After a long 48-hours of cuts, the Baltimore Ravens finished crafting their initial 53-man roster on Saturday. Eric DeCosta and the coaching staff molded the roster to their liking, but the Ravens weren’t done, as the Ravens needed to fill the ever-important practice squad. Ten players with limited NFL experience were eligible for the practice squad, and the Ravens filled it out accordingly.
Here are the ten players Baltimore signed to the practice squad:
- De’Lance Turner – RB
- Maurice Canady – CB
- Antoine Wesley – WR
- Sean Modster – WR
- Marcus Applefield – OL
- R.J. Prince – OL
- Charles Scarff – TE
- Zach Sieler – DL
- Aaron Adeoye – DL
- Donald Payne – LB
All ten players on Baltimore’s practice squad were on the roster during the preseason. Some others on Baltimore’s preseason roster were picked up by other teams. Headlining the list are Gerald Willis and Kaare Vedvik. Willis was cut by the Ravens after the preseason but signed with the Miami Dolphins practice squad. Kaare Vedvik was traded by the Ravens for a fifth-round pick to the Minnesota Vikings but was waived after an extremely disappointing preseason. Vedvik was claimed off of waivers by the New York Jets. The Jets’ new general manager, Joe Douglass, was once a longtime Ravens scout and is using his position to bring in as many Ravens as physically possible. He even traded for Alex Lewis earlier in the offseason.
The practice squad may seem like an unimportant function of the NFL, but it is much more critical to a team’s success than one may realize. The practice squad provides a path for NFL teams to develop young players without needing to keep them on the active 53-man roster. If someone gets injured during the year, the team can grab a player off the practice squad to replace him. After the player is developed, he could become a successful professional football player.
