AsylumGuido

The three week IR designation only applies to players testing positive for COVID. All other injuries follow the standard rules. We're just going to have to be a player short on our active roster. At least we can freely activate two players from the practice squad on game days. But, that is limited to twice per player for the season.

gosaints1

None of that is correct, as below:

“The 2020-only rules, which become effective after 4:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, September 6, will allow the team to remove any player with a football or non-football injury from the roster for three weeks. After three weeks, the player will be eligible to return to practice. Once he returns to practice, the team will have 21 days to place him back on the active roster.

This applies to all injuries, football or non-football.”

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.co...ovid-19-rules/

AsylumGuido

That has to have been updated, then. I hope that's accurate. The source I saw was from August and specifically said COVID only for the three week IR.

Edit: Wait, this is from a July 18th article. Now I'm really confused. I need to do some more digging. I know they were changing these rules on almost a weekly basis prior to the start of the season.

AsylumGuido

Okay, here's the latest from September 9th ...

COVID-19 rule: The NFL has instituted a reserve/COVID-19 list for 2020, which is for players who either test positive for the coronavirus or have been potentially exposed to someone who has had it. A player who tests positive for COVID-19 will be eligible for placement on this list whether he is symptomatic or not. The league will administer COVID-19 tests to players and other essential employees every day of the regular season except game day.

To replace that player during the week, the team is allowed to make any move it wants: sign a free agent, sign a player from its or another team's practice squad or elevate a player from its own practice squad as outlined above.

COVID-19 rule: If a team learns after 4 p.m. ET on the day before a game that a player has to be placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list, either because of a positive diagnosis or need for preventative quarantine, that team may elevate a player from its practice squad to replace that player at any time up to 90 minutes before scheduled kickoff. Any elevation under this rule would not count as one of the two elevations we referenced at the end of our "expanded rosters" section above.

Injured reserve

COVID-19 rule: In 2020, a player going on injured reserve is allowed to return after missing only three weeks, and teams may return an unlimited number of players from injured reserve throughout the year. In a normal year, a player can't return from injured reserve unless he has missed at least six weeks' worth of practice and eight weeks' worth of games, and teams are limited to two players per year that they can return from injured reserve.

This year, a player on injured reserve can return to practice after three weeks. Once a team activates a player from injured reserve, it has 21 days to return him to the active roster. Reserve/COVID-19 is separate than injured reserve. Players on that list may return whenever they clear the testing protocol.

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So, yes, it does now look like he can be placed on that short-term IR unless they expect him back earlier.

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” — Winston Churchill