Alas, the NFL has not borrowed the other football’s concept of placing players on loan. Under the NFL collective bargaining agreement, a player contracts with and plays for one team at a time, and only one team may have rights to a player.15 Aug 2023
In soccer it’s common to loan out players who, at this very moment, either won’t help you out and that you need to get of your wage bill, or young players who would benefit from first team experience. Romelu Lukaku (at the time Chelsea – to West Brom and Everton) and Gerard Deulofeu (Barcelona – to Everton and Sevilla) are examples of the latter. Two players recognized as hugely talented, yet at the time not deemed to be needed by their clubs, and they were therefore loaned out to get first team experience they would not have gotten had they stayed at Chelsea/Barca.
I understand roster depth, risk of injuries etc. arguments in a sport that causes this many injuries, but seeing that Sam Bradford is out for the season yet again made me think there must be cases where both teams would benefit from this. For example: Denver have two viable backups, don’t they/you?
In case questions regarding it should come up, there are typically clauses in the loan agreements that prevents the loanee to play against the club that owns him, that lets the player be recalled at any time etc.