Questions about Player Injuries and IR

Q: I have read and heard about an injury to one of my players in Sunday's game. It is now Wednesday and there is no injury designation. When can I expect him to be listed as Doubtful or Out?

Q: Why does my player have a Q (Questionable) for his status for this upcoming week when I know he had surgery last week and should be Out?

Q: How do I put a player on Injured Reserve (IR)?

Q: I have a player that was Suspended. His status is NA and I can't put him on Injured Reserve. Why?

Q: If a player is in a Injured Reserve (IR) slot and he loses his injury designation, is my roster Invalid?

 

Q: I have read and heard about an injury to one of my players in Sunday's game. It is now Wednesday and there is no injury designation. When can I expect him to be listed as Doubtful or Out?
A: The NFL used to require teams to provide initial injury statuses by Wednesday. In 2008, this changed and they began providing us with a "Practice Status" on Wednesday. This status is a link on your Team Home page but players can be Out for practice for many non-injury reasons so we do not attach this status on your players. The NFL now requires initial injury statuses by Friday, except for teams that play on Thursday. Some teams may release statuses earlier in the week, but it is not mandatory to provide them until the end of Friday. We provide the status indicators as soon as we receive them, but it is almost common practice for teams to hide the true status of a player until the last possible moment when they must produce an Active Roster for their game. So, don't be shocked if someone listed as Questionable on Friday ends up Inactive on Sunday. The problem with players who receive no true injury designation and are then marked as Inactive on Sunday is that the teams are not required to send out an additional roster after Friday. Stats.com has been collecting these announcements and feeding them to us before the game starts. Once we receive a file of Inactive players, we will change the status on those players to Out so they can be placed in available IR slots.

Q: Why does my player have a Q (Questionable) for his status for this upcoming week when I know he had surgery last week and should be Out?
A: We receive our Health Status reports from Stats.com who receives them from the NFL. We can only report what we receive. Use your best judgment on starting that player. If you are playing in a league that has been configured with In-game changes, you can always make an adjustment after the game has started for the remaining unplayed slots at that position. Unfortunately, if a player was hurt the week before a Bye week, the team typically won't report player statuses until the Thursday or Friday before their next game.

Q: How do I put a player on Injured Reserve (IR)?
A: Your league must be configured with IR slots to begin with. If it is, your Commissioner designated which status(es) are allowed for use in these slots; Probable, Questionable, Doubtful and/or Out. If status "Out" is the only allowable status to assume an IR slot, then you must have a player that currently has an "O" assigned to him as his health status. We receive these statuses from our stats provider, who receives them from the NFL teams. Some teams are not always truthful about player statuses. We can only use the statuses given to us. Once a player no longer has that status assigned to him, you will not be able to make any roster moves until he is removed from the IR slot.

Q: I have a player that was Suspended. His status is NA and I can't put him on Injured Reserve. Why?
A: Players that are Suspended are Not Active. Since they are not injured, they do not receive an injury designation, thus they are ineligible for an Injured Reserve slot.

Q: If a player is in a Injured Reserve (IR) slot and he loses his injury designation, is my roster Invalid?
A: While it violates the integrity of the game, we will not invalidate any rosters. Player statuses can change multiple times after the statuses are released by their teams, so we do not want to punish any team who has a player whose status changed just before the game. However, we will not let a team make any roster adjustments while a player occupies an IR slot without an appropriate injury status until that player is moved from the IR slot to a starting or bench slot.