BTW- While all of use are whining about the possibility of losing good prospect on the 31, lets remember that there will be 31 OTHER teams that will be going through the same thing. The 31st will be awash with EXCELLENT prospects as it is every year. Every team will be cutting NFL quality players, and then scrambling to sign them to their PS. We are NOT alone in this.
One thing that makes this site so fun is all the snarky posts about how bad we are at team building, and at the same time, people sobbing over cutting the 54th best player on the squad.
If we're having a hard time cutting down the team it means we have a lot of talent on the team, or maybe the fans think more of certain players than the people coaching and evaluating those players for a living do.
I have a question pertaining to this. Can a player who is claimed on waivers, just say "no thank you" Or do they HAVE to go that team?
The team that claims the player has their rights, and the terms are the same ones as the player's current contract. The new team is giving that player game checks once they claim them, so of course they expect the player to report. The player can refuse to report to that team but that subjects them to the usual fines for not reporting. If the team wants to open the roster spot, they can move them to the reserve list with the "reserve/did not report" designation and the player will just sit in that state till they do report or retire.
There are many complicated reserve lists in the NFL, and we take a look at all of them to see which Steelers fall under each category.
www.behindthesteelcurtain.com
Also if the team is sick of the standoff they can either trade the rights (if someone else decides they want him and will give up something to get him) or put him on waivers again (which repeats the cycle, starting with the worst team first getting the option to claim the player).
In the real world, what I think happens is once a player hits the waiver wire the team reaches out to the player's agent and asks a whole bunch of questions, one of which is will this guy play for us or not, before they claim the player. It's a big waste of time to claim someone who isn't going to report. You might as well skip over that player and look for one who will.
I think eventually the league will expand the roster number and say allow the team to protect 4 or 5 players that they want on the PS
I think four are protected already?
Here’s everything you need to know about NFL practice squads, from player salaries to rules and more.
www.nbcsports.com
