NFL teams must cut their rosters from 90 players to 53 by 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday, August 27. Over the next 48 hours, all 32 teams will combine to make more than 1,200 trades as they try to assemble a group that will help them launch a Super Bowl run.
Some teams like the Buffalo Bills, who released seven players on Sunday, have already begun the process of cutting their rosters.
Follow the movements with The AthleticTracking NFL roster cuts.
Here’s everything you need to know about the discount day:
What is the same thing?
As is the case every year, teams will have to reduce their rosters to 53 men, either by buying, trading, waiving, releasing or placing players on the PUP, NFI or injured reserve lists before 4 p.m. ET.
What’s different?
A new NFL rule will eliminate some roster manipulation on cut day (Tuesday). In the past, if a team wanted to place a player on injured reserve and keep the possibility of a midseason return alive, he had to be on the initial 53-man roster and then moved to injured reserve the next day.
This forced teams to release a player and then re-sign him the next day after the IR change.
Under the new rule, teams can place two players on injured reserve on the day of the cut and designate them to return. Teams will not need to go through the step of keeping the player on the 53-man roster for a day before placing him on injured reserve.
The problem is that both of those players will count against the cap of eight players who can return from IR during the season. If a high-profile player is injured and has to miss at least the first four games, it would make sense to take advantage of the new rule.
But teams can still favor the old method with players lower on the depth chart. That way, they can move the player to IR for the first four weeks the day after cuts and not be forced to use one of the return spots on that player.
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(Photo: Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
