Justis Mosqueda Canadian QB Taylor Elgersma is eligible for Green Bay’s international exemption

One interesting roster mechanic to track for the Green Bay Packers this offseason is what the team will ultimately do with Canadian quarterback Taylor Elgersma. A former U Sports athlete, Elgersma is eligible to be the team’s exempt/international player, which each NFL squad is granted one spot for each season. Essentially, teams are allowed to carry a 90-man offseason roster plus one roster exemption until cutdowns, and then they are allowed to have a 16-man practice squad with one international roster exemption during the season.


At the moment, the Packers’ exemption is kicker Alex Hale, who played at Oklahoma State after growing up in Australia. International exemption players are allowed to have played college football in the States, so long as they only spent two or fewer seasons in America at the prep level. For example, former second-round edge rusher David Ojabo, who played at the University of Michigan, was recently designated as the Baltimore Ravens’ international exemption player, despite having played 13 games for the Ravens in the 2024 regular season. Ojabo was born in Nigeria and lived in Scotland before moving to America at 17 years old.


So if the Packers ever want to move on from Hale, who won’t be pushing Brandon McManus at the place kicker position anytime soon following McManus’ three-year contract extension, then a release of Hale will not need to come with a corresponding signing of an international player. Instead, Green Bay can choose to place their international exemption on Elgersma, allowing them to sign an American to their 90-man roster this summer.


This should also ring alarm bells for those in Sean Clifford’s camp. With Malik Willis the likely backup to Jordan Love, Clifford, a 2023 draft pick, is going to have to perform well in training camp to even earn a practice squad position. As mentioned previously, Elgersma would essentially be a free roll on the practice squad if he receives the international exemption, because he wouldn’t count against the traditional 16-man practice squad — unlike Clifford. So, unless Elgersma is far behind Clifford in camp, the value that he could bring from a roster mechanic standpoint could very well be the edge in the decision to keep either him or Clifford on the practice squad in 2025.


If you want to know more about the Packers’ newest quarterback, who won the Canadian equivalent of the Heisman Trophy, you can read our full scouting report on the signal-caller HERE.




Continue Reading @ Justis Mosqueda

It's a way to have 3 QBs without tying up a PS slot.
Neither of the previous International players have made the team.

wpr;469408It's a way to have 3 QBs without tying up a PS slot.
Neither of the previous International players have made the team.

My only question is does the exemption effective go away if he is on the 53 man roster v. practice squad.

Canadian citizens are not eligible for the International player development program.

dfosterf;469412Canadian citizens are not eligible for the International player development program.

Yeah, I didn't think so either.

I believe the NFL's international program is designed to develop football players in locations where they don't currently play highschool American football, and therefore US and Canada didn't count.

Beginning in 2024, the practice squad will expand to 17 players for all 32 clubs, if one player is a qualifying international player. A qualifying international player is a person whose citizenship and principal place of residence is outside the United States and Canada, and who has a maximum of two years of United States high school experience. In addition, an international player must (i) satisfy all NFL player eligibility rules and (ii) have been eligible for a prior NFL Draft.

https://operations.nfl.com/updates/football-ops/nfl-to-expand-practice-squad-to-include-one-international-player-for-all-32-clubs-in-2024/#:~:text=Those%20international%20players%2C%20scouted%20globally,Business%2C%20Major%20Events%20&%20International.

Martha Careful;469409My only question is does the exemption effective go away if he is on the 53 man roster v. practice squad.

I believe the free spot is for training camp and PS only.

I'm not sure about those two weeks a PS player can play on the main roster though

Also as noted above, the "free" roster spot is not available for Canadians.
So the headline should read "not" eligible.

Really quite simple. The premise of the whole article is fake.
On a personal level, I am a bit saddended that the Justis fellow has not retracted it. That being said, for me it doesn't even matter, as I have watched this kid throw a football, and by any objective criteria he is very very good. My worry is he will not get a fair shake.

dfosterf;469422Really quite simple. The premise of the whole article is fake.
On a personal level, I am a bit saddended that the Justis fellow has not retracted it. That being said, for me it doesn't even matter, as I have watched this kid throw a football, and by any objective criteria he is very very good. My worry is he will not get a fair shake.

I don't know fair or not.
He should be fun to watch in preseason at least.
And hopefully everyone stays healthy we don't have to worry about him again.

Yes back to the "news story". Don't these people have editors?
Proofreaders?
Sanity checkers?

This is getting tragically hilarious. Andy Herman now says Elgersma is eligible for the IPP exemption. So does MSN news. So does AI, depending upon how you ask. If you ask if Taylor Elgersma is eligible for the NFL exemption, AI says yes he is. If you ask if a Canadian resident is eligible, AI says no they are not. What is the only common denominator in the "yes he is eligible"
sources?
This article by Justis Mosqueda. The bad part is that the folks over at Acme Packing company called him out on the inaccuracy, and he defended his position by citing some player from friggin' Fiji. Go back to WPR's link and look at the comments part to see what I'm referencing.

Let's pretend for a moment that Justis, Andy, MSN, and half of AI are correct. Kind of odd that no Canadian has been a participant in the exemption program when half the friggin' country plays American football. NFL teams must prefer to get their exempt players from places that barely know what football is, right?

dfosterf;469544This is getting tragically hilarious. Andy Herman now says Elgersma is eligible for the IPP exemption. So does MSN news. So does AI, depending upon how you ask. If you ask if Taylor Elgersma is eligible for the NFL exemption, AI says yes he is. If you ask if a Canadian resident is eligible, AI says no they are not. What is the only common denominator in the "yes he is eligible"
sources?
This article by Justis Mosqueda. The bad part is that the folks over at Acme Packing company called him out on the inaccuracy, and he defended his position by citing some player from friggin' Fiji. Go back to WPR's link and look at the comments part to see what I'm referencing.

Let's pretend for a moment that Justis, Andy, MSN, and half of AI are correct. Kind of odd that no Canadian has been a participant in the exemption program when half the friggin' country plays American football. NFL teams must prefer to get their exempt players from places that barely know what football is, right?

I looked into this further, and it appears that Andy is getting his information from Justis.

And Justis is claiming (no idea if he's correct or totally wrong), that originally the only way to get an International Exemption was through the IPP (International Pathway Program), but just recently, the IPP and the Roster Exemptions programs have split up.

Where according to Justis, he has an IPP scout connection that has claimed that Canadians still are NOT eligible for the 10+ week IPP training... BUT they are NOW (since the supposed program split) are NOW eligible for roster exemption.


Other than Justis, I have NOT been able to find any information on this supposed program split. And I think he's being fed some bad information, but once in a while the NFL will change rules of something they see as minor, that they don't believe the public care about, and don't announce it, so it wouldn't be the first time the NFL has changed off the field procedure rules, without making it publicly known up front.

It would be excellent for the Packers if Justis is correct, and I would happily eat some crow in exchange for Taylor getting the roster exemption. Heck, I reallly appreciate Justis's contributions to the discussion on all things Green Bay, and read or watch most everything he puts out there.
If he is correct, and I do not think he is, that would raise yet another question. What would happen to all of the players currently benefitting from the IPP exemption, plus any potential IPP players not from Canada?
I submit that teams would dump their current (pick a continent) player and get an experienced Canadian one, pretty much undermining the entire intent of the IPP program.
I think his Fiji player example might be a guy getting a roster exemption that didn't participate in the IPP training program. That would make sense as far as a change in rules moving forward. Problem is, and admittedly I was looking at the pretty girls instead of listening to the teacher in geography class, Fiji isn't in Canada...feel free to correct me on that...

Logic dictates Justis has this one wrong, but we are talking the NFL here, so logic isn"t necessarily an overriding factor.