One thing that has made the whole IR a player move so prevalent is the lack
of a midweek injury report like the NFL use to do. We allow teams to place
any player on the IR with just injury news. On top of that, the NFL injury
report is a joke these days, so many players listed as questionable that are
in no danger of missing a game. So we are seeing more IR moves today than
ever before.
When looking at the transactions last year, there are quite a few weeks
where there are as many if not more IR moves than drop moves. Teams will
often place a player on the IR, even though they are not expected to miss a
game. Owners are just hoping to stash a player on the IR who they were not
planning on starting or is on a bye week, and then try to get lucky with a
free agent who breaks out. The IR move has become a way to get stud free
agents without being charged a move, a little back door way the NFL has
created.
Now if a team loses a stud player (franchise player or not) and they chose
the back up or any other player from the same NFL team owners can see not
charging for that. But all to often teams will bypass that and go with the
best free agent available. Teams often sit atop the priority list for a
long time and get prime pick of the top free agents available each week by
just making IR moves.
The proposed change is that teams will move down the priority list
when they make an IR move, with one exception. That exception is that if a
team makes an IR move and picks up a player from the same NFL team, they
would not be charged a priority move and keep their spot on the priority
list. The reason for just same NFL team, and not also the same position,
is that a team may lose a RB but may want to replace them with a WR or TE
from the same NFL team as that team may start throwing more as they don't
have a capable backup RB to step in.
This proposed rule change and the new 48 hour waiver period should assist
in making more players available to all teams each week. This was the
number one concern of owners trying to improve their team week to week.
So the vote is:
Option A New priority system rule, teams charged a move on IR
moves, except for adding a player from same NFL team.
Option B Keep current rule. Teams will not be charged for any
IR move.
Please send me you team's choice of Option A or Option B as soon
as possible. Teams with multiple owners will need to get together and send
me one vote for their team.
Any questions let me know
Thanks Jeff