Eagles promote Covey from practice squad originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
For the third straight week – and the final week – the Eagles have promoted undrafted rookie Britain Covey from the practice squad to the game-day roster.
The Eagles released Covey on Aug. 30 as part of final cuts and signed him a day later to the practice squad. He was a game-day elevation for both the Lions and Vikings games and has been the Eagles’ punt returner in both games.
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The Eagles, 2-0, face the Washington Commanders at 1 p.m. Sunday at FedEx Field in Landover, Md.
NFL rules only allow teams to promote each player three times from the practice squad to the active roster, so after this weekend, the Eagles will have to sign Covey to the 53-man roster if they want him to continue playing. They do have an open roster spot.
Although Covey has been sure-handed and made the right decisions fielding punts so far, he hasn’t yet shown the explosiveness that he displayed in college, when he had four punt return touchdowns and one on a kickoff return.
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Covey is averaging just 5.4 yards per punt return, which ranks 25th out of 29 players who have returned at least two punts so far this year. He has a long gainer of 11 yards. He has yet to play a snap on offense.
Players on the practice squad generally earn $11,500 per week, but those who are promoted to the game-day roster earn minimum wage for their experience level, and for Covey that’s $39,167 per week – 1-18th of $705,000.
So Covey will have earned $117,498 after this weekend even though he has yet to be on an NFL active roster.
The Eagles haven’t used Covey on kick returns yet. Quez Watkins ranks 22nd out of 23 kick returners with at least two attempts with a 10.2 average.
The NFL averages this year are 8.3 yards per punt return and 22.0 yards per kick return.