NFL Rule Changes: Two Players Can Now Return From Injured Reserve

A few seasons ago, the National Football League adopted the rule that allowed one player to come back from the Injured Reserve list during the course of the season. Prior to that, being placed on IR was an automatic end to a player’s season. Now, the league has made a significant change to that rule.

At the league meetings today, a rule was passed that will now allow two players to return from Injured Reserve during the course of a season.

The original rule states that a player that is placed on Injured Reserve has to stay on the list for at least six weeks before he is eligible to return. There is no indication that the new rule does anything to change that, even though a second player will now be allowed to return.

This could be highly beneficial to teams that go through a higher-than-normal rash of injuries in a season, much like last year’s Minnesota Vikings. Last year, once running back Adrian Peterson was placed on IR, it was pretty much an open secret that he was going to be the Vikings’ one player that would be brought back, and any other player that went on IR would have their season finished.

That meant that players like Sharrif Floyd, who the team thought was going to be able to come back at some point in 2016, couldn’t be placed on injured reserve without ending their season. Any other player that wound up on IR, such as offensive lineman Matt Kalil and Andre Smith, was basically done for the season as well. Now, with the ability to bring another player back, teams will be able to place those sorts of players on IR, let them rehab, and bring them back if and when they’re reason.

I can’t really see this as anything but a good thing, but we’ll pose the question anyway. . .what do you think of this rule change?