The practice squad is a great place for National Football League teams to stash and develop players. It raises the standard of play throughout the league as teams can play players that were in the building the entire time when injuries occur instead of signing street free agents.
Over the last few seasons, the practice squad has evolved into a real weapon for teams. It has grown from 8-10 players all the way to 16 with a 17th being an option with the International Pathway Program.
Minnesota Vikings bring back training camp standout
On Tuesday, the Minnesota Vikings brought back one of their standout performers in training camp by re-signing wide receiver Jeshaun Jones to the practice squad and releasing second-year player Jaylin Williams.
This move is interesting because they could have cut Williams instead of Jones before week one when they added Zavier Scott and Ricky Lee III. Doing so now signals that they wanted more depth at cornerback leading into week one.
Jones was a standout at the University of Maryland over six seasons but went undrafted mostly due to two torn ACLs and average athletic testing. What is intriguing about Jones is his GAS metric score from Pro Football Focus. Max Chadwick joined me on The Real Forno Show this offseason and offered up this tidbit on Jones.
"Yeah, I liked him a lot and he is a really good athlete. I don't know if I would have taken him in the draft, I think an undrafted free agent is probaably what I expected out of him honestly. But he is a really good athlete, we actually have a metric at PFF that we just got a couple years ago called Game Athleticism Score which basically measures how fast you are, your agility, your change of direction and all athat and compiles it together using GPS tracking data. Jones tested out as a 93rd perceltile athlete in 2022 and and 81st percentie athlete in 2023."
Jones is an intriguing player for the Vikings to develop and could be a major factor for the team down the road.
