Washington Football Team officially signs German DL David Bada
As part of the NFL’s International Player Pathway program, David Bada will be a part of the Washington Football Team’s roster in 2020.
The Washington Football Team made quite a few transactions on Friday. In the morning, the team made official the signings of their eight rookie draft picks ahead of 2020 training camp. And in the afternoon, they added another more unique rookie to the roster.
Via an official press release by the team, Washington signed German defensive lineman David Bada to a contract. This transaction had already been reported earlier in the offseason, but Bada’s signing was official as of Friday.
Bada is a part of the NFL’s International Pathway program (IPP). The IPP program was established to give players from outside the United States and Canada a chance to learn how to play at the NFL level. Each year, two divisions are chosen to receive an IPP player that doesn’t count toward a roster spot. For 2020, the NFC East and AFC East were the selected divisions.
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So for Washington, Bada will essentially be a 91st player for the team this offseason and once roster cuts come around, they will have a decision to make with him. They can either keep him on the 53-man roster, where he would count toward a roster spot, or stash him on the practice squad. If the team chooses to keep him on the practice squad, they get an extra spot on the unit but Bada cannot at any point be added to the 53-man roster in 2020.
In all likelihood, Washington will keep Bada on the practice squad. They are loaded on the defensive line and they can afford to spend a year developing the German lineman. They risk nothing by adding him to the organization, so this can only be described as a good move.
In the past, a couple of players from the IPP program have been able to make an impact at the NFL. Most notably was Efe Obada, a defensive lineman who found success as a part-time player with Ron Rivera’s Carolina Panthers.
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Perhaps Rivera and Co. will find similar success with Bada. But either way, the team is risking nothing to acquire him, so this is a low-risk, high-upside move.