Thought you couldn't cut an injured player
Keshawn Martin must have been waived/injured in my opinion. We saw this designation last year with A.J. Derby, and a couple years ago with Dane Fletcher. This year Michael Williams, Tyler Gaffney, Darryl Roberts and Kevin Snyder were waived/injured.
-- After the first cut-down day teams can use the waived/injured designation, or they can place a player directly on Injured Reserve.
-- NFL players receive 1/17th of their salary each week during the regular season. Players on injured reserve receive 1/17th of their salary each week they're on IR during the season.
Players might not receive their full salary while on IR because many non-vested players have split contracts. Players on split contracts receive their full salary if they are on the 53-man roster, and a lower split if they are on injured reserve. For example, for a rookie making the league minimum, the difference would be 1/17th of $450,000 each week on the active roster and 1/17th of $330,000 each week on IR.
-- After a player is waived/injured, the player and the team have five days to agree to an injury settlement. An injury settlement is designed for the player to be paid by the team for the time he would have been expected to miss with the injury.
If a settlement is reached the player then becomes a free agent and can sign with any other team immediately. If a settlement is not reached the player then goes on the team's injured reserve list. A player on IR cannot then be waived until he passes a physical.
-- In the case of a short-term injury it is typically in the best interest of both the team and the player to reach an injury agreement.
With a settlement, the team can pay a lump sum to cover the weeks the player would have missed due to the injury, and then cut the player. If the player remains on the injured reserve, the team is responsible for paying his salary each week.
For the player a settlement allows him to collect compensation for his injury while also immediately being able to seek opportunities with other teams.
-- An injury settlement does not automatically occur. If the player suffers a long-term injury he would have little incentive to pursue an injury settlement. And if a player is in a team's future plans, the team would like to retain the player by placing him on injured reserve.
In some cases the two sides simply cannot reach a settlement. In those cases the player would be placed on injured reserve and then most likely waived once he passes his physical.
-- In the past, teams were not able to re-sign waived/injured players until the injury settlement time period plus six additional weeks had passed. A new rule instituted this year has reduced the waiting period to the injury settlement time period, plus only three additional weeks before a team can re-sign a played that was waived/injured.
