Raiders waive James Cowser with injury settlement

That didn’t take long. Exactly a week after the team had placed undrafted rookie James Cowser on injured reserve, the two sides have reached an injury settlement and waived him.

Should Cowser clear waivers, he would become an unrestricted free agent, able to sign anywhere.

Injury settlements are for an undisclosed number of weeks, agreed upon by both sides, usually according to how long they think the player would have taken to recover from the injury. Cowser’s injury was said to be a concussion.

Reaching an Injury settlement with Cowser also gives the Raiders a chance at getting him back this season should they choose to do so. However, the team can’t resign him until a minimum of six weeks passes following the amount of weeks of the initial settlement.

UPDATE: The six week rule was changed this offseason. It is now 3 weeks.

So, for instance, if the settlement was for three games, he can’t return to the team until after week six.

Other teams may sign Cowser at any time, with the understanding that if there were still time left on his injury settlement, it would offset the settlement amount.