By 4:00 pm EDT on Saturday 5 September, NFL rosters have to be cut to 53 players. In the day or so that follows, 16-player practice squads can be formed. For each team, of the 80 players in camp, as many as 11 will get really bad news (though injury/COVID reserve lists mean that some teams might release less than 11 guys). On thing this means is that the bloodbath on cut down day won’t be as extensive this year. More NFL players than ever before — 69 per team — will have jobs when the season starts, and with ten fewer players in camp (80 instead of 90), that means fewer difficult decisions for the coaches to have to make.
One week to 53
