What's your traditional New Year's Eve dinner? Do you go out? If you stay in and cook -- do you make your favorite dish? Do you splurge on filet mignon or NY strip and seafood? Crack open some top-shelf drinks to usher in the new year in style?
The latter is what my in-laws always do -- steak, crab legs, sometimes some lobster, and primo whiskey -- and since Christmas night, I've been trying to decide what I should buy at the grocery store to begin a special culinary New Year's Eve tradition of my own.
At time of publication, with time running excruciatingly short in 2023, I still don't know what to prepare for Sunday night after what I'm guessing will be another wild weekend of NFL action. Heck, all 16 games include at least one club still in playoff contention ... that basically never happens in the penultimate week of the regular season.
Because I'm being so indecisive about my New Year's Eve food choices, I'll be assertive when it comes to the New Year's Eve edition of The Practice Squad Power Rankings. Because it's customary to eat your favorite indulgent food before the start of the new year, I'm going to indulge in Week 17's PSPR with all former immense draft crushes I've had since I started evaluating full draft classes in 2014. Even if I know there's little to no chance of them actually getting The Call, they deserve some shine. And going all draft crushes this week will serve as at least one major indulgence for me I'm sure of entering Sunday.
Before I get to Week 17's rankings, there were two elevations from Week 15 -- Dolphins EDGE Melvin Ingram and Steelers LB Myles Jack, meaning we're at 26 elevation + poaches on the season [insert cork popping from champagne bottle GIF here].
And let's not forget to once again pay homage to Practice Squad Power Ranking alums like Saints TE Juwan Johnson, 49ers wideout Jauan Jennings, Cardinals center Hjalte Froholdt and Giants receiver Isaiah Hodgins (among many others) who have all graduated to become important mainstays on their clubs' respective 53-man rosters and contribute in their own ways each weekend.
What I'm asking of you as a loyal PSPR patron: Alert me on X/Twitter @ChrisTrapasso if you see a tweet about a PSPR getting The Call so I can add to The CUT.
10. Zyon Gilbert, CB, Packers
This is a draft crush selection all the way. Gilbert ran 4.49 with a 40-inch vertical and almost jumped into the ocean with an 138-inch broad jump at the Florida Atlantic Pro Day in 2022 after a productive career with the Owls -- he had five picks and 23 pass breakups in his final three seasons in Boca Raton. Given the way the Packers have covered of late and with Jaire Alexander sitting out Week 17 with a team suspension, they should be giving opportunities to some other defensive backs.
9. Shaka Heyward, LB, Bengals
Heyward was one of the defensive pieces to a Duke program that went 9-4 in 2022. His supreme length allowed him to disrupt the football often in coverage -- six pass breakups and two interceptions -- and he was one of the more sure-tackling linebackers in the entire 2023 class. He ran 4.53 at nearly 6-foot-3 and 235 pounds, and those 34-inch arms provide Heyward with a tackling radius most second-level defenders would dream of. The coverage will take time. It always does. For every linebacker. But he can be a useful sideline-to-sideline tackler if Cincinnati needs him. The Bengals do not at the moment.
8. Justin Ellis, NT, Dolphins
I won't ever forget Ellis, from my first draft class in 2014, as a hulking, impossibly girthy and disruptive nose tackle from Louisiana Tech. Ultimately I was a bit too high on him -- rookie mistake by me -- but the former fourth-round pick has hung around for a decade in the NFL, so he's absolutely beaten the odds and is now on his fifth team. At 6-foot-2 and around 330 pounds, he has a vintage nose tackle frame, can eat and dispatch blocks, and occasionally flash up the field.
7. Luq Barcoo, CB, Steelers
I fell in love with Barcoo's film watching him intercept nine passes (!) in 2019 at San Diego State. And while that probably was somewhat of an outlier season, it spoke to Barcoo's innate ball-hawking talent. He too has beaten the odds -- undrafted in the COVID year of 2020 but has been on six teams in four seasons and even spent the early stages of 2023 in the XFL with the San Antonio franchise. Unsurprisingly, he led the XFL with 11 pass breakups.
6. Jason Verrett, CB, 49ers
The NFL should rename the Comeback Player of the Year award after Verrett. I'm serious. This was my No. 2 cornerback prospect all the way back in 2014, whom I compared to Johnathan Joseph. Since starring early in his career with the Chargers, Verrett tore his ACL in 2016, had to get knee surgery again in 2017, which drastically shortened that season, tore his Achilles on the first day of camp in 2018, was placed on IR due to an ankle injury in October of 2019, tore his ACL again in the regular-season opener in 2021, and again tore his Achilles last November. Through all that, dude is still playing in San Francisco, having gotten called up by the 49ers ahead of their Week 16 game against the Ravens.
5. Martavis Bryant, WR, Cowboys
Man, what would've been for Bryant if the league had a more progressive philosophy on marijuana at the early stages of his professional career. He averaged 21.1 yards per grab as a ridiculously explosive rookie in 2014, then went over 700 yards in 2015. Then multiple substance abuse policy suspensions halted his career after his age 27 season. Now fully reinstated, the soon-to-be 31-year-old wideout is available for Dallas to elevate him at any time. Not that the Cowboys need more receiver juice right now. But I was compelled to add Bryant when I saw his name on the practice squad in Dallas.
4. Lecitus Smith, OL, Eagles
Smith was such a fun, devastatingly powerful watch on film at Virginia Tech. His final two seasons with the Hokies were rock-solid, and I loved his low-center-of-gravity frame helped him move bigger and longer defensive tackles on a regular basis. He's only played a little over 200 snaps in his NFL career -- and all those snaps came in his rookie season with the Cardinals in 2022. He's a polished center/guard depth option in Philadelphia.
3. DeWayne McBride, RB, Vikings
McBride isn't going to hit 90-yard touchdowns, but there are only a select few legitimate game-breakers at the running back position in today's NFL. He's naturally elusive with light feet and sturdy contact balance. I still believe in the former UAB star. He's built low to the ground and repeatedly demonstrated outstanding elusiveness in college. He absolutely could produce well in Kevin O'Connell's scheme.
2. William Bradley-King, EDGE, Patriots
I cannot quit Bradley-King. His impressive play at Baylor after transferring from Arkansas State is forever burned into my brain. So is his quality pro day workout at north of 6-foot-3 and 250-plus pounds in 2021. He was buried behind like 400 first-round defensive linemen in Washington, and now could be a player who flashes late and earns a 2024 job in New England ... if he gets an opportunity.
1. Lonnie Phelps, EDGE, Browns
Phelps is waiting patiently on the practice squad, and now, a once ridiculously deep defense is gritting its way through an avalanche of injuries. At Kansas in 2022, after amazing quarterback-disrupting productivity at Miami of Ohio, Phelps was again a menace around the corner. Super productive. I love his ability to use powerful hands while bending the edge.
