fgssand said:
Tell me please, once will do - what about regular season. Do players that were on the PUP to start training camp count on the roster? In other words, you have 53 active roster players plus 8 on practice squad - are the PUP's part of that number, when we start the regular season?
The active/preseason-PUP list is related to, but a completely different list than the reserve/regular season-PUP.
Once the final cutdown comes, the active/preseason-PUP list (although it's more of a designation than anything) expires. The team, at that point, then has a choice of keeping the player (who was designated as preseason-PUP to preserve his elgibility for the reserve-PUP) on the active roster, putting him on the reserve-PUP list, placing him on I.R., or cutting him.
I suppose that a team could theoretically place a preseason-PUP'ed player on the reserve-PUP right now to knock him out until week 6 and free a roster spot, but no matter how you slice it, a PUPed player has to miss every practice of training camp in order to free up a roster spot for the team. I'm sure this stipulation was put in place when the PUP was enacted to make sure teams didn't use the PUP as a loophole to free up a roster spot and stash a player for half the season. It's the injured reserve list which makes the NFL different from other leagues like the MLB that uses a 15 or 60-day disabled list, or the NBA that uses a game-by-game injured/inactive list.
Just as the active-PUP list expires at the final cutdown, the reserve-PUP expires after week 9, when a team must either I.R. or cut/reach an injury settlement with any players left on the reserve-PUP that weren't activated in the 3-week span.
The only thing I need clearing up on is if players that weren't placed on the preseason-PUP list at the start of camp but haven't yet practiced (in the case of Graham or Mills this year) are still elgible for the PUP. If so, then the point of the preseason-PUP designation gets sketchy.
And I'm assuming the deal with say, a street F.A. like Rasby is that if they have already practiced for another team they aren't elgible.