As much as it may pain Patriots fans, they can't say that Rex Ryan never had a good idea.
A rule change proposed by Ryan and the Bills organization during this year's NFL Annual Meeting in Boca Raton, Fla. passed that will alter how teams go about using their injured reserve with a designation to return spot.
NFL clubs still will have the ability to designate only one player to return off of injured reserve, but now that player does not have to be given that designation until he is ready to return. In the past, teams have had to declare which player they wanted to designate for a return as soon as the player was placed on injured reserve.
The change allows teams with more than one player on injured reserve to gauge how those players are progressing and then determine -- based on their health and based on the needs of the team's roster -- which player should return. When the player is ready to return to action, he can then receive the designation to return.
In 2015, the Patriots placed center Bryan Stork on injured reserve before their Week 1 game and determined that he was a player worthy of the designation to return. He was activated on Nov. 7.
Under the new rule, the Patriots could have placed Stork on IR and then waited to use their lone return designation on him once he was ready to play. Had Stork experienced a setback during his rehab, the team could have opted to save their return designation for someone else.
Not only will the rule change provide teams with some roster flexibility, it will also take some pressure off of medical staffs that try to determine recovery times in situations that can be fluid and difficult to predict.
New England Patriots
Since the injured reserve with a designation to return spot was implemented in 2012, the Patriots have used it on tight end Visanthe Shiancoe (2012), running back Shane Vereen (2013), defensive lineman Sealver Siliga (2014) and Stork.