2015 St. Louis Rams Make OT Isaiah Battle Highest-Paid Practice Squad Player In NFL...To Protect Him?

Well this is interesting:

Rams raised the salary of practice squad OT Isaiah Battle - a supplemental draft pick - to $25,588/week. Most for any PS player in NFL.

— Field Yates (@FieldYates) October 22, 2015

Huh.

Well.

Ok.

So OT Isaiah Battle is the highest-paid practice squad player in the NFL. That seems awfully unusual given that most practice squad players make under $7,000 a week.

That seems awfully unusual coming in the middle of October heading into Week 7 following a bye week after the Rams' roster is, more or less, pretty well set.

That seems awfully unusual coming two days after St. Louis Rams Head Coach, largely alluding to trade rumors surrounding TE Jared Cook, said this:

We take calls all of the time. People call. People have injuries. People have interest. That happens all of the time...People call. [Cook]’s not the only person that people called us about last week. There’s injuries. We’re not to the trading deadline. People have interest in players. This day in age they’ve got more information. If they sense that some players that you have may fit their system, they’re going to call. You either say yes or no."

Three and a half months ago, the Rams took Battle in the 2015 NFL Supplemental Draft. Battle was the only player selected in the supplemental, costing the Rams their 2016 NFL Draft fifth-round selection.