Some NFL Players on a roster only have 11 more days to prove they belong
NFL players on a roster do not have a lot of time to prove they belong. A matter of fact, many players playing the pre-season games tonight are not playing for their team only. They are playing for all 32 teams in the league. With that being said here are some important dates to mark on your calendar. 11 more days and the first major roster cut happens. The NFL will go from 2,880 players to 2400 players. That means that 480 players will be without a job. By September 5th, rosters will be down to 1,696 players. That leaves 1,184 players battling it out for 32o practice squad eligible spots on a roster. That means 2,016 players will have a job in the NFL on September 6th. So players remember these numbers and do your best in the next couple pre-season games.
- September 1: 3 p.m. (CDT) deadline for teams to reduce their rosters to 75 players.
- September 5: 3 p.m. (CDT) deadline for teams to reduce their rosters to 53 players.
- September 6: Players released the day prior can be claimed on waivers by other teams until 11 a.m. (CDT). After 11 a.m. (CDT), those players are effectively free agents. At this same time, practice squads can start being formed for each NFL team.
- September 6: 3 p.m. (CDT) deadline for players to be placed on Reserve/Injured as “Designated for Return.”
- October 19: Clubs are permitted to begin practicing players on the Reserve/Physically Unable to Perform and Reserve/Non-Football Injury or Illness for a period not to exceed 21 days.
- November 2: Clubs are permitted to return players to the Active/Inactive list provided the player has been on the Reserve/Injured list for at least 8 weeks.
- November 3: The NFL’s trade deadline expires at 3 p.m. (CST).
NFL Draft Diamonds was created to assist the underdogs playing the sport. We call them diamonds in the rough. My name is Damond Talbot, I have worked extremely hard to help hundreds of small school players over the past several years, and will continue my mission. We have several contributors on this site, and if they contribute their name and contact will be in the piece above. You can email me at nfldraftdiamonds@gmail.com