Bill Belichick Gives Simple Reason Why Patriots Haven’t Used New NFL Rule

The New England Patriots didn’t use the new NFL rule. This rule allowed the team to protect four practice-squad players from being “poached” to other teams’ active rosters. Well, New England and seven other teams decided not to take advantage of the new rule.

When asked if there’s a specific reason why the Patriots haven’t protected any of their 16 practice-squad players, Belichick said, “Because we didn’t want to.” That’s how Bill Belichick sounds like when someone asks him questions about his roster moves.

New England can use practice-squad protection every week starting Tuesday. They can protect one player multiple times. Any player can be signed off of another organization’s practice squad Monday and Tuesday before the declaration of protection. If other teams try to sign a player off of the Patriots’ practice squad, the team can open a roster spot and promote this player rather than cutting ties.

Patriots may use the new NFL rule in the near future

The rule was instituted during the coronavirus pandemic. Practice-squad players aren’t really looking forward to it. A protected practice-squad player earns a practice-squad salary and that’s less than a quarter of active-list pay.

A Patriots rookie on the team’s practice squad earns up to $8,400 per week. The same player would earn about $36,000 per week on the active roster. Practice-squad salaries are capped at $8,400 for players with up to two accrued seasons. Veteran players are set at $12,000.

A player can be poached from a practice squad for two days, but this limits his availability to earn more money to join another team’s active roster.

Another NFL rule allows teams to push practice-squad player to the active roster for a short period of time. This happens without the players being subjected to waivers on their journey back to the practice unit. A player can be temporarily elevated twice in a year. Temporarily elevated players can earn an active-roster salary for that week. NFL teams can elevate the same players in straight weeks.

New England may use this elevation to add a kicker to the active roster ahead of the regular-season opener against the Miami Dolphins.