IR question

"Players designated for return from the reserve/injured or reserve/non-football injury/illness list are eligible to come back after "four games have elapsed since the date he was placed on the applicable reserve list,"

That's from the memo that was sent to teams when they changed IR rules during the pandemic etc.

I would assume they count the bye week though.

 

They do not. It is specifically 4 games

 

Interesting. Like the OP said, kind of a disadvantage to not count the bye week. But it does read 4 GAMES and not weeks.

Guess it's not that shocking that an NFL rule doesn't make sense.

 

My IR question is, does putting a player on IR release some of their cap space? Typically the entire salary isn't guaranteed for injuries. With all the money we have on IR (Lewan and Landry mostly), doesn't that give us some wiggle room to play with this season?

 

I don't understand how anyone could think the bye week counts as a game.

 

From what I understand, it only frees up a roster spot. If you get cap relief from an injury depends on the players contract.

 

Right. Since Lewan and Landry's contracts aren't fully guaranteed, shouldn't we have extra cap space in 2022?

 

For Lewan I would think so. For Landry though I would be surprised if this year was not fully guaranteed


Whole thing is so complicated. Even sites that track cap numbers (Sport trac and Over The Cap) admit they are not 100% accurate.

 

Typically you hear a player is out 4 weeks etc. Even some of what I've read in a quick Google search says weeks instead of games. It's not that anyone thinks that the bye week counts as a game...it's the wording used in the media vs the actual rules etc.

And again, it's kind of a disadvantage to lose a player for an extra week just because your team has a mandatory game off that week.