Competition Committee considers dumping inactive lists for Thursday games

Posted by Mike Florio on March 1, 2015, 10:05 AM EST

NFL executive V.P. of football operations Troy Vincent said Saturday that the Competition Committee considered the proper handling of rosters for Thursday games.

Per a league source, the possible solution is the removal of the inactive list for Thursday Night Football.  If that happens, teams would dress all 53 players on Thursday night games, with no players on the inactive list.

It doesn’t mean that all 53 players would dress for every team in each Thursday night game; players too injured to play but not so injured to be on injured reserve won’t dress.

Presumably, this approach would apply to all Thursday games, including the trio of games played on the fourth Thursday in November.

It’s unclear whether the Competition Committee will recommend elimination of the inactive list for Thursday days.  Ultimately, the owners must vote on any changes to game-day rosters, with at least 24 of them agreeing.

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38 responses to “Competition Committee considers dumping inactive lists for Thursday games”

  2. a step toward dressing all 53, which makes sense

    unless it is also a step toward 18 reg season games…

  3. So the Competition Committee are putting TV revenue before actual fair competition!

    If you remove the inactive list for Thursday night games, then you remove it from all games.

  4. Makes sense. Some of those games the players look sluggish. If it’s a quick turnaround they should have the full roster. Hopefully that goes through.

  5. What is the purpose of the inactive list? It looks to be some kind of incentive to force teams to put guys on IR to make room for guys that can actually play. Dress all 53 every game. The rest are practice squad players that need an open slot on the 53 to move up.

  7. What would be better to hear the committee say is no more Thursday night football, allow defenses to play defense again and let football be the game we love.

  8. I’ve never understood why so many people gripe and kvetch about Thursday Night Football. Football has been played on Thursdays for decades; i.e. Thanksgiving. There’s never been any evidence of additional injuries due to playing on Thursday. What’s wrong with another day of the week to watch a game? If you don’t like it, don’t watch it. (But you will.) The fans have spoken via their viewing habits… they enjoy Thursday Night Football and tune in.

  9. 53 players to play every game. Inactive list makes no sense. In fact, make a couple of practice squad players eligible for games. The numbers now are too limiting. Why so limiting? Could it be money?

  11. Love to see the injury rates on Thursday games and the game that follows and see if there are any increases. Of course the owners would find them within acceptable limits.

  13. Get rid of inactive lists all together.

    Get rid of Thursday games unless you can make it work so each team is coming off its bye. If you can’t then don’t do it.

  14. I think Belichick said it best when he opined against it. Don’t change the game. He spoke about a team putting in a 4 TE package, and the D would counter with a 6 LB sub package. A 43 man roster restricts your choices.

  15. Something needs to be done. Despite NFL leadership attempts to appear player friendly short weeks are hurting the players. Many players if not all hate the quick turnaround. Even in a normal week
    recovery ( which is every players sole concern week to week) is difficult. New technology can help measure the players physical
    outputs and its effect on the body and nervous system but one true
    fact remains the more rest between games the better.
    Perhaps with the new tech the NFL can become more aware of a particular players wear and tear and then the teams can take apprioate action like limiting practice or even plays.
    Would a system that requires player to sit out every 3rd or 4 th series help? It may be difficult but with expanded rosters on short weeks it might actually be best for the players and league in the long run.
    It could also make a game more interesting.
    Perhaps a better way would to expand the regular season’s length and then have 2 bye weeks.
    Another issue is why can only one player be designated to return from injured reserve. In earlier days there were short term injured reserve
    lists. I believe they varied in 3-4 ways . My understanding was that
    some of the teams abused the medical standards to hide players. Now with technology medical records can be transferred to allow review. This would eliminate abuse and allow a player to recover from a short term injury and still salvage part of his season. A 4-6 week injured reserve could also insure a team has a full roster. An injured player
    trying to contribute to save a roster spot is not beneficial to the team or the players long term career.
    There are many available options some realistic some unrealistic. If the league is truly concerned about the player and the long term effects
    the league needs to be creative.

  18. The reason for the inactive list is to be fair to both teams when it comes to injuries. If one team has 53 healthy players while another only has 47 it is seen as an advantage. If they were to play the game out chances are those extra players wouldn’t make a difference but it is seen as one team having more players ready to play. The list is to ensure both teams have the same number of players dressed. It’s not a big deal but that is the reason for it.

  21. Heres a concept, ditch Thursday games except on Thanksgiving and opening night. The games are awful. The matchups are awful. Players arent healed from previous Sunday.

    Howver since the NFL is only concerned about money, make sure the teams playing Thursday night arent playing 4 days the Sunday bedore.

    Its appalling how incompetent the NFL is

  25. What a novel concept, everyone dresses. It’s a surprisingly good start, but if the league is going to insist on keeping these awful Thursday night games they need to make sure the teams playing in them are coming off a bye. I’m tired of seeing both teams come out flat after an absurdly short turnaround.

  26. Who really watches the lame, slow, lazy Thursday night games. the players are still tired and sore from a four day turnaround to play. If the NFL actually cared about safety instead on MONEY these games would be gone……

  27. The inactive list exists to mitigate the impact of injuries. If both teams can dress 53, then a fully healthy team has an even greater advantage over a beat up team.

  29. Expand the rosters to 56, with 53 actives for all games. That reduces the practice squads back to 7, which is reasonable. 46 isn’t enough for the modern NFL

  30. Eliminate the inactive list entirely. Seven players sit and do nothing every game while still getting paid. And they still travel on away games unless they’re injured.

    And get rid of Thursday games too except for opening week and Thanksgiving.

  32. Get rid of TNF? You all are CRAZY.

    THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL CAN BECOME THE GAME OF THE WEEK!

    To do this, the NFL needs to go back to the DOUBLE BYE schedule. One normal bye week, one where it preceeds the Thursday night game.

    Then BOTH teams would have 10 days to prepare.

    The NFL could make this a featured game, knowing that both teams will be well rested, well prepared, and relatively healthy.

    The fans would get a premiere game on Thursday nights, and also a week longer NFL season. That also helps players by having two more weeks with extra time to recover over the course of the season. And the TV networks get another week to air NFL games.

    WIN-WIN-WIN

  33. Those who are calling for bye weeks prior to Thursday night games are missing something. The benefit of a bye week is that you can rest your team while your opponent (usually) can’t. If you and your Thursday night opponent are always getting bye weeks at the same time, there’s no more competitive edge.

  34. Isn’t this the NFL pretty much admitting that the short rest week is more dangerous to the players and unfair to the teams playing? By having to create special rules just for these game tells me that they know there’s an issue with injuries, lack of competition, unfair advantage or a little of all three. And just why should certain games have rules that other regular games don’t get to enjoy? It’s either the rule, or it’s not. Thank God Goodell isn’t in charge of writing laws…

  35. Can’t we just blame those that are really at fault here?????

    How dare Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday not have games every week?

    Those days need to step up their game.

  36. I’ve never understood why there is an inactive list to begin with.

    What possible reason is there for not dressing all 53 players for a game as violent as professional football?

  37. With mounting injuries every year the NFL should do away with the inactive list all together. If 53 guys make your squad, they should be able to play Thursday or Sunday…I know most if not all of the NFL coaches are in favor of it.

  38. Here’s a MUCH better idea… why don’t you just dump the Thursday night game… they are horrid and boring… and honestly I barely watch Monday games… Thursday games never. You have watered down the league way too much…

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