NFL Rules on Reserve Lists

The National Football League (NFL) employs reserve lists for injured, recently retired or militarily active players. These lists allow teams to open up spots on their 53-man roster while keeping the rights to sidelined players. Although players on reserve lists still count against a team's salary cap, they do open roster spots for healthy and eligible players to take the field.

  1. Injured Reserve List

    • The physicality of a sport like American football inevitably leads to player injuries. In order to deal with injuries when they arise, the NFL has instituted the injured reserve list. The injured reserve list allows teams to sideline players who are not immediately available to participate. Once a team makes the decision to put a player on the injured reserve list, the player may not return to practice or play in any more games for the remainder of the season, including potential postseason games. However, the team will be afforded a new spot on the 53-man roster, which it can then fill with a healthy player. Players on the injured reserve list receive full contract pay for the season but cannot dress again with the team regardless of whether they heal. The rights to these players are still held by the original team and they can be activated to play following year.

    2010 Injured Reserve List Impact

    • Injuries have a tremendous impact on each and every NFL season. When starting players get hurt, they are typically substituted by less-skilled backup players. In 2010, some teams were particularly unlucky with injuries, having to place star players on the injury reserve list for the remainder of the season. Specifically, the Green Bay Packers were hit the hardest, losing 10 men to the injury reserve list. The teams with the least amount of injuries were the Chicago Bears, the Minnesota Vikings, the Oakland Raiders and the New York Jets, each losing just two players for the season. Going into Week 16 of the regular season, a total of 163 players around the league were lost for the year.

    Military Reserve List

    • The NFL has a military reserve list for players actively involved with the Armed Forces. Because of their military obligations, these players cannot play in the NFL simultaneously. Therefore, their contracts are temporarily dismissed. The player is not paid by the NFL while on active duty and does not count against a team's 53-man roster limit. When the player completes his military commitment, the team can activate the player and expect him to play out the terms of his contract.

    Reserve/Retired List

    • Retiring players can be placed on a team's reserve/retired list. This is done by some franchises to ensure that the rights of the retiring player still belong to the team should he ever file for reinstatement and return to the game. Although one of the more unfamiliar NFL reserve lists, the reserve/retired list was much discussed in 2008, after Brett Favre's first retirement. The Green Bay Packers placed him on their reserve/retired list, giving them the rights to him when his petition for reinstatement was granted on August 4, 2008.