The injured reserve rule allows one player per team to be activated from IR after a “major injury.” The player must miss at least six weeks of practice. He may be placed on the active list at least eight weeks after placement on injured reserve.
Unlike the PUP list, then, the window for returning to practice or returning to action doesn’t close. Once it’s open, it stays open.
Patriots owner Robert Kraft has said that, if such a provision had been in place four years ago, the team possibly would have used the designation for quarterback Tom Brady, who tore an ACL in Week One.
Here’s where it gets complicated. Because teams already have cut to 75, a special procedure applies for 2012. As to teams that already have placed players on IR, the player for whom the short-term IR procedure will be used must be placed back on the active roster by 9:00 p.m. ET, August 31. He’ll then count as one of the final 53.
Then, after 4:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, September 4, each team can place one player on the modified IR list.
This means that teams hoping to use the new IR rule for a player already on injured reserve will have to displace another player for nearly four days, using a roster spot for the injured player and then creating a roster spot next Tuesday, when that player goes back to IR.