There may not be a team in the NFL that uses its practice squad the way the Detroit Lions do. They are essentially an extension of this team's 53-man roster. Pretty much everyone is going to get a chance to play during the season. The Lions use these guys a lot.
With that in mind, we frequently get questions about the Lions practice squad regarding playoff availability, who has used how many elevations, and who has how many left. Today we're going to answer those. Let's start with the playoffs.
Every year the NFL grants each team the ability to use each practice squad player for three elevations during the regular season. So what happens in the playoffs? Do those elevations reset?
Yes. Practice squad elevations go to zero after the regular season and then there is no limit to how many times you elevate a player in the playoffs. So the Lions will be able to elevate a single player for every game if they want to.
Ok, now that we have the answer to that, let's look at each player's current standing with elevations for the last four games of the season:
| Player | Elevations used | Elevations left |
|---|---|---|
|
Jamal Adams |
1 |
2 |
|
Mitchell Agude |
1 |
2 |
|
Abraham Beauplan |
0 |
3 |
|
Kingsley Eguakun |
0 |
3 |
|
Jake Fromm |
0 |
3 |
|
Erik Hallet |
0 |
3 |
|
Tom Kennedy |
2 |
1 |
|
Jermar Jefferson |
0 |
3 |
|
Jamarco Jones |
2 |
1 |
|
Kaevon Merriweather |
0 |
3 |
|
James Mitchell |
1 |
2 |
|
Morice Norris |
0 |
3 |
|
Donovan Peoples-Jones |
0 |
3 |
|
Chris Smith |
1 |
2 |
|
Loren Strickland |
0 |
3 |
|
Isaiah Thomas |
0 |
3 |
|
Isaac Ukwu |
2 |
1 |
A few notes to go over here on some of these players:
- Abraham Beauplan played two games for the Lions and was then waived on November 11th. The Lions brought him back after that and his elevations were reset.
- Chris Smith played the first game of the year as part of the Lions' 53-man roster. He was then waived and brought back. His elevations reset and that's why it shows he's only used one.
- There are currently 17 players listed on the Lions' practice squad page. One of these players may be waived soon as the corresponding move to bringing back Erick Hallet on 12/11.
