Expanded roster doesn't equal added arms
Six months ago, when the NFL voted to expand the number of players a franchise could sign to its practice squad from five to eight, virtually every general manager and coach in the league viewed the increased body count as a boost for the quarterback position.
The conventional wisdom was that most teams would use the additional practice squad spots to create an incubator of sorts for young quarterbacks. After years of using feigned maladies to stash developing quarterbacks on injured reserve, teams essentially were provided a legitimate manner to retain promising passers, to allow them to serve a one-year apprenticeship while participating every day in practice.
But with the majority of practice squads now filled, at least for the opening week of the season, most teams, somewhat surprisingly, have opted not to keep an extra quarterback. All the predictions of March, when coaches gushed over what amounted to an internship or "redshirt" program for young quarterbacks, are just memories now.
As of mid-afternoon Tuesday, only 10 franchises had signed quarterbacks to their practice squads. The number could increase by one if second-year veteran Brian St. Pierre clears waivers later in the day and the Pittsburgh Steelers re-sign him, but even that would leave just one-third of the league's teams with practice squad quarterbacks.
The anticipated boon, it seems, has become a bust.
"It's amazing," one league official said, "because teams [complain] all the time about how there was no mechanism for keeping a promising, young, fourth quarterback around. So we handed them a way to do it, to keep these guys around a team atmosphere, to have them practicing every day. And, despite all the initial [enthusiasm] about, most teams just chose to ignore the opportunity."
Perhaps the dearth of practice squad quarterbacks reinforces the suspicion there aren't enough NFL-worthy signal-callers to legitimately fill out the standard three-man depth charts on teams' regular-season rosters. It might also be indicative of clubs deciding, as they have in past years with the five-player practice squad limit, to retain more versatile youngsters who could line up at a number of positions during scout-team practices.
Still, most personnel directors contacted Monday and Tuesday acknowledged that they were surprised by the relatively paltry number of practice squad quarterbacks. One player personnel chief said that, while he never bought into the claims that every team would keep around a practice squad quarterback, he figured about half the teams would.
At the outset of last season, with 96 fewer practice squad spots available, there were seven practice squad quarterbacks.
The teams that have taken advantage of extra practice squad spots to keep quarterbacks around have a variety of reasons for doing so. New Orleans, which on Tuesday signed Kliff Kingsbury, a sixth-round pick of New England in 2003, conceded that it wants the former Texas Tech standout to challenge active roster backups Todd Bouman and T.J. O'Sullivan. The Carolina Panthers feel Rod Rutherford can play in the NFL someday and want the former University of Pittsburgh star to have the benefit of working with their staff. Ditto Andy Hall, a Philadelphia draft pick.
"The way I look at it is that it's a great learning experience for me," said Rutherford, who will earn a minimum of $4,350 for every week on the practice squad. "I had a chance to go to Green Bay on its practice squad but, hey, the Panthers invested time in me, and I feel like I have a chance to play here at some point. To me, it's like college, where a team keeps a redshirt guy. I think it's a smart strategy."
But one with which, stunningly, most teams didn't agree.
Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.
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