Brad holes and the Detroit Lions are always trying to find a way around the NFL's roster rules and they may have found a new way today I'm going to tell you all about [Music] that hi I'm Mike pton with adz Sports Detroit and I'm here to tell you about this new way that Brad Holmes and the Detroit Lines may be trying to get around the NFL's roster rules to have more practice squad players play in their game first let's start with the explanation of how practice players work you can Elevate two players per game three times a season per player and every team likes to do that every now and again the Lions love to do it Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell have always said if you play on our practice squad you're probably going to play in the games they even call it the vet Squad I mean this is a unit that they like to use a lot so they're always elevating two guys per game and those two guys are usually playing but the problem that you run into is like we mentioned before you only get three elevations per man once the three elevations are done you can't Elevate that player again either have to sign them to the 53 man roster or you have to take the risk of waving them and then hoping they clear waivers and then bringing them back and that resets their clock that's a risky move to do especially when the Lions have a few guys that other teams would probably like to get and may even try to poach at some point this year anyway coming into the season the Lions had 52 players on their 53 man roster and Dan Campbell was asked about that and the thing is he said he liked it a lot because there was a lot of functionality there was a lot of flexib ability and and they could basically move in guys when they wanted to it seemed like maybe that was just going to be a onewe thing but then they elevated defensive lineman Chris Smith to that 53rd spot on the roster he played on Sunday night's game against the Los Angeles Rams but then was waved on Monday the day after now the Lions once again have 52 players so what that means is that the Lions can take some of these guys from the praca squad and sign him to the 53 and man roster and that does not change their elevation rules now it does present a risk the Lions if they do not want this guy on the roster anymore they have to wave or release him if they wave him that means that guys go into the waiver wire and there's a chance that another team could claim them so it is risky now it probably will work with Chris Smith because I think a lot of teams don't really know who he is even though they should so then this means that the Lions have the opportunity to just keep bringing some guys in with that 53rd spot and they don't have to use those elevation spots in in the game and therefore guys can be elevated more from the practice squad and eventually maybe they'll find a guy that they like enough to put in that 53rd spot and they won't have to do this anymore but this is a really smart way risky but really smart way to get some of these guys up into the game without using their elevations early in the year and we'll see where it goes but I think that this is a really really smart way for the Lions to figure out what they want to do with some of these guys we'll see where it goes and if this is actually something the Lions want to do but it's certainly seems that this is exactly where it's headed