Moritz Böhringer can continue to dream about the NFL – Böhringer can prove himself over the coming weeks and months at the Cincinnati Bengals. Christopher Ezeala (to the Ravens), another German, joined the AFC North and both commitments are part of the International Player Pathway Programme. SPOX explains the program and the NFL opportunities of the two.
The NFL Pathway program was created to increase the league’s global reach – and to bring fans from other countries even closer to the league by identifying with individual players. The programme started in 2017 and aims to give foreign talents a longer-term chance of a management position in the NFL.
Since last year, the league has allocated one international player per season to each team of a particular division. Last season this was NFC South and the division was chosen by lot: The British Efe Obada (Carolina Panthers), Alex Jenkins (New Orleans Saints) and Alex Gray (Atlanta Falcons) as well as the German Eric Nzeocha (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) joined the practice squads of the four teams.
“This is an important part of the league’s overall strategy for international growth. We want to give international athletes the opportunity to play in the NFL,” said Mark Waller, Vice President of the International League. “This will expand the talent pool, inspire others and ultimately grow the fan base.”
There are special rules for players in the NFL Pathway program: Böhringer, Ezeala, Tigie Sankoh and Christian Scotland-Williamson have the chance over the summer to recommend themselves for the final 53-man squad. So they could be used in the coming season when they completely convince the coaches in the Training Camp of themselves.
But from then on there will be help from the league. If the four international players – who do not count against the 90-player limit in the summer – fail to make it into the 53 squad, the NFL will grant the four teams an additional eleventh practice squad place, the so-called “International Player Practice Squad Exemption”. This should help to keep the players in the squad and give them the chance to continue training with the team and to improve.
The exception with this eleventh Practice Squad seat: If a player lands in the Practice Squad within the program after the final squad cuts, he can work regularly with the team during the season, but he cannot be promoted to the active squad.
And if players are placed in this special place in the Practice Squad, they cannot be dismissed in the first year of the program. Since the 53 squad is formed after the preseason, the International Pathway players can be used in the four preseason games. An overview of the entire Preseason schedule can be found here.
Böhringer was previously in the Practice Squad with the Minnesota Vikings, who had taken him in the sixth round in 2016. “I was quite unprepared”, he should later, in January 2017, in a retrospective SPOX interview, “it is something completely different than in Germany, quite clear – just the fact that everything here is professional is already a big change. Everything is more intense, the media are waiting everywhere. That’s something else.”
A player may not spend more than three years in a Practice Squad, teams may occupy a maximum of four of their ten Practice Squad positions with players who have completed two NFL seasons with at least six games in an active squad. If a player has already completed three seasons in which he played at least six games in the active (i.e. 53) squad, he is no longer eligible for the Practice Squad.
Players in the Practice Squad are of course also paid. The exact financial key for 2018 has not yet been determined, but 2017 serves as a good orientation: last year a player in the PS had to receive at least 7200 dollars a week, if he had spent the entire regular season there, that would have been 122,400 dollars. Teams can also pay their practice squad players as much as they want – these salaries do not count against the salary cap.
A PS player can only be hired by another team directly from the Practice Squad if he immediately joins the active 53-man squad. Team A could not pick up a Practice Squad player from Team B and then put him in his own Practice Squad.
Böhringer, Ezeala, Sankoh and Scotland-Williamson have trained together with NFL players and NFL prospects in Florida under the direction of NFLUK football boss Aden Durde over the past three months. Böhringer has visibly gained muscle mass – and will change his position in Cincinnati.
The Aalener, who played and trained in the GFL and Minnesota as a wide receiver, is listed as a tight end by the Bengals. This is an unexpected change, without a doubt Böhringer brings with him the physics for the position. However, the biggest question in this context is probably how he presents himself as a blocker – something he has rarely had to do in his football career.
If he succeeds in making significant progress here – Böhringer has presumably trained last in Florida – Cincinnati is at least an interesting spot: In addition to Tyler Eifert, who is starting the season with another one-year contract after massive injury problems in recent years, the Bengals Tyler Kroft and C.J. Uzomah have the options 2 and 3.
Both are solid players, but at least so far neither have proven to be constant pass catchers. In this respect, Böhringer could indeed bring another dimension to the depth of the squad. But all this is of course very theoretical and in addition to his blocking skills is also related to the question of how much Böhringer has improved as a route runner and in his work against man coverage.
Chris Ezeala was assigned to the Ravens because they are one of the teams that still have a fullback in the squad. Fullbacks are currently experiencing a small renaissance in today’s NFL, because creative offenses use them as matchup weapons in passing, among other things.
“I played a lot of positions in Germany, was running back, linebacker and defensive end,” he recently explained to ran.de. “My coaches told me that there are many linebackers like me, but no fullback that is so athletic and so fast. So you’re trying to create a new type of player with me.”
The league announced in a statement that the Pathway program players of the 2018 pre-season will return to their teams of the previous year. Saints-Defensive-End Alex Jenkins did not start his football career until 2012, when he looked for alternatives to football. He played for the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio, his highlight so far, as he says himself, was a sack in last year’s preseason opener against Cleveland. “I hope there will be more highlights,” he told ESPN.
Carolina’s fairy Obada, also a defensive end, is even rougher. He had five games for the London Warriors before the Dallas Cowboys brought him into their practice squad. He also signed for a short time in Kansas City and Atlanta before ending up in Carolina as part of the Pathway Program.
Falcons-TE Alex Gray comes from rugby, Bucs linebacker Eric Nzeocha has the longest football history of last year’s four players: For about ten years he has been playing football for Germany’s national team and the University of Wyoming, among others. There he changed from tight end to linebacker before the 2015 season.
All four now have the chance to improve further and compete for a place in the squad.