For several days in late August, Ravens rookie tight end Qadir Ismail ran around at practice wearing a No. 87 jersey, pretending to be Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. A few weeks later, he wore the No. 86 of Bills tight end Dalton Kincaid. In November, he might spend a few days as Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth.
Welcome to the life of an NFL practice squad player, who might spend a week being someone else in practice but never get to be himself in an actual NFL game.
Practice squad players live on the fragile margins of an occupation with a notoriously short lifespan; the average NFL career lasts just 3.3 years. They earn a fraction of what players on the 53-man roster make, but they also earn a chance, which is exactly what most of them are hoping for. And in the past five years, such players have gained both increased relevance and opportunity.
For undrafted rookies such as Ismail, joining a practice squad opens a door to a potential NFL career. For perennial-bubble veterans such as Ravens wide receiver Keith Kirkwood, it keeps a door open. And for head coach John Harbaugh and his staff, practice squad players have an invaluable role in preparing game plans and in keeping the roster fortified throughout the grind of a 17-game season.
“I think it’s a win-win-win for everybody,” Harbaugh said.
Descendant Of The “Taxi Squad”
The practice squad is the descendant of the taxi squad, the brainchild of late Cleveland Browns coach Paul Brown, who used the concept in the 1940s to skirt roster rules in the old All-America Football Conference.
The league had a roster cap of 33, but Brown wanted other players available for his team. He convinced Browns owner Mickey McBride to hire these players for McBride’s taxi cab company. They were on the cab company payroll and readily available to Brown in case of injury.
The concept grew during the next few decades, with varying degrees of regulation or oversight. In 1989, the NFL established a five-player “developmental squad,” comprised of players with less than two years of NFL experience.
Since then, the practice squad — officially so named in 1990 — has steadily grown in both size and relevance. Practice squads were set at 12 in the 2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement, but with COVID protocols in place that year, the league agreed to temporarily expand that to 16. Teams liked that so much they made it permanent.
Also notably, veterans became eligible; of the 16 players on each team’s practice squad, up to six can have unlimited experience. The Ravens signed edge rusher Yannick Ngakoue to the practice squad in late September, and he can use practice squad reps to work into playing shape.
For less established veterans such as Kirkwood, who has bounced around several practice squads since 2018, the practice squad gives a lifeline. He played 13 games for the New Orleans Saints last year, but when the season ended and no teams came calling, Kirkwood, 29, figured his career was over.
He was in New Orleans checking on his property and contemplating a second career in real estate when the Ravens called and invited him to a tryout at June minicamp.
“I was like, ‘I can’t turn this down,'” Kirkwood recalled. “Even though I had this mentality to retire, God was telling me I’m not done yet, so I’m here.”
Kirkwood impressed during training camp, but not enough to make the 53-man roster. Released in the final cutdown, he was signed to the practice squad the next day. (That’s the path for many on the Ravens’ practice squad each year.)
“He gets a chance that the [veteran] guys five or 10 years ago wouldn’t have gotten,” Harbaugh said.
And Kirkwood and Anthony Miller, another veteran practice squad receiver, have been mentors for younger practice squad players.
“They can see these guys fighting for their careers right on the edge of the league,” Harbaugh said. “They just respect that and see what it takes.”
Harbaugh, long a proponent of larger practice squads, noted that under the previous rules, both Kirkwood and Miller would be “out of the league right now.”
“They’d be forgotten,” he added. “So, say you have three or four guys like that on every team, that’s 100 guys. It makes total sense.”
Game Day Callups
In another 2020 rule change that made practice squads much more relevant, teams now can elevate two players from the practice squad to the game day roster each week. With COVID protocols in place in 2020, that number could be — and sometimes was — much higher.
In the so-called COVID Bowl, the Ravens’ Wednesday afternoon game in Pittsburgh on Dec. 2, 2020, in the midst of a team COVID outbreak, the Ravens elevated 10 players from the practice squad. For linebacker Aaron Adeoye and defensive lineman Aaron Crawford, that proved to be the only NFL regular-season game of their careers.
Players usually have a sense whether they will be “up” for game day based on their practice workload that week. For a Sunday game, elevations must be made by 4 p.m. Saturday.
Preparation is paramount.
“Somebody could get sick, somebody could be hurt, you just never know,” Kirkwood said. “If you’re ready, you’re ready.”
Practice squad pay varies based on service time, but rookies on the practice squad this year earn $12,500 per week, or $225,000 if they are on the roster for all 18 weeks. Veterans can earn up to $21,300 per week. If a practice squad rookie is a game day elevation, he receives 1/18th of the NFL rookie minimum salary of $795,000, or a nice bump to about $44,100 for the week.
There are limits, though; a player can be elevated only three times before he must be added to the 53-man roster.
Another team can sign a player off a practice squad, provided he immediately joins the new team’s 53-man roster — and provided the signing team isn’t playing his previous team within six days. Quarterback Tyler Huntley was signed by Miami off the Ravens’ practice squad in September, and two weeks later he was the Dolphins’ starting quarterback. (The player’s original team has a chance to promote him to the 53-man roster first, but the player is under no contractual obligation to stay.)
An Eye On Both Teams
Ismail said taking on an alter ego each week has its benefits.
“A lot of times you study other guys to see what they do, see if you can add something to your game,” Ismail said. “It helps my game, because at the end of the day, as much as I’m trying to give the [defense] good looks, I’m trying to get better as well.”
At the same time Ismail also must have one eye on the Ravens’ game plan.
Ismail, the son of former Ravens wide receiver Qadry Ismail, is often one of the last players on the practice field each day, taking extra reps with quarterback Josh Johnson. When he goes home after practice, he reviews the Ravens’ script from that day’s practice on a whiteboard. [Note: Ismail was placed on injured reserve Oct. 18.]
“I could obviously be called up at any moment, so I’m preparing for the [next opponent’s] defense as well,” he said.
Ismail signed with the Ravens as an undrafted rookie wide receiver from Samford by way of Villanova, where he began his college career as a quarterback. During training camp, he evolved from a fun story about being the son of a Ravens star to a promising tight end in his own right with an appealing 6-foot-6, 232-pound frame.
Still, on a team with Mark Andrews, Isaiah Likely and Charlie Kolar, there was never going to be room for him on the 53-man roster. As with Kirkwood, Ismail was released in the final cutdown but signed to the practice squad the next day.
“I love Baltimore. I love this entire coaching staff. Obviously, I grew up here,” Ismail said. “Whatever opportunity presented itself I would have been pleased with.”
Ismail acknowledged it’s “different” come game day, when he isn’t in uniform, and all he can do is watch. The next week, the process starts all over again, with Ismail probably wearing some other tight end’s number, working and hoping that one day his time comes.
It never did for Jack Cornell, at least not with the Ravens. Cornell, now a high school coach at his alma mater, was on the Ravens’ practice squad in 2012 as an undrafted rookie offensive lineman out of Illinois.
He worked alongside Marshal Yanda, Matt Birk, Bryant McKinnie and others, and though his efforts never showed up on the stat sheet, “I could feel myself getting better as the year went on,” he said.
Cornell was cut before the 2013 season and signed to the Oakland Raiders’ practice squad. His entire NFL regular-season career consisted of one regular-season game with the Raiders in 2013. He played four snaps. Life on the edge of the league.
Yet Cornell has a Ravens Super Bowl ring with his name on it.
His advice to current young practice squad players?
“There’s obviously a lot separating you from being a starter, but just like anybody else, you have to handle your business like a pro,” he said. “You gotta show up, do the right things, take care of your body. … Be involved with as much as you can.”
“You’re a pro,” he added, “just as much as anybody else.”
Photo Credits: Kenya Allen/PressBox
Issue 289: October/November 2024
Originally published Oct. 16, 2024