Current Rule: 12.2 - Rookie players are either signed to a contract (2nd year rookies), kept or released without penalty (1st year rookies)
Proposed Rule: First and second year rookies who did not need to be signed yet, did not play much and are low rated can be added to a developmental roster. Similar to the IR - developmental roster players do not count toward the 55 man roster, however, their salary does count against the cap. Eligible rookie players are put on the developmental roster during cutdown day. They ineligible to play the entire year.
Explanation: Similar to the IR rule, this is another way teams can keep/develop players who are not read to contribute to teams and free up roster spots for players who are able to contribute.
The easiest way to determine eligibility is to use the 'value' Action Football assigns to each player. After careful review, I believe 500,000 and below allows teams to keep rookies who can't contribute to winning
Examples of 1st and 2nd year rookies from this previous year who would have been eligible for the practice squad:
QBs Jacob Eason and Jordan Love both have 10 durability but did not attempt a pass or play a game. Their value is listed at 350,000
Terrell Lewis OLB for the Alabama Hawks has a value of 466,000 - but only made 5 tackles all year.
I looked at every team and did not see a player who is a first or second year rookie with a value under 500 that is very useful. Josh Uche of Salem was one of the closest to 500 at 484. He is rated a 4 at OLB and made 9 tackles.
Freddie Swain - WR for West Seattle has a value att 486,000. 10 durability - he caught 13 balls and had 6 Kickoff returns.
Teams have the option of keeping these players on their active roster or putting them on a developmental roster to free up roster spots.
As an adjunct to my proposal to require teams to have a minimum number of players with durability ratings of at least 6 at certain position categories, I support this proposal as it will give teams some roster flexibility to fill those positions and allow rebuilding teams to keep this type of player instead of cutting them for a needed roster spot. I much prefer this over the "Taxi Squad" proposal.
However, I'd prefer to designate these player as being on the "Developmental Roster" ("D.R.") as the rule is similar to the proposed "I.R." (injured reserve) proposal and would function the same way. NFL "Practice Squad" players can be promoted to the active roster. Since players we'd designate this way cannot, I do not want to call it a practice squad and potentially confuse KRFL coaches.
