The Steelers, as it turns out, also played the 54-man roster game this weekend.
Running back Isaac Redman was elevated from the practice squad at the temporary expense of reserve defensive lineman Nick Eason, who was dumped on Saturday after being paid for the week.
Redman was believed to be in line to get some touches during Sunday night’s game against the Chargers. In the end, however, he didn’t.
And so Redman has now been released, and Eason has been re-signed.
The dance will continue until the trade deadline comes and goes. Thereafter, vested veterans must pass through waivers.
Though some league insiders believe that it’s a violation of the rules to make wink-nod-fart arrangements to bring back the player who is cut, NFL spokesman Greg Aiello tells us that the move is legitimate.
“This has been [standard operating procedure] since 1993 when new [Collective Bargaining Agreement] permitted vested vets to be terminated without waivers,” Aiello said Sunday via e-mail. “It does not compromise the roster limit.”
So the lesson for any team not cutting veterans on Saturdays to fill positions of need with practice-squad players and then re-signing the veterans on Monday after telling the veterans when they are cut that they’ll be re-signed, it’s not cheating, so start doing it.