[Popes]

Currently the rules say the following (in the section "10. Injured Reserve"):

"By the start of the next rookie draft, each franchise must clear IR and have no more than sixteen [will update to 18] players on their roster."

I believe we need to change this to say "On Apr 1 @ 12:00am, all players still on IR will be automatically moved to the active roster. If a team doesn't have room on their active roster, they must make room within 24 hours or face penalties."

Here's why. As structured currently, teams with players on IR get an unfair cap salary cushion during the RFA period. Examples (I'll use myself, as I have two guys on IR and probably have the most to gain by the current system):

1. Mark Clayton is on my IR and only counting as $266 against my cap (rather than $531, his 2008 salary). By leaving him there through the entire RFA period, I have $265 more in cap space than I should really have.

2. Javon Walker is on my IR with an expiring contract. Let's say I plan to RFA tag him at the 2nd level ($1200). Since the rules don't specify otherwise, I can leave him on my IR through the RFA period and probably only count him as $600 (half his "salary").

This is a loophole we should close. When the season resets on April 1, everything should reset. IR guys shouldn't get an extra month of cushion. If anyone has some good arguments why we shouldn't change, please discuss here in the voting thread.

I would like to close this loophole before we hit RFA declaration time.