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NFL Tweaks IR, Practice Squad Rules Heading Into 2022

Change allows more players to come back after going on injured list

After owners meetings were held this week, the NFL has agreed to make some rule changes as it pertains to the roster.

The big one comes with the Injured Reserve list. Once, being put on IR meant the player's season was over. Then the league started allowing two players to come back, as long as they sat out eight games. That was shortened to three games when Covid hit (although there was a separate Covid list.)

Now, the rule is that a player must miss at least four games after going on IR before they can return. But teams can now bring back as many as eight players from IR, and in an even bigger changed, teams can bring back a particular player twice (it used to be a player could only return once from IR). If a player comes back twice, it counts as two of the eight slots.

The league will also continue to allow 16 practice-squad players, although now up to six of them can be veterans (no rules on number of accrued seasons.) Players can also now be elevated (and sent back down) up to three times from the PS; the last two years, it could only be twice before you had to sign them to the active roster to play them.

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