Michigan Radio & TV Buzzboard

MWmetalhead wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 01, 2019 5:04 pm

...those assholes had to do this:

Lions sign former Michigan State QB Connor Cook to back up Matthew Stafford

Story:
https://www.mlive.com/lions/2019/01/lio ... fford.html

Hopefully, Cook never sees game action here.

craig11152 wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 01, 2019 5:15 pm

What exactly is a "reserve/futures contract"?

It's exactly the same as a regular active-roster contract, with the regular rules for minimum veteran salaries, cap charges, signing bonuses, etc.

The only difference is that it doesn't take effect until the start of the next League Year (this year, that's March 14 at 4 p.m, per NFL.com).

Teams can sign players to future contracts as soon as the previous regular season is over, but the contract won't count against the salary cap or 53-man limit. Instead, it'll count against the salary cap and 90-man camp limit of the following season.

In the meantime, the player goes on the reserve/futures list and can't be signed by any other team.
Any player who wasn't on an active roster at the end of the outgoing regular season can be signed to a futures contract, meaning that if a player was an unrestricted free agent or on any team's practice squad after Week 17 then they are eligible.

For the most part, futures contracts are used on players who weren't quite good enough to justify an active roster spot this season, but who teams think just might be worth an active roster spot next season. In many cases, this means teams are locking up players currently on their own practice squad or poaching them from the practice squad of other teams.

The goal is to identify talented young guys on the cusp of breaking out.