During last year’s pandemic-stricken season, the NFL created rules for protecting players on each team’s practice squads to help mitigate the issues that may have arisen from team members testing positive and forcing clubs to play with insufficient bodies.
Those rules were upheld into this season, meaning that each team can choose to protect up to four players each week. Those four players are unable to be signed by other teams to their active rosters through the end of that week.
For week one, the Chargers chose to protect running back Darius Bradwell, defensive lineman Joe Gaziano, wide receiver Jason Moore, and cornerback Brandon Facyson.