Global Draft

[Blue In BC]

When I first heard of this, I immediately thought of Knox/Wilson.

A vet who you don't have a spot for, but you want around in case of emergency or he shows better than what you got. You don't want to send him down to the PR, but he's gonna get signed somewhere else if you cut him...

But I'm sure every team will utilize it differently.

I don't know about any of that. Coaches have to decide on when to release a veteran outright. Keeping a vet that might be earning $100K-$120K sitting on the sidelines is not sensible.

A vet might be going from a starting role to being beaten out by the next man up. Andrew Harris, Bighill to name a few as examples.

[Pete]

I don't know about any of that. Coaches have to decide on when to release a veteran outright. Keeping a vet that might be earning $100K-$120K sitting on the sidelines is not sensible.

A vet might be going from a starting role to being beaten out by the next man up. Andrew Harris, Bighill to name a few as examples.

the orher factor which we've seen happen here, is near the end of the season injuries occur, especially to key positions such at mlb, receiver ,oline  etc, and your trying to make do with a practice roster guy Having a good vet avail
is a good thing

[Tecno]

I don't know about any of that. Coaches have to decide on when to release a veteran outright. Keeping a vet that might be earning $100K-$120K sitting on the sidelines is not sensible.

Pete is right.  It's insurance so we don't have a "no RECs left" scenario like early 2024.  It's so hard to carry qualified (maybe sometimes "really old vet") players who are perfectly able to step in when injuries occur.  Think of all the stashing we did on 1GIR in '25!

The fact it may cost $100-$120k per stash is money well spent vs running out of qualified players and finding out your rookies suck or aren't ready (or both).

Let's say JSK shines and wins WILL for week 1.  I have no problems stashing Kyrie on the reserve at full pay.  Chances are Jones or JSK will get hurt and then we can be at near 100% the next week.  Instead of having to start, say, Cadwall!

[Tecno]

I see absolutely no sense to parking 2 healthy players each game.  They get a fullpaycheck, they travel, but they don't put on pads for the game.

I agree with gobombersgo.  I'm not convinced the reserve 2 will travel.  Especially if there's no GTD / iffy AR player (and even then!).  Back when Faith was ALWAYS the healthy scratch, did he fly to away games or was he left in the bowels of IGF?

[Sir Blue and Gold]

I see absolutely no sense to parking 2 healthy players each game.  They get a fullpaycheck, they travel, but they don't put on pads for the game.

Every player on the AR, that is getting a cheque, should be available to play.

GMs/Coaches have to decide what 45 or 47 men make the roster, why restrict them on 2 players?

46 and 47 are good enough to play, let them play.  Otherwise, just have a 45 man roster and 46 and 47 can sit on the PR.

How about this idea, limit the 46 and 47 players to ST only.  Or let them play teams, but with a max number of O/D snaps.  "extreme backup"

Don't pay them a full game cheque to stand on the sidelines in street clothes.

You're right, Aardvark. It doesn't make sense on its own.

But there's the chess above the table and the game below also. This one falls into the latter. The PA has never wanted increase roster sizes for obvious reasons. Paying two people now (or at least sometimes at the discretion of the teams) within the the CBA now makes it easy at the next bargaining to say, "look, no one is losing anything here, the market's already adapted to this and all we're doing it's simply allowing more players to play. A better product will result which is good for all of us"

It's a good move and a modest increase in roster size will absolutely make the game better just like some of the other changes we're seeing -- maybe more so.

[Tecno]

Here's how we will know what the reserve really is, and in the first 3 weeks of the season:

1. Reserve players change every week based on what opponent we face and any GTDs.  (Assuming no injury issues muddying the waters.)

2. Reserve players are fairly static.

#2 means the reserve is just a stash for your "next man up, good enough to start, but just lost out to the better guy in TC, and will be activated when there's an injury".

Since the reserve mandates 1 NAT (right?) I could see a guy like Shay or Daniels getting plunked on the reserve to start the season -- assuming they aren't the best next-man for ST work.  Just perfect for your dev NATs who are expected to be top players, just not right now.  They get practice and dev and full pay and can't get sniped, and they weren't going to get live O or D reps anyhow.  The only loss is what they would have done on ST.  So if they are demon STers, they won't be on the reserve...

The IMP side of the reserve I think will go to ageing vets, probably JSK or Kyrie.  Or maybe a REC, if we had an extra one!

[Sir Blue and Gold]

No. The increased practice roster rule is one Canadian and one American as they're net new so the split is very much of importance to the PA. The game day reserve can be anyone, regardless of status.

[Tecno]

No. The increased practice roster rule is one Canadian and one American as they're net new so the split is very much of importance to the PA. The game day reserve can be anyone, regardless of status.

Thanks, that's useful info, after I conflated the PR and RR changes.

That will make it even more interesting to see if teams opt to use the RR for vet IMP stashing or NAT-dev stashing.  My guess is since the bar is pretty low for NAT dev to win a ST spot, most teams will be stashing 2 quality middling IMPs on RR.