Players signed to NFL practice squads in the first few days after the league-wide roster cut to 53 active players for the regular season overwhelmingly rejoin the team that released them.
But that wasn’t the case for four players with Alabama football roots who signed with NFL practice squads on Thursday. The players returning to the NFL as practice-squad members were:
Tight end Qadir Ismail (Samford) with the New York Giants
Defensive tackle Jayson Jones (Calera, Auburn) with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Defensive tackle Brodric Martin (Northridge, North Alabama) with the Kansas City Chiefs
Guard Clay Webb (Oxford) with the Tennessee Titans
A 2023 third-round draft pick of Detroit, Martin played in five games for the Lions in two seasons before being waived on Tuesday.
Ismail spent a season at Samford to complete his college career in 2023. He was on the Baltimore Ravens practice squad last season and was waived by the Las Vegas Raiders this week.
Undrafted rookies, Jones and Webb had spent the offseason program, training camp and preseason with the Ravens and Denver Broncos, respectively.
Each NFL team can have a practice squad of 16 players. Members of the practice squad do everything the players on the active roster do except play in games. But two practice-squad members can be elevated to active status for each game, although no player can be elevated from the practice squad more than three times in a season.
NFL teams began assembling their practice squads at noon CDT Wednesday.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at@AMarkG1.
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