their former team, at any time during the season. Many NFL players spent time on practice squads before finding success in the league, such as James Harrison, Adrian Phillips, Jason Peters, Danny Amendola, Danny Woodhead, Arian Foster, and Kyle Cook. The practice squad is only in effect during the regular season and postseason. Once a team's season finishes, practice squad players are typically signed to reserve/futures contracts by their teams, enabling them to be members of the team's 90-man offseason roster at the start of the new league year in March. Typical practice squad contracts automatically terminate one week after the team's final regular season or postseason game of the season. The 2020 collective bargaining agreement allowed for teams to elevate up to two players per week to the active roster from the practice squad. Such promotions must be made the day before the team's game, and allow the player to automatically revert to the practice squad without having to clear waivers. Players were allowed to be elevated to active rosters for up to two weeks in a regular season starting in 2020, and up to three weeks starting in 2022. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in 2020, teams were able to designate up to four practice squad player protections, which prevented other teams from signing those players to their active rosters. Practice squad protections ended after the 2021 season. Additional protocols were in place for activation of large numbers of practice squad players in the event of an outbreak. Squad size In the 1993 collective bargaining agreement, practice squads were limited to five players. The practice squad expanded to eight players on April 1, 2004, following a vote from NFL owners. In August 2014, the practice squad expanded to 10 players. The 2020 collective bargaining agreement increased the size of practice squads to 12 players starting in 2020 and 14 players beginning in 2022, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NFL increased the practice squad size to 16 for the 2020 season. This size increase was made permanent effective with the 2022 season. Eligibility In 1998, eligibility limits were imposed to allow only players without an accrued season or players who had one accrued season but were active for fewer than nine games that season. Players could only be members of the practice squad for up to two seasons. One practice squad season was defined in 1998