Jaguars Protect Four Practice Squad Players Under New Rules

The Jacksonville Jaguars have utilized the new Practice Squad rules for the 2020 season and protected four players from being signed by other teams during the upcoming week.

The Jacksonville Jaguars have designated four Practice Squad “protected” players for their Week 1 game against the Indianapolis Colts.

They are: running back Nathan Cottrell, tight end Ben Ellefson, tight end Matt Flanagan and corner Sidney Jones.

Cottrell and Ellefson are both rookies. Flanagan—who entered the league in 2018—made the Jags training camp roster after an August tryout. Jones is in his fourth year and was a former starter for the Philadelphia Eagles. After three seasons marred by hamstring injury’s, he was released during final roster cuts for the 2020 season. The Jags signed him to the Practice Squad the following day.

The @Jaguars have "protected" 4 players on their practice squad for Week 1 vs. Indy:

• RB Nathan Cottrell
• TE Ben Ellefson
• TE Matt Flanagan
• CB Sidney Jones

These 4 are not eligible to sign with another team until after Sunday's game.

You're thinking, "Huh?" More info: pic.twitter.com/X2Onzt85xY

— Tad Dickman (@TDickman89) September 8, 2020

The ability to protect players on the PS is a new development for the 2020 season, in an attempt to give team’s more flexibility due to the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19. In a release, the Jaguars explained:

“During the 2020 season, each club may designate up to four members of the club’s practice squad as protected players who shall not be eligible to sign a player contract with any other club until the day following the protecting club’s next regular season game.

If, after having been protected, a player is not elevated to his club’s 53-man active roster, he is free to terminate his practice player contract to sign an NFL player contract with any club upon the conclusion of his club’s game or at 12:01 a.m., on the day following his club’s game, whichever is later. If after having been protected, a player is elevated to his club’s 53-man active roster, he is free to terminate his practice player contract to sign an NFL player contract with any club at 4:01 p.m., on the first business day following his club’s game, after his reversion to the practice squad.

Designations will not go into effect prior to 4 p.m. ET on the Tuesday of each week, except that clubs that played on the previous Monday night will not have their designations go into effect prior to 4 p.m. ET on the following Wednesday.”

So what does all that legalese mean?

Basically, normal rules for Practice Squad players say that if another team is offering them a player contract (i.e. immediate signing to the 53-man roster) then a player can terminate his current Practice Squad contract with a team and sign with another team, as long as the new team is not the current team’s next opponent.

Now, a team can place essentially a tag on a player and prohibit any other team from signing them during the week. Why would a team do this? Well take the case of the Jaguars running back room for example. Leonard Fournette has been waived, Ryquell Armstead is still on the Reserve/COVID-19 list and coaches have designated rookie undrafted free agent James Robinson as the starter. Second year Devine Ozigbo and veteran Chris Thompson will finish out the unit.

But with understandable questions still within the unit and the likelihood that any of them could be sent into two weeks of quarantine if they or someone they’re around test positive for COVID during the week, the Jags want to know they have a running back they can call up.

If a player has been specified as “protected,” but wasn’t promoted to the active roster during the week, he can sign a Player Contract with a new team at 12:01 a.m. on Monday morning following the Jaguars game (it says at the conclusion of the game or 12:01 a.m. whichever is later but the majority of the Jags games have already been set for 1:00 p.m. kick-offs so it’s not outlandish to assume that midnight will be later than the conclusion of the game.)

But what if a player—let’s use Cottrell for an example—is protected and then promoted to the Active/Inactive list for the game. If the Jags promote him on Thursday (hypothetically) and then play on Sunday, and Cottrell is sent back to the PS after that game, then he can not sign with another team until 4:01 p.m. on the next business day, which would be Monday.

The Jags can designate protected players for the new week beginning at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Meaning there is a 24-hour period during which another team can snap him up to their roster. 

The Jaguars kick-off the 2020 season on Sunday, September 13 at 1:00 p.m. at home against the Indianapolis Colts.