PUP Rule (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Pasquino]

Just so everyone knows, there was apparently a rule change.

It used to be:

PUP List

PUP—physically unable to perform—status is used by clubs to protect a player who is relatively seriously injured but who may recover soon enough to play again that same season. It is similar to major league baseball's 60-day disabled list. Contrast this with injured reserve status, where the player is ineligible for the remainder of the season.

A player who is put on the PUP list before the preseason's first roster cutdown (from 80 to 65 players) must remain inactive through the sixth week of the regular season. At that point, he has a three-week practice "window" before he must either return to the 53-man roster or end his season on injured reserve.

and now it is:

NFL rules allow teams to designate players as "Physically Unable to Perform." Once they are designated as such they are prohibited from practicing with the team. They can, however, rehabilitate and participate in team meetings. If a player begins training camp on the PUP list, he can be moved to the active roster at any time, even after one practice. A player, however, is not allowed to be placed on the PUP list if they start training camp on the active roster.

So teams are "PUP"-ing their injured guys before camp opens to save roster room and have a few extra players in camp. Sources:

New Rule:

NYJets

Old Version:

Oakland Raiders

 

[Marc Levin]

Wow - excellent information/observation to drop here - I was wondering why CuMar and JLew were PUPed so early.

They get to rehab and sit out of TC/preseason until the team makes some necessary cutdowns.

 

[David Yudkin]

I'm not 100% certain, but I don't think that the rule changed. There are different designations for the PUP list, and I believe the true "long term disabled list" version is the inactive PUP list (which is the one where a player must miss 6 reguylar season games).

Most teams do not put players in the preseason in that list, but that's the only PUP list available during the regular season.

 

[Jeff Pasquino]

I'm not 100% certain, but I don't think that the rule changed. There are different designations for the PUP list, and I believe the true "long term disabled list" version is the inactive PUP list (which is the one where a player must miss 6 reguylar season games).Most teams do not put players in the preseason in that list, but that's the only PUP list available during the regular season.

David,I'm not the only one who was noticing a flood of activity on the "PUP" list this year, which really seemed odd. So I did some digging and this is what I found.I don't know if/when the policy was changed, but this certainly explains why the PUP is so heavily populated this time of year.