Any word on this guy? I was hoping that he would be back from IR after the bye and provide a boost for the D-line, but I haven’t seen anything about him in any articles.
Players must remain on IR for eight weeks before being eligible to rejoin their teams in Week 9 via the IR - Return Designation. The NFL changed the IR - return designation in 2017 so that teams are allowed to bring two players back from IR . Previously, the rule allowed just one player to return from the list
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I’m curious about him too. I thought he and Ty could potentially be big x-factors for our team. Sometimes I’m full of shit! Hoping this isn’t one of those times. Ahh well, trying hard!
CDK answered it above your post
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This year I believe the IRELG eligibility date was Sunday, the day after the Team had to make the cuts to get down to the 53 roster. Remember they had to cut Logan Thomas for a day so they could keep Bryant on their 53? Then late Sunday afternoon they put Bryant on the IRELG list and re-signed Thomas.
I think the Lions have to wait until after the last game of the 6th week is played before they can bring Bryant back to practice with the team. This year, that game is our game at Lambeau tonight.
- Only players with a “major injury” who are placed on the IR list after 4 p.m. EST on Tuesday, September 4, 2012, or during the season are eligible to be reactivated later in the season.
- A major injury is described as an injury that renders the player unable to practice or play football for at least six weeks — or 42 calendar days — from the date of injury.
- A player who is placed on the IR list after 4 p.m. EST on Tuesday, September 4, 2012, must be immediately “designated for return” at the time he is placed on the list. That designation must appear on that day’s Personnel Notice. [NOT TRUE ANY MORE, more recent changes dropped this req’t]
- That designated player is eligible to return to practice if he has been on the IR list for at least six weeks from the date he was placed on Reserve. He is eligible to return to the active list if has been on the IR list for at least eight weeks from the date he is placed on Reserve.
https://www.dummies.com/sports/football/new-nfl-injuredreserve-ir-rule/
Bryant has been on the IRELG for 6 weeks, after tonight’s game. He can return to practice this week if the Lions believe he is healthy enough; if they do that, then he misses the Vikes and the Giants game, but could be activated to play after that.
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Here’s an example, via the Patriots:
BOSTON (CBS) — The Patriots are scouring the market looking for help at offense, but some assistance could be coming from within. After spending the start of his rookie season on IR, wide receiver N’Keal Harry is eligible to return to practice this week.
Harry, the first wide receiver to be drafted in the first round by Bill Belichick during his Patriots tenure, showed plenty of promise in offseason workouts, but suffered an ankle injury after just two preseason catches. He was placed on IR ahead of Week 1, and hasn’t been able to practice since.
Whether Harry actually hits the field or not remains to be seen, and Belichick didn’t offer any hints during a Monday morning conference call. He said if Harry is healthy, he’ll practice.
“Physically he needs to be able to show he can go out there and participate competitively at the practice level that we’re at,” said Belichick. “Hopefully that’s where he’ll be, but we’ll make our final evaluations on that before we put him out there.”
But the expectation has always been that he’d be back in the fold when eligible to come off IR. Once Harry returns to practice, the Patriots will have three weeks to evaluate if he’s ready for game action. Should he return this week, the earliest he’d be eligible to play in a game would be Nov. 3 when the Patriots visit the Baltimore Ravens.
Same as us with Bryant. 6 weeks plus at least 2 weeks of practice. If Harry is good to go, he could play in their Nov 3 game, same as Bryant.
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To be honest I’m a bit surprised that Hand did go on the IR as well. Hands injury seems to be far worse than originally thought.
What’s cool is that he feels like a luxury pick. I am not flirting with being on Quinn’s level, but I feel like they liked him enough to snag him, even knowing he wouldn’t play much, this year. Quinn likely hold him in higher light than other GMs, which could be an amazing future move. Obviously, we’d like for him to be a monster in a deep playoff run. I can’t wait to see this guy get down on the field. Anxious to see what he’s got, especially he’s playing next to a well-performing Daniels (which may or may not happen).
So fired up to see Flowers, Snacks, Daniels, and Bryant out there throwing down together.
Impacts everyone too, because extra depth= extra juice in the 4th qtr. We are still seeing DL get fatigued. Getting Hand, Bryant, and Daniels back should help immensely, at least in theory.
Maybe Hand re-injured his elbow, had a setback of some kind, or the docs misjudged the severity. And consider this: if Bryant resumes practice with the team this week as many expect, he cannot play before the Nov 3 game in Oakland. Since Hand was Not IRed, he could play next week against Minny or the week after against the Giants. So that’s 2 games we would not have had him available for, if in fact he plays in those games. Some people thought he might play this week in GB, so it’s at least possible he could go next week.
And one other thought: you only get to put 2 guys on the IR that could return during the season. They already used Bryant for one of those 2 designations, using Hand for the other means if Stafford or Slay or somebody else got injured enough to miss a couple of months, the Lions couldn’t put that player on the IR and bring him back. So, they left that option open.
If we knew Hand would miss significant time and we placed Hand on the IR. We could have kept another DE or DL and had a much deeper rotation.
If Stafford, Slay or someone of importance went down than you just don’t put them on the IR unless they are gonna miss significant time.
I’m guessing they weren’t expecting Hand to miss this much time. If they were than they made a foolish mistake by not putting him on the IR.
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That would tie up another IR return designation. So you’d be shooting right out of the gates already occupying both of your spots, if your intent was to bring back Hand and Bryant. You’ve got zero flexibility if something happens during the season and you need to IR a guy that you think can come back. One thing to remember is that there are 7 inactive players no matter how you slice it. Keeping Hand simply makes him one of the 7 guys that can’t play anyways.
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You just don’t IR the guy if injury comes up later on. Especially if you think he will make it back.
But if we IRed Hand from the get go. We would have had another player for depth and rotation.
We would be far less “hand” tied had we IRed Hand from the get go.
If Hand plays next week, as seems possible if not likely, that means he would miss 5 games instead of 7 like Bryant. Plus, the Lions might very well have needed that 2nd IRETR player if they had used that 2nd designation from the jump. Say another player had been injured in September that will require maybe 8-12 weeks before he can return; if that player is a really important one, then the Lions have to carry the guy for that long instead of the 5 games they carried Hand. AND, the Lions could afford to carry Hand for 5 games at the start of the season with no one else seriously injured at that time. That might not be true going forward, with guys getting banged up and needing a week or two to mend from an ankle, knee, or what-have-you. So those 7 inactive spots might well all be needed at some point. In my view, the Lions made the right call with Hand.
“You just don’t IR the guy if injury comes up later on”
You do if the guy gets hurt in September/October and you need him in December in time for thee big push at the end.
Why is my point this difficult?
What’s the difference if you carried Hand on your roster for 7 weeks (injured). Next week is week 7.
Or
Let Hand just sit on our IR for 8 plus weeks?
And had kept another DE or DT?
The difference is … you get one more player for depth for 6 plus weeks.
If another player would have got hurt. You would carry that player on the “roster” until healthy. If they’re seriously hurt and won’t make it back by season end then you IR them.
The only way the Lions shouldn’t have IRed Hand is if they thought he be back by the bye week. So I assume they thought he’d be back by now … or they made a mistake.
It wasn’t worth losing depth for 6 weeks to get hand back for week 7 (assuming he’s healthy for Min)
We have an empty vacant spot sitting on our IR (because we can bring back 2 players) and we could have used it.
First, you only get 2 players that can return. So keeping at least 1 of those spots open could be important during the season.
Second, there are 7 inactive players every single week. And it’s literally so that you can have up to 7 injured players. You are talking about bringing a guy in who is going to be doing what Hand was already doing…sitting out games.
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My 2, and then I’m done:
The difference is … you get one more player for depth for 6 plus weeks.
They had plenty of depth to start the season. It wasn’t a big deal to carry Hand as an inactive player for what might amount to 5 games when the roster was full of healthy players. As opposed to possibly not being able to carry someone later in the year.
If another player would have got hurt. You would carry that player on the “roster” until healthy. If they’re seriously hurt and won’t make it back by season end then you IR them.
What if the injured player would be out for 10-12 weeks or longer? Gets hurt in September, so now the Lions have to carry him until maybe December instead of bringing him, or lose him for the season cuz they gave up both of their IRELG spots.
The only way the Lions shouldn’t have IRed Hand is if they thought he be back by the bye week. So I assume they thought he’d be back by now … or they made a mistake.
The way it is now the LIons can play Hand as soon as he is good to go, he could play next week after missing only 5 games instead of 7 if they had IRed him. That ain’t no mistake. Yes, maybe the docs thought he could return sooner, without being a doctor and not knowing the details it’s kinda presumptuous to assume they screwed up. Maybe they knew all along that Hand could have been back for tonight’s game but elected to go the safe route.
“It wasn’t worth losing depth for 6 weeks to get hand back for week 7 (assuming he’s healthy for Min)”
That’s your opinion and you’re welcome to it. BUT, losing depth for 5 games at the start of the season when you’ve got a healthy roster is not as costly as losing somebody for the season later or carrying him as a inactive for at least 8 games, if he’s injured that badly. Losing depth that they had at the start of the season may not be as expensive as losing it later when they don’t have room for an inactive player and have to cut somebody.
We have an empty vacant spot sitting on our IR (because we can bring back 2 players) and we could have used it.
True. But then the Lions could not use it later in the season when they might have needed it more than now. Consider this: if they put both Bryant and Hand on the IR at the start of the season, and then a 3rd guy gets injured at any point thereafter, you can only bring back 2 of those 3 if you IR the 3rd guy, right? Your way, you can’t put that 3rd guy on the IR, cuz the somebody’s year is over. So, you carry him for who knows how long until he can play again, we had a guy in that situation a few years back, don’t remember who it was. But the point is, the Lions couldn’t sign a depth player for him cuz they had to carry him on the roster. My way, the Lions would have that 2nd IRELG spot to sign somebody, your way they wouldn’t cuz they used it on Hand and Bryant.
So, which is better: Keeping Hand on the roster and carrying him for 5 games at a time when they had room to stash him as an inactive, or putting him on the IR and guaranteeing him to miss at least 7 games and giving up that option for the rest of the season?