New NFL IR Rule Does Apply To Bills' Torell Troup, After All

The NFL and NFLPA on Thursday have finally agreed to a long-rumored impending rule change that will allow teams to bring back one player on Injured Reserve per season. Thanks to a one-year exemption that bypasses a rule explained below, players on IR can be brought back this season by Friday, including Torell Troup of the Buffalo Bills.

Per ESPN's Adam Schefter, among others, only players placed on IR after September 4 (i.e. next Tuesday) at 4PM will be eligible to return to the active roster. Teams can only bring one player on IR back per year, and that player must be on IR for six weeks. To my ear, it sounds essentially like a glorified PUP list player, with the built-in option of leaving the player on IR. Due to the one-year exemption, however, Troup could theoretically be re-instated to the 53-man roster by Friday.

As one example of the utility of such a program, the Bills could have brought Fred Jackson back last year had they been able to make a playoff push (I think), as by most accounts he was healthy by the middle portion of January. For Troup, however, it seems exceedingly unlikely that he'll be re-instated this year, despite the one-time only eligibility rules.