The 'Who Moved My Cheese?" NFL year continues as we approach cut down day and kickoff week.
Who Moved My Cheese is a great book by Spencer Johnson who uses the metaphor of lab mice needing to rethink their routine when you change their feeding patterns.
We're all going through it right now. Your life is different. You're working a lot from home and you have small kids who are failing zoom school and you might be in need of sedation (oh wait, that's me!).
The 'cheese' has been moved so much for the NFL already. The daily testing, distancing and changes throughout each building are just some of the examples.
Now comes time for the cuts and there's some relatively good news. The practice squads have been expanded to 16 players. Not only that, you can protect four players per week.
That's HUGE. Usually any team can poach a player off your practice squad as long as they sign him to their active roster. Now, four are untouchable. BUT there's a catch – a period of time when you can't protect anyone – from GameDay until Tuesday afternoon.
This means for about 48 hours each week, you could be sweating it out because the special player you might have hoped to stash away is basically a free agent, eligible for any rival to come steal. Still, it's better than not having the option to protect at all.
Wait, there's more. You can also sign six veterans to the practice squad no matter how much football they've played. You could put Frank Gore on a practice squad. You wouldn't, but you could!
I'm not done. Injured reserve, which has seen relaxed rules in recent years, is now basically a revolving door (that you hope you don't need). Gone are the days, for now, of declaring who is eligible to return and having to wait half a season for their legal return. Now, you have way more flexibility.
The other movement of cheese for the Texans is just the fact that you are in the kickoff game and would probably like to have your roster work done earlier. The Texans already made some moves this week. Wednesday night's scrimmage might be the last house of the left for some players.
Cut down day is officially Saturday and it'll be interesting to see how the Texans play this, knowing they'll already be well into their week one routine while the rest of the league has a bit more free time over the weekend.
Check out some photos from the Houston Texans Monday practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
An Aug. 31, 2020 image of the Houston Texans training camp practice.
