The San Francisco 49ers have made their cuts to get down to the 53-man roster limit. There will be more roster moves to come this season, and when waivers runs on Sunday, we could see one or more transactions then. Released players with at least four years of service time are immediately free agents, while players with less than four years of accrued service time go through waivers.
Waivers will run Sunday morning at 9 a.m. PT, and after that, teams will begin signing players to their practice squad starting at 10 a.m. PT. Now that the preliminary 53-man roster is set, I thought I would provide a full rundown of practice squad rules. This will also include a list of practice squad eligible players the team released as part of roster cuts.
How many players on the practice squad?
10 - It was previously 8, but in 2014, the NFL changed it to 10 for the 2014 and 2015 seasons. They have made the rule permanent.
How is a player eligible for the practice squad?
In order to be eligible for the practice squad, players must meet one of the following requirements:
- Have no prior Accrued Seasons in the NFL (An accrued season is six or more games on the active roster);
- Have one prior Accrued Season in which the player was on the 46-man active roster for no more than 8 games;
- Each club will be permitted to sign a maximum of 4 Practice Squad players who have earned no more than 2 accrued seasons of free agency credit;
- If a player served two seasons on a practice squad, they are eligible for a third season only if the team has at least 53 players on its active/inactive list for the duration of that player's employment.
- A player has served one season on the practice squad if he is on the practice squad for at least 6 games. The rule previously required 3 games on the practice squad roster.
What 49ers players are eligible for the practice squad?
This is a list of players the 49ers cut on Saturday. They will likely sign one or more players to the practice squad from other teams cuts, but for now, here’s what we’ve got.
Rookies
QB Jack Heneghan
RB Jeff Wilson
RB Ja’Quan Gardner
FB Malcolm Johnson
WR Steven Dunbar
TE Ross Dwelley
OL Chris Gonzalez
OL Coleman Shelton
OL Najee Toran
DL Niles Scott
CB Tarvarus McFadden
CB Emmanuel Moseley
1st year
QB Nick Mullens
TE Wes Saxton
OL JP Flynn
OT Andrew Lauderdale
RB Jeremy McNichols
2nd year
RB Joe Williams
TE Cole Hikutini
OL Darrell Williams
OL Pace Murphy
DB Tyvis Powell
LB Pita Taumoepenu
3rd year
DB Dexter McCoil
Salary
Players on the practice squad can earn a minimum of $7,600 per week in 2018. Teams are allowed to pay a player a higher salary than the minimum, and this often happens if another team comes sniffing around a player. All practice squad salaries are counted under the team's salary cap.
Player rights
While on a practice squad, a player is paid by that particular team. However, the player has the right to sign with another team's 53-man roster. The one exception to this is that the player may not sign a contract with his team's next opponent after 1 p.m. PT six days preceding the game (10 days preceding in bye weeks). A player cannot sign a practice squad contract with one team and then leave to sign a practice squad contract with another team, unless the first team has released said player.
Promotion
If a player signs with another team's 53-man roster, or is promoted to his own team's 53-man roster, the player must be paid for at least 3 weeks of at least league minimum salary. They can be released before the 3 weeks is up, but they still have to be paid.
There is one exception to this called the Contagious Disease Addendum, which was first added in June 2010 in a side letter agreement to the last CBA. This states that if a player is promoted from the practice squad for a game because a club was given a roster exemption due to confirmed or suspected cases of contagious disease among its players, the player remains on his practice squad contract, but will be paid 1/17 of the league minimum salary. After the game he will be returned to the practice squad without having to clear waivers.