By Michael Heilman
This past Sunday, the Philadelphia Eagles defeated the Washington Redskins 37-27 at FedEx Field. The hero of the game was Greg Ward, who caught a touchdown from Carson Wentz to give the Eagles the lead and the victory. Ward was an undrafted player in the 2017 NFL Draft playing quarterback at Houston before transitioning to a wide receiver.
Ward spent two years on the Philadelphia Eagles practice squad before heading to the Alliance of American Football to play for the San Antonio Commanders. He did really well in the AAF. After the AAF folded, Ward returned to the Eagles once again, on their practice squad. The Eagles have been battling injuries all season long to the point that Ward was promoted from the practice squad. Ward has taken advantage of the opportunity making a case for himself to sticking around not just this year but for many more years to come.
He isn’t the only one, though; there are 320 players total that are on the NFL practice squads for the thirty-two teams waiting for an opportunity to play football. Some, like Ward, have gotten a chance to play. Others who don’t get that opportunity wait patiently for their time to come. If not, they look elsewhere to showcase their talent playing in leagues like the CFL, XFL, or IFL.
Imagine, 320 players not getting their opportunity to play in the NFL. You could field five teams with those players. Or, the NFL could extend the active roster from fifty-three to sixty-three allowing teams to have extra players in case of injuries.
If there’s anything that past leagues like the AAF, UFL, FXFL, and the original XFL have taught us, is that there are good players everywhere. If you allow these players to play, they are going to put their blood, sweat, and tears out on that field. They just want to play football.
One thing I hate that reporters do in interviews is calling these guys “practice squad guys” who shouldn’t be in the NFL. Guess what; they are not practice squad guys; they are football players. I would love to see the NFL eliminate the practice squad and extend the active roster to sixty-three. If these teams don’t have intentions of using these players, let them go so they can play in the CFL, XFL and IFL.
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