Under normal circumstances, the fear of losing fringe players either off of waivers or off the practice squad is frequently unjustified, or at least heavily imbalanced against the day-to-day reality of how frequently such things occur.
Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman Steve McLendon is entering his third season as the team’s starting nose tackle, but when he came into the league as an undrafted free agent out of Troy, he was far from the same player, and the Steelers were not cautious with him.
During his rookie season in 2009, he was added and subtracted from the practice squad three times.