Raiders protect 4 practice squad players for Week 1

DeShone Kizer Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images The NFL introduced a new wrinkle on Tuesday in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic that affects the practice squad this season.

Teams can now protect four players from the practice squad each week, which means those players can’t sign with another team’s 53-man roster until after that week’s game.

As they prepare to play at Carolina on Sunday, the four players the Las Vegas Raiders protected for this week are: quarterback DeShone Kizer, kicker Dominik Eberle, linebacker Kyle Emanuel and offensive lineman Erik Magnuson.

According to the new coronavirus-era rules: “If, after having been protected, a player is not elevated to his club’s…