Early, But Who Is Worth the IR - DTR Designation?

As a reminder, this list if for one player who has practiced and is injured to start the season.

The regular PUP list is for those who have not practiced. Wendell, Fletcher, LaFell and Chris Jones now qualify for that list.
============

Other than Rufus Johnson, I don't see anyone at the moment.

If Rufus is worth it, then surely Roberts would be as well, no?

mgteich said:

As a reminder, this list if for one player who has practiced and is injured to start the season.

The regular PUP list is for those who have not practiced. Wendell, Fletcher, LaFell and Chris Jones now qualify for that list.
============

Other than Rufus Johnson, I don't see anyone at the moment.

Click to expand...

I don't think they will not use that in the preseason unless it is a key player. They got burnt using it on Shancioe a few seasons.

Rufus Johnson is not worth it on his best day.

mgteich said:

As a reminder, this list if for one player who has practiced and is injured to start the season.

The regular PUP list is for those who have not practiced. Wendell, Fletcher, LaFell and Chris Jones now qualify for that list.
============

Other than Rufus Johnson, I don't see anyone at the moment.

Click to expand...

Rufus was spotted in the locker room today...I think he might be back soon

Oswlek said:

If Rufus is worth it, then surely Roberts would be as well, no?

Click to expand...

Roberts is much more promising than Johnson and we need CBs a lot more than we need WRs.

Honestly they could just put Roberts on the 53 man roster anyway he was likely to be a game day inactive most weeks early in the season anyway just like Butler last year.

Aaron Dobson.

Brady6 said:

Honestly they could just put Roberts on the 53 man roster anyway he was likely to be a game day inactive most weeks early in the season anyway just like Butler last year

Click to expand...

If they were even considering this, then the only sensible move to make is to IR-return him.

EDIT: To expand, if Roberts is worth dragging around for a few months you use it because

1) You may not have any injuries worthy of the designation, so it may go to waste
2) Anyone more important would just put you in the same position of a long-term inactive.

Oh god, Shiancoe...I'm pretty sure he was going to be, like, our 4th TE on the depth chart even when healthy. That was a very questionable move.

I'm gonna say Roberts.

Brady6 said:

Roberts is much more promising than Johnson and we need CBs a lot more than we need WRs.

Honestly they could just put Roberts on the 53 man roster anyway he was likely to be a game day inactive most weeks early in the season anyway just like Butler last year.

Click to expand...

Well done. I was just about about to make that comparison. A training camp phenom he has loads of potential to be a play maker

You don not use the IR designated to return tag on anyone who isn't a significant starter. It is better to gamble and not use it that use it for a role player. There fore my guess is the most likely candidate is someone who is healthy right now and might get injured in the first few weeks. And I am not going to predict a player to get injured.

So my prediction is a player to be named later and hopefully the Pats don't use it at all.

Will the player be kept on the roster and not IRed ? If so then he's worth it. We have this discussion every year. All it does is save a roster spot one time. If, say, Roberts were to stay on the 53 there's no point in not using it - worst case someone better gets hurt and he is kept on the 53. There's no competition for who is the team with the best IR-Rtn guy. Use it as soon as you have a guy you can use it on. If the player is so non valuable that you would just IR him then, by all means, IR him and don't use it.

Rob0729 said:

You don not use the IR designated to return tag on anyone who isn't a significant starter . . . hopefully the Pats don't use it at all.

Click to expand...

That makes no sense. You're hoping to waste a free roster spot.

Jake Bequette

BelichickFan said:

That makes no sense. You're hoping to waste a free roster spot.

Click to expand...

I think he explained it right. It is for a starter like player. Maybe someone more fringe if you reach the point where you cant use it anymore which is cut down day.

Ideally you dont use it at all which means you start the year with healthy players.

Bruins29 said:

I think he explained it right. It is for a starter like player. Maybe someone more fringe if you reach the point where you cant use it anymore which is cut down day.

Ideally you dont use it at all which means you start the year with healthy players.

Click to expand...

Nope.

If you don't use it you've lost the chance to carry an injured guy, a 54th player, for free. Again, if the player is so low on the roster you don't mind losing him for the year, by all means, IR him. But if you don't want to IR him you have to carry him on the roster. Whether it's Tom Brady or Brandon Bolden, if you're going to carry him on the roster go ahead and make use of the 54th spot. If not you may waste it. It's value is a free roster spot, not the quality of player occupying it.

The answer to the question is "anyone who will return later in the season who is good enough to be carried on the 53 until he returns".

BelichickFan said:

Nope.

If you don't use it you've lost the chance to carry an injured guy, a 54th player, for free. Again, if the player is so low on the roster you don't mind losing him for the year, by all means, IR him. But if you don't want to IR him you have to carry him on the roster. Whether it's Tom Brady or Brandon Bolden, if you're going to carry him on the roster go ahead and make use of the 54th spot. If not you may waste it. It's value is a free roster spot, not the quality of player occupying it.

The answer to the question is "anyone who will return later in the season who is good enough to be carried on the 53 until he returns".

Click to expand...

Yeah its a free roster spot but it has to be someone with a legit injury. So if not Gibson they would be saving it for another player, maybe named later.

The player does have to be injured though. The league is clear on that.

Brady6 said:

Roberts is much more promising than Johnson and we need CBs a lot more than we need WRs.

Honestly they could just put Roberts on the 53 man roster anyway he was likely to be a game day inactive most weeks early in the season anyway just like Butler last year.

Click to expand...

I don't think they would do that, but if they did the early bye could be a real benefit at least in this specific scenario.

Bruins29 said:

Yeah its a free roster spot but it has to be someone with a legit injury. So if not Gibson they would be saving it for another player, maybe named later.

The player does have to be injured though. The league is clear on that.

Click to expand...

Gibson ? He's out for the year.

BelichickFan said:

Gibson ? He's out for the year.

Click to expand...

I know. I thought they might use it on him initially and then it became either not worth using on him or his injury would not be healed in 8 weeks

BelichickFan said:

Nope.

If you don't use it you've lost the chance to carry an injured guy, a 54th player, for free. Again, if the player is so low on the roster you don't mind losing him for the year, by all means, IR him. But if you don't want to IR him you have to carry him on the roster. Whether it's Tom Brady or Brandon Bolden, if you're going to carry him on the roster go ahead and make use of the 54th spot. If not you may waste it. It's value is a free roster spot, not the quality of player occupying it.

The answer to the question is "anyone who will return later in the season who is good enough to be carried on the 53 until he returns".

Click to expand...

I think that's generally right- to whatever extent there's a threshold of quality that a player must meet to be worth the spot, the reason why is because if he's below that threshold you'd rather IR him than leave him on IR-DTR/gameday inactive for 6+ weeks.

I do think it becomes a bit more complex than that at times, though. Say there are two players, and you can't afford to carry either of them as an inactive for whatever reason. Call it a roster crunch. If Player A gets hurt first, you can either IR him or IR-DTR him. If you IR-DTR him, then the risk is that Player B (who's better than player A) gets hurt later, and now you have to IR-DTR player B. Had the choice been presented to you ahead of time, that you could IR-DTR one and IR the other, you'd have preferred to IR-DTR Player B, but now you don't have that option.

But, as you pointed out, if Player B is that valuable to you, you can just carry him as a gameday inactive until he's healthy. So there's a clear limit to the downside of IR-DTRing the wrong player too early. The general rule of thumb that lets you avoid that downside entirely is to say "is this guy worth carrying as a gameday inactive for 6+ weeks?". If the answer's yes, then you just use the spot and don't worry about it. At that point, the only downside left is the idea that maybe it could be more valuable to have a 54th roster spot later in the season rather than earlier, but that's such a small consideration that I doubt it becomes a significant factor.