The weird way the Dallas Cowboys are handling Cooper Rush and Brett Maher on the roster, explained

This week saw the Dallas Cowboys finalize their “initial” 53-man roster. We emphasized the word initial several times because the roster always undergoes a fair bit of construction after being “finalized.”

Such was the case when the Cowboys placed both Tyron Smith and James Washington on injured reserve. In order for each of them to return this season (fingers crossed) they had to be on the roster at the initial point which is why the team went through the process that they did.

With two spots suddenly open on the roster the Cowboys decided to return both Jake McQuaide and C.J. Goodwin who were a part of the initial roster cuts. Dallas had no intention of playing football without either McQuaide or Goodwin, this is all part of the roster manipulation that takes place this time of year.

But when it comes to this specific year, the Cowboys are being a little bit more cheeky than usual in this capacity. There have been a lot of questions about this so let’s do our best to unpack it all.

The Dallas Cowboys are not leaving Cooper Rush and Brett Maher off of the 53-man roster by accident, this is all by design

If you take a look at the Cowboys roster in its current construction you will notice that it is absent of a backup quarterback and kicker. This is not an accident.

We are actually going to need to reference the 53-man roster ‘as is’ a few times here so let’s take a look at it. Once again this is the current Dallas Cowboys 53-man roster.

You will note that there is no Cooper Rush or Brett Maher here, they are currently on the practice squad, yet they are very much a part of what the Dallas Cowboys are planning on doing this season, as soon as next Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

What the Cowboys are doing here is a bit new. Two years ago when the new Collective Bargaining Agreement was agreed to there were obviously things put into place that were meant to help teams through the COVID-19 pandemic. That reality still exists, but we are looking specifically here at the practice squad and how it works.

For starters, the size of practice squads was increased to 16 players. Within that, 10 of those spots have to, essentially, be rookies or second-year players, but the other six spots are fair game for teams to do whatever they want with them (obviously Cooper Rush and Brett Maher each have more than two years of NFL service time).

Another change to the practice squads came with the rules of promotion. Our friends at DK Nation outlined the stipulations behind this aspect recently:

In 2020, the NFL started a new collective bargaining agreement before the pandemic was in full swing. That CBA allowed for up to two players in a given game week to be promoted to the active roster without giving the players a normal player contract. Normally, a player must be removed from the 53-man roster to make room for a practice squad promotion. Then, if the promoted player is sent back down to the practice squad, he has to clear waivers. That is not the case with these two players. Also, a single player can be activated from the practice squad three separate times in a season. If a team wants to activate that same player a fourth time, they must be added to the active roster.

Under this new rule, players revert to the practice squad the next business day without going through waivers. A player can be utilized in this way for two total games during the season. The promotion has to happen before 4 p.m. ET the day before the game.

A team can promote one additional practice squad player within 90 minutes before kickoff in the event of a late COVID-19 positive test result.

This means that NFL teams can effectively create what are 55-man rosters for game days with the promotion of two players from their practice squad. So sticking with this example, the Cowboys can leave both Rush and Maher on the practice squad and utilize them freely next Sunday against the Buccaneers as a part of their normal game day roster, but in the meantime they can put two other players on the actual 53-man roster who they want to protect to a larger degree by not subjecting them to waivers or anything of the sort.

In the past players were able to be elevated from the practice squad to the game day roster, but somebody from the 53 had to removed in order for them to be promoted. What’s more, is if the team in question wanted to then revert said player back to the practice squad they had to subject them to waivers. That is no longer the case (with a small catch).

There is some confusion about how many times practice squad players can be promoted to a game day roster

Since exploiting this loophole is becoming more common by NFL teams, there is a lot of verbiage swirling across the internet about it, particularly with regards to how many times an NFL team is allowed to flip this particular switch with a player.

Consensus seems to believe that players (like Rush or Maher to stick with our example) can be elevated three different times. The mothership noted three times in this article as well as this one. The DMN framed it as three times themselves both here and here. DraftKings Nation said “a single player” can be activated from the practice squad three times in the example quoted above.

But that third time might be a misinterpretation. Technically speaking, a player on the practice squad can be promoted to the game day roster three times, but only two of them can be as a part of the special 55-man loophole. Any other time would have to be the conventional way. ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler wrote last year about how practice squad players can only be promoted to the game day roster in this particular fashion twice.

Two players can be promoted to the active roster on game days. They then return to the practice squad unless the team offers a one-year deal. But teams can’t activate a player more than twice; after the second time, they must decide whether to promote him to the active roster.

There is also this example from our friends at Pats Pulpit. This outlines how a game day roster can increase to 55 players using this trick as well as the fact that the active roster on game days can increase from 46 to 47, or 48 if the team carries an extra offensive lineman.

Essentially, teams are now allowed to elevate up to two players per week from their practice squad to the game day roster without having to cut a member of the 53-man team. Accordingly, teams can increase from the standard 53 to 55 players while gameday active squads expand from a previous 46 to 47 players (or 48 if a team carries eight offensive linemen). Any practice squad player can be elevated and automatically reverts back to the developmental roster after a game.

There are some catches, though: Teams cannot use this method of promotion on the same more than twice a year. If the Patriots, for example, want to have one of their practice squad players on their active game day roster for more than two games, they will have to go the standard route of promotion, moving him to replace another player on the 53-man roster and, if necessary, exposing him to waivers if the plan is to revert him back to the practice squad.

It seems like two games is the maximum that a player can be promoted from the practice squad to one of these two extra spots in advance of a game day. Teams can execute this move an unlimited number of times (well really only twice per week, but you get the point) however there is a maximum number specific to players capping at two.

So what does this mean? Why is it important? What is the purpose behind the Cowboys making all of this a little bit more complicated than it had to be?

The Cowboys are essentially carrying two more “active” players for as long as they can, something they may choose to continue doing throughout the season

Another important thing about the practice squad (there is a lot going on here which is why we needed to have this discussion) is that while you can have a maximum of six veterans on your team, you can within that choose to “protect” four of them. From Jeremy Fowler’s write-up:

And each Tuesday, teams can designate four players as protected, so they can’t be placed on another team’s active roster from that day until kickoff.

Theoretically speaking, the Cowboys could choose to employ this strategy over and over and over throughout the season as long as they keep replacing the two players who they are doing it with appropriately and subsequently protecting them on the practice squad. For now they are Cooper Rush and Brett Maher, players they will likely protect since they are of significance to them, but they could be two different players once Week 3 arrives.

This is what the potential sequence could look like, using our current moment as the example:

• Week 1: Cooper Rush and Brett Maher are both on the practice squad, both are part of the four protections handed out by the team, both are elevated to what becomes an essential 55-man roster for game day, both are activated. Cowboys play their game with them on the active roster
• Week 2: Cooper Rush and Brett Maher are both on the practice squad, both are part of the four protections handed out by the team, both are elevated to what becomes an essential 55-man roster for game day, both are activated. Cowboys play their game with them on the active roster
• Week 3: Cooper Rush and Brett Maher are both promoted to the actual 53-man roster since their eligibility for this little trick has expired, Players X and Y are released/waived from the 53-man roster, said players then (assuming they clear waivers if they have fewer than four accrued seasons) are signed to the practice squad to begin a new two-week cycle for Weeks 3 and 4 where they are given the protections by the team for it all to work

Theoretically speaking, the Dallas Cowboys could do this across the entire season if they did it with the right players.

If you are wondering why the Cowboys may be pursuing this path then remember how valuable roster spots can be. You have no idea when a player is going to be hurt or you are going to need depth that you previously thought was of no use to you. An NFL season is a battle of attrition and the Cowboys are simply exploring every corner of the rulebook to establish as much of an advantage as they can.

Update: 3:00pm ET

As noted there has been some back and forth confusion about how many times this switch can be flipped with practice squad players.

In a bit of news that seemed to sneak by in the most quiet part of the offseason the NFL magically changed the CBA which did cap the number of switches to two and elevated it to three. Thus ends our confusion.

So to reiterate everything from above the Cowboys could perform this exercise in three-week cycles. For the purposes of being extremely clear this is what it would look like using the example we have been referencing:

• Week 1: Cooper Rush and Brett Maher are both on the practice squad, both are part of the four protections handed out by the team, both are elevated to what becomes an essential 55-man roster for game day, both are activated. Cowboys play their game with them on the active roster
• Week 2: Cooper Rush and Brett Maher are both on the practice squad, both are part of the four protections handed out by the team, both are elevated to what becomes an essential 55-man roster for game day, both are activated. Cowboys play their game with them on the active roster
• Week 3: Cooper Rush and Brett Maher are both on the practice squad, both are part of the four protections handed out by the team, both are elevated to what becomes an essential 55-man roster for game day, both are activated. Cowboys play their game with them on the active roster
• Week 4: Cooper Rush and Brett Maher are both promoted to the actual 53-man roster since their eligibility for this little trick has expired, Players X and Y are released/waived from the 53-man roster, said players then (assuming they clear waivers if they have fewer than four accrued seasons) are signed to the practice squad to begin a new three-week cycle for Weeks 4 through 6 where they are given the protections by the team for it all to work