Previously, any player put on IR was lost for the entire season. Now, if a player is hurt and put on injured reserve after Sept. 4, that player may return to the active roster eight weeks after the IR designation, and the player must be on the IR list for at least six weeks. In addition, a player must be "designated for return" at the time of his IR classification, which means that a team must anticipate a player's ability to return midseason. Teams can't just hope their key injured player will recover in time.