Brandon Scherff to IR

September 22, 2020

by Steve Thomas

Washington announced this morning that Pro Bowl guard Brandon Scherff has been placed on the injured reserve list.  Scherff suffered an MCL sprain in his right knee during Sunday’s loss to the Arizona Cardinals.

The NFL’s injured reserve list rules were significantly changed for the 2020 season as a result of the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. For this year only, players placed on injured reserve are allowed to start practicing again after just 3 weeks instead of the usual 8 weeks as established by the collective bargaining agreement.  At that point, the team then has up to 21 days to decide whether to return him to the active roster.

Therefore, Scherff must miss this weekend’s game against the Browns, plus the Ravens game on October 4 and the Rams on October 11.  He will be allowed to return to practice during the prep week for the away game against the Giants on October 18. However, the team will not be required to make a decision as to whether to bring Scherff back onto the active roster until as late as after the bye week in week 8, although they could choose to do so at any time after October 13.

Third year wide receiver Cam Sims was promoted to the active roster in place of Scherff.