according to this, Justin Francis just visited with the pats.
Report: Justin Francis, Jake Ballard, Cierre Wood, Two Others Work Out for Patriots | New England Patriots | NESN.com
He was released with an injury settlement after being placed on IR. I was under the impression that you can't bring back a guy you release with an injury settlement. So would that mean that the pats could technically release Adrian Wilson with one of these and then bring him back to the active roster if he was healthy?
The major difference between Wilson and Francis is the amount of service time in the NFL. Wilson had more than four years, so he is a vested veteran. As such if he was simply let go then he would have been released and immediately become a free agent. A player such as Francis with less than four years must first pass through waivers.
That difference also extends to how injuries are dealt with from the first day of the NFL year to the final roster cutdown from 75 to 53 players. During that time a veteran can be placed directly on IR. Those that are not vested veterans cannot be placed directly on IR, and must be placed on waivers first. An example of the latter would be Jake Ballard with the Giants a while back.
Players that are waived/injured are basically the same as being waived, but if they go unclaimed then the original team retains rights and can place him on IR, or the two sides work out an agreement based on the idea of how long they feel the injury would last. If for example they decide the injury would prevent him from playing for the first four weeks of the season then he gets 4/17 of his contract (four weeks of a 17-week NFL season). An example of the former would be T.J Moe; Francis would be an example of the latter.
Once the amount of time has passed with the injury settlement then the player can sign and play with any NFL team, as I understand it. So if Francis had an injury settlement of 9 weeks or less, then he is at this point allowed to sign and play with any NFL team (including the Patriots).
Adrian Wilson was placed on Injured Reserve. Once an IR he is done for the entire season; he cannot be "un-IR'd", for lack of a better term; he cannot play for the Patriots or any other NFL team in 2013.
Francis was waived/injured. His settlement time period has passed, so he is now a free agent and available to play in the NFL.
