IR -- Playoff question.

[cpayne5]

Originally Posted by Daseal

While I really don't think we have a shot at the playoffs, I was under the impression that once you qualify for the playoffs, you can take players that are healthy (Portis?) off of IR. Anyone have an article or facts to either back this up or disprove it?

Thanks

#5 from Buccaneers - News

5. Rob of Orlando, Florida asks:

When it comes to the injured reserve, if a team makes it to the playoffs are they allowed to reactivate the player?

Answer Man: In a word, Rob, no.

Putting a player on injured reserve makes him ineligible to return to action at any point during that season, including the playoffs, at least for your team. If you release a player from injured reserve, he can sign with another team and play again that year.

Thus, if a team thinks it has a chance to get an injured player back in January, it has to make the hard decision of whether or not to put him on injured reserve. Doing so frees up a roster space, which can obviously come in handy, but it erases any chance of the injured player returning. Teams may instead keep that injured player on the 53-man roster and simply make him one of their game-day inactives each week until he is healthy enough to play.

That’s what the Eagles did with Terrell Owens in 2004, even though the leg fracture he suffered in Week 15 was thought to possibly be season-ending. Because Owens’ prognosis held out the possibility that he could return just in time for the Super Bowl, the Eagles kept him on the active roster and he did indeed play in the big game. He had a big game, too, and that’s the last time Owens made any news whatsoever.