The Tampa Bay Buccaneers activated linebacker Deion Jones and quarterback Michael Pratt from the practice squad on Saturday, making them eligible to play in the team's Week 17 home game against the Carolina Panthers on Sunday afternoon.
The NFL introduced the practice squad elevation option in 2020, allowing teams to activate up to two practice squad players for each game. The elevation of Jones gives the Buccaneers 55 available men to play against the Panthers at Raymond James Stadium. They will be able to keep 48 of those player active for the game, naming seven inactives prior to kickoff.
Each player on the practice squad can be elevated up to three times during the regular season and an unlimited amount of times in the postseason. After the game, elevated players automatically revert to the practice squad without having to pass through waivers. This is the first elevation for Jones, who was added to the practice squad on December 10, and the third for Pratt, who was also elevated in Week Eight against Atlanta and Week 13 against Carolina. He was then named a gameday inactive for both contests.
Jones is very familiar with NFC South rivalry games after spending the first six seasons of his career with the Atlanta Falcons, plus one year with the Panthers in 2023. A second-round draft pick in 2016, Jones finished third in that year's Defensive Rookie of the Year voting, then earned a Pro Bowl berth in his sophomore campaign.
Jones has played in 109 regular season games with 91 starts, recording 731 tackles, 50 tackles for loss, 12.0 sacks, five forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries. During his peak he was one of the NFL's best coverage linebackers, as evidenced by his 53 passes defensed and 13 interceptions, five of which he returned for touchdowns.
Pratt was a seventh-round draft pick by Green Bay this past spring, but he was waived by the Packers in the final roster cutdown before the regular season and signed the next day by Tampa Bay to its practice squad. He got into three preseason games with the Packers, completing 23 of 35 passes for 178 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Pratt played four seasons at Tulane and amassed career totals of 729 completions in 1,203 attempts for 9,602 yards, 90 touchdowns and 26 interceptions. He was the AAC Offensive Player of the Year in 2023.
The practice squad elevation option was introduced as part of the new collective bargaining agreement in 2020. The new rule was something of a compromise, as it did not expand the active rosters beyond 53 players but did give teams a few more options on game days, particularly in regard to dealing with injuries.
