NFL & NFLPA Agree On New Injured Reserve Rules, New Trade Deadline

Finally, a rule that should have been enacted years ago, and looked like had died a week ago, has been agreed upon by the NFL and the Players Association. According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, the two sides have agreed to allow one player per team to come back from Injured Reserve during the season. Previously, once a player went onto IR, he was lost for the season, which always seemed silly to me. Now teams will get a little leeway with an injured player. Some additional details from Schefter:

Only players with a "major injury" who are placed on Reserve/Injured after 4:00 p.m., New York time, on Tuesday, September 4, or thereafter during the season, will be eligible to be reactivated at a later time.

Of course the phrase "major injury" will be up for interpretation, but needless to say this could have benefited the Colts greatly last season, as they could have placed Peyton Manning on IR (multiple neck surgeries I think would qualify him for "major injury" status), and if he got healthy they could have brought him back later in the year. It could have then opened up a roster spot for him, which the Colts could have made good use of. Also could have been useful for any number of years with Bob Sanders.

Also agreed upon today was moving the trade deadline back from after Week 6 to after Week 8, which gives teams a couple more weeks to see where they are, and whether they want to dump salary / add someone for the last half of the season. Football trades aren't as prevalent as in Baseball, but personally I think they should have gone back to Week 11 or so, as all teams are through their Bye weeks, and most teams know at that point whether they are contending for the playoffs or not. Baby steps for now I guess. With the number of trades we've seen already for the Colts, this change seems to be good news for Ryan Grigson and the Front Office.