IR - Designated to Return

[Patler]

From when it was first mentioned as a possible new provision, I never understood why it required designating the player at the time he is placed on IR. Why not just allow the team to bring back one player, any player, X weeks after going on IR? Why make a team predict the results of rehab before rehab even starts?

You can have a guy like Benson, who doesn't recover, and the designation is worthless.
You can also have a player who recovers much quicker than expected, but is ineligible to return because he was not designated at the time he was placed on IR.

Why should it be necessary to make the designation at the time the player is placed on IR?

[Fritz]

From when it was first mentioned as a possible new provision, I never understood why it required designating the player at the time he is placed on IR. Why not just allow the team to bring back one player, any player, X weeks after going on IR? Why make a team predict the results of rehab before rehab even starts?

You can have a guy like Benson, who doesn't recover, and the designation is worthless.
You can also have a player who recovers much quicker than expected, but is ineligible to return because he was not designated at the time he was placed on IR.

Why should it be necessary to make the designation at the time the player is placed on IR?

When I saw that Benson would not be back, I wondered why the team couldn't move that designation to a different player. It would make sense to do such a thing. And if you didn't have a player you wanted to give that designation to, the next time a guy got hurt, you could IR him, designate him to return, and have a free roster spot for the four or five weeks you needed.

[Patler]

Sam Shields is starting to look like a guy the designation would have been good for. They have already ruled him out this weekend. That's six games and seven weeks he has been out

[Fritz]

I'm not sure why the NFL and players did not make this a floating designation. Were they afraid of game-playing by teams? And if so, so what? So what if you designate Benson to return, then move it to Woodson or Shields? How does that bother any other teams?

Weird that they didn't think this through. The only explanation I have, having helped negotiate a few contracts myself, is that lots of stuff gets thrown around right at the end of negotiations, when a deal is close. It doesn't always get thought through.

[denverYooper]

I'm not sure why the NFL and players did not make this a floating designation. Were they afraid of game-playing by teams? And if so, so what? So what if you designate Benson to return, then move it to Woodson or Shields? How does that bother any other teams?

I can agree with that, yes.

[HarveyWallbangers]

I felt the same way. Why not just have IR in football? 4 week IR. I don't understand why the NFL is different than other leagues in this regard.

[red]

just another stupid nfl rule that makes no sense'

like the whole red flag after a turnover/touchdown bs. what harm does a coach throwing a flag on a play thats already being reviewed do

so asshole in the nfl has to think those were somehow good ideas at one point

[Pugger]

I'm not sure why the NFL and players did not make this a floating designation. Were they afraid of game-playing by teams? And if so, so what? So what if you designate Benson to return, then move it to Woodson or Shields? How does that bother any other teams?

Weird that they didn't think this through. The only explanation I have, having helped negotiate a few contracts myself, is that lots of stuff gets thrown around right at the end of negotiations, when a deal is close. It doesn't always get thought through.

Yes, why not because they can only use it on one player at a time anyway.

[pbmax]

Its a player cost issue and probably a marquee franchise issue. The more flexibility you have with an IR list, the larger the number of players under contact that can be called upon, which effectively increases your roster number. Small revenue teams don't want to pay the freight of maintaining a returning to play IR and they don't want successful teams to be able to lock up more players.