[Hogskin]

I did not realize the practice squad had been expanded. Is that new this year, or am I farther behind the times?

Yes, LIFETIME, I guess with the increased squad they have 61 players that they can hold rights to (not counting IR). However, there are restrictions on the practice squad. I'm not up-to-date on the movement restrictions to and from the regular roster. Maybe someone can help out there. But there are also restrictions as to who can be placed on the squad. If a player has been "active" (on the 45 man active squad) for 9 or more games in any one season, he is not eligible for the squad. There are a couple more aspects to the restrictions, but I do not recall just what they are. One or two NFL teams have been trying for the past few years to eliminate the inactive list, and make 53 players ineligible each week. But the competition committee has been unaimously against that on the basis of fairness. Right now, for example, if you have 7 dinged players, you can put them on your inactive list for a game. But if all 53 were eligible, and you have 7 dinged players while your opponent has none, you go into the game with 46 players against his 53. For that reason, it has not been changed, and probably never will be.