Backups to the Backups Announced

When this passes for news, you know the start of the regular season can't come soon enough.

The 8-man practice squad has been announced. Maiocco has a good rundown of each of the guys here. The practice squad basically functions as a scout team to mimic the upcoming week's opponent - a thankless job but one that allows them to keep their skills sharp, especially with the closure of NFL Europa. Even though they are not officially on the roster and can be snapped up by another team, keeping them on the PS adds a link in case we want to keep any of these guys on the 53-man roster further down the line. The two players that will benefit from this are Thomas Clayton and Darnell Bing. Both were just hitting their stride as camp ended and cuts had to be made. But both (esp. Clayton) should be expected to make the roster next season. Clayton has the ability to hit holes hard and run people over, sort of like a Frank Gore Lite. Thankfully we don't need to resort to a watered down version and can enjoy the real thing in a few short days.