USAT: Bills Wire audio clip

USAT: Bills Wire

Jan 19, 2022

The Buffalo Bills announced who the team has placed on the protected portion of their practice squad ahead of their divisional round meeting with the Kansas City Chiefs. 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, the Bills are back to using only three of their four slots. The past three weeks all four were used. First, that trio is: - - WR Isaiah Hodgins - DB Nick McCloud - DB Josh Thomas - - This time the reasoning for only three placements is crystal clear. Previously defensive tackle Eli Ankou was the fourth player protected. - However, he landed on the Bills’ practice squad COVID-19 list. - Otherwise, the rest of the players that were protected don’t give us much insight. All of them have been protected in recent weeks, however, the Bills have been relatively healthy in their secondary and at wide receiver so it’s not expected that any of these will be called up. - 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 - - RelatedBills place Eli Ankou on practice squad COVID-19 listNFL Network analyst discusses battling cold while attending Bills wild card (video)What Sean McDermott said about shirtless Ryan Fitzpatrick at wild-card game - - - - - - - - - - - - Email - - - - - Sign up - - - - - - - - Like this article? - Sign up for the Bills Wire email newsletter to get our top stories in your inbox every morning - - - - An error has occured - - - Please re-enter your email address. - - - - - - Thanks for signing up! - - - You'll now receive the top Bills Wire stories each day directly in your inbox.

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