I wrote Tuesday about the NFL rule change requiring additional leg padding. Well the league also voted to change the trade deadline and the injured reserve rule. Here is what they did with those rules:
The owners also voted to move the trading deadline from after Week 6 to after Week 8, and to allow one "marquee" player placed on injured reserve to return to practice after the sixth week of the schedule and to the lineup after the eighth week. That player must be on the 53-man roster after the final preseason cut.
It's about time the league changed the injured reserve rule. If you have been reading Big Blue View for a while, you know the ability to bring a player back or to use a baseball-style 'disabled list' is something I have campaigned for for years now.
That change can only improve the quality of often watered-down NFL rosters toward the end of the long NFL season. How often in the past have players been placed on injured reserve when they would have been healed and available the second half of the season, simply because a spot on the 53-man roster could not be held for 8-10 weeks?
You think maybe it would have helped the Giants last season to IR Prince Amukamara for the first half of the season rather than carry a player who could not play for eight weeks? How about Marvin Austin? I don't know for sure, but you wonder if he might have been healthy enough after suffering a torn pectoral muscle to contribute down the stretch last season?
I'm sure there are examples like these on rosters of just about every team around the league, and I'm glad to see the league finally recognize this.