cornerback Nikko Reed, from the Chargers on Sept. 18.
- Outside linebacker Jihad Ward, from Minnesota on Oct. 1.
- Offensive lineman Josh Sills, from Indianapolis on Oct. 21.
Reed, Sills and Desrosiers are on the active roster. The Giants released Ward on Oct. 20, two days after the Saints game, the third game they had played since signing him.
The next-opponent blackout
Under the CBA, a practice squad player cannot sign with his club's next opponent after 4 p.m. ET on the sixth day before the game. When his club has a bye the weekend before that game, the cutoff moves to the 10th day before it.
The Giants' bye falls the weekend before their Nov. 8 game at Philadelphia. That put the Eagles' cutoff for Giants practice squad players at 4 p.m. ET Thursday, Oct. 29. The CBA's sixth-day rule would put Washington's cutoff for the Nov. 12 game at 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6. The text ties the blackout to a club's next opponent, though, and on that date the Giants' next opponent is Philadelphia. Outside those cutoffs, the CBA sets no limit on which club can sign a Giants practice squad player to its 53.
The CBA has two other limits. A practice squad player cannot leave for another club's practice squad while he is under contract. After the conference championship games, practice squad players on the two Super Bowl teams cannot sign with their own club's opponent.
Elevations and the 53-man contract
A club may elevate up to two practice squad players for each game. An elevated player reverts to the practice squad after the game without going through waivers. A player can be elevated for three regular-season games, the Football Operations site says, and his next elevation requires a 53-man contract. After that, a club can waive or release him and re-sign him to the practice squad, where he is eligible for three more elevations. Our elevation explainer covers the CBA text's older two-game limit.
The Giants reached that point with outside linebacker Trace Ford. The team's transaction wire lists his elevations Oct. 3, Oct. 10 and Oct. 17, and the team signed him to the 53 on Oct. 20. That contract took him out from under Article 33's practice squad signing rules. Another team can now get Ford only by trade or, if the Giants release him, by a waiver claim.
The Giants' practice squad now
The team's roster lists 17 players on the practice squad. They include outside linebacker Dawuane Smoot, signed Oct. 13, and offensive lineman Josh Gesky, signed Oct. 14. The team's transaction records show no elevation for Smoot. Wide receiver Jalin Hyatt and safety Raheem Layne were the Giants' elevated players for the Houston game.
No quarterback is on the practice squad. Jake Haener has been on the 53 since Oct. 7, behind J.J. McCarthy and Jameis Winston. Jaxson Dart is on injured reserve.
Practice squad signings are not trades. Article 33 allows them throughout the league year, so they continue after the trade deadline at 4 p.m. ET Nov. 10.