The Buffalo Bills announced who the team has placed on the protected portion of their practice squad for their Week 12 meeting with the New Orleans Saints on Thursday’s Thanksgiving Day. The names come to us via the NFL’s transaction wire.
In 2020, the NFL implemented a new rule to help NFL teams deal with the outbreak of COVID-19. With the virus still causing the league to have a variety of safety protocols in place to prevent outbreaks, the protected portion of the practice squad is back.
These players are not allowed to be signed by another team the rest of this week. After game day, all are then fair game to be signed until the Bills name their protected players from their practice squad for the ensuing game.
This week, for the first time in awhile probably because of the short week, the Bills used all four of their protected spots. Those are:
- DT Eli Ankou
- DT Brandin Bryant
- DB Josh Thomas
- DB Nick McCloud
Sometimes we can potentially connect some injury-related dots to these protections. This time, we can’t.
The two defensive backs were likely protected because cornerback Rachad Wildgoose was signed off of the practice squad by the New York Jets recently.
In terms of Ankou and Bryant, they were previously protected because of fellow defensive tackle Star Lotuelei. He remains on the Bills’ Reserve/ COVID-19 list as of early this week, but his 10-day window to remain away from the team ends soon and he could potentially play.
For more reference on the protected portion of the practice squad, here is our explanation of it from last season when it was introduced:
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic in the United States, the NFL’s owners and players came to an offseason agreement that we’ve seen the first installment of on Tuesday evening. Each team in the league can “protect” four players on their practice squad each week.
The idea is to provide some extra depth for teams in case of a COVID-19 outbreak in a locker room late in the week prior to a Sunday or Monday game. Those four can be called up to the active roster up until Sunday morning prior to kickoff every week.
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