pats1

Hey guys,

I took a closer look at the CBA in regards to practice squad eligibility:

"free agent players who were on the Active List for fewer than nine regular season games during their only Accrued Season(s)."

The "(s)" is the critical part of that excerpt. The wording isn't great, but we now know why Yates, Shoate, and other guys like Wayne Hunter (who had 3 accrued seasons with the Seahawks and was still on the Jets' PS in 2007) are still eligible for the practice squad. The word "only" is rather superfluous - it doesn't mean that a player can "only" have one accrued season, or else there'd be no reason for the "(s)."

I think it's same to assume a player is practice squad eligible as long as they have not yet accrued a season in which they were active for at least nine regular season games.

But I have no idea how this affects the Patriots. It would take a good amount of research to figure that out.

EDIT: (5 minutes later...) Only Jeff Shoate is practice squad eligible based on this revelation (besides the others, of course).

patchick

Wow, nice sleuthing! So from the Yates example does that mean it's not cumulative nine games but nine within a given season? If it's the latter then theoretically you could spend a decade in the league, being, say, the emergency QB for half of each season and the #2 active QB for the other half, and still be PS eligible?

pats1

Theoretically, yes. I'll have to find another good example to confirm though.

Pats726

What a mess...great that you are looking closely...not sure what it means with players like Ventron, Spann CJones etc...wouldn't u think they would really spell it out to make it easy??

pats1

Found one: Adimchinobi Echemandu (a/k/a Joe Echemandu, Joseph Echema or Adimchinobe Echemandu)

He accrued seasons in 2004, 2005, and 2006 with the Browns, Vikings, and Raiders, respectively. He never was active for more than 4 games in either of those seasons, but was active for a total of 10 games (4, 2, 4) in those three seasons (2004-06) combined.

He was signed to the Texans' practice squad on October 10, 2007.

pats1

Doesn't really mean anything to those three guys - their issue is more with practice squad accrued seasons, which are completely different than regular accrued seasons. Ventrone and Spann have 2 PS seasons, making them eligible, and Jones has 3, making him ineligible. That's irrespective of their regular accrued seasons (Ventrone has 1, Spann has 1, Jones has 1).

pats1

Forgot about Dan Connolly too. He and Jeff Shoate are "now" eligible in light of this revelation.

Pats726

OK..I guess apples and oranges are really different here..so really in esscence..in many cases it's better to be on the 53 and inactive..than The PSqd..interesting...GREAT WORK!!.

pats1

One other thing I was thinking about is if a player was eligible at the beginning of the season, but was active for 9 games during that same season, would he be practice squad eligible if he was cut before the end of the season?

My feeling is that he would be eligible, since I believe those types of designations are done on a year-end basis -- just like a player who was signed to, say, a 1-credited season base salary contract at the beginning of the season, earned his 2nd credited season by being active for 3 games, was cut, would still be paid a 1-credited season base salary contract if he was re-signed.

pats1

Strangely, yes.

In fact, you can earn a practice squad season in fewer games (3) than you can a regular accrued season (6 - although that encompasses the 53, the IR, and the PUP). And, you only need to be on the practice squad for 1 week to earn your 3rd practice squad season (otherwise it's 3) - AND postseason games count, which isn't the case for accrued seasons.