Five Brits will have places on NFL practice squads for the 2018 season after the league expanded its international player pathway program.

The league launched the program last season, allowing each of the four NFC South teams to add a foreign player to the practice squad, in order to help grow American football globally. And now the program has been expanded to the AFC North.

Of the four new players to participate in the program, two of them are British. Christian Scotland-Williamson, a former professional rugby player for English Premiership side Worcester Warriors, will join the Pittsburgh Steelers as a tight end. Tigie Sankoh, who represented the London Warriors in the British Football League, will join the Cleveland Browns as a defensive back.

They will be joined by two German players: Christopher Ezeala, a fullback who will play for the Baltimore Ravens; and Moritz Böhringer, who was originally picked by the Minnesota Vikings in the sixth round of the 2016 draft, becoming the first player drafted from Europe without having played any college football. He was cut by the Vikings in September and will now practice with the Cincinnati Bengals.

The four players will be a part of their respective teams' practice squad until at least the end of training camp, at which point teams can apply for an international player practice squad exemption. If an exemption is granted, the player cannot be signed to his team's active roster during the 2018 season.

Alex Gray (Atlanta Falcons), Alex Jenkins (New Orleans Saints), Eric Nzeocha (Tampa Bay Buccaneers), and Efe Obada (Carolina Panthers), who participated in the program last season, have all been retained by their respective teams. Gray and Jenkins were born and raised in England; Obada was born in Nigeria and moved to Britain as a child; and Nzeocha is from Germany.