As ESPN’s Adam Schefter notes, NFL rules state that a player needs to have suffered a new injury that doctors expect to sideline him at least six weeks in order for a team to be able to place the player on injured reserve a second time in the same season. The Packers only said that Rodgers was “sore” after last Sunday’s loss to the Carolina Panthers, and they placed him on IR because they are officially eliminated from playoff contention.
According to Schefter, multiple teams have complained to the NFL that the Packers should have to release Rodgers. Rules state that a player has to be released and cannot be placed on IR twice in one season for the same injury. For what it’s worth, a source told Schefter that Rodgers would not have been cleared medically to play in Week 16.
No one really expects Rodgers to be released, and he would obviously just re-sign with the Packers even if that did happen. Still, teams want to know why Green Bay was seemingly allowed to ignore the IR rule.
The concerns with Rodgers before he played last weekend were obvious, so it’s no surprise the Packers don’t want to risk having him play in meaningless games. This seems like more of a situation where other teams simply want the Packers to be held accountable.
