It is cutdown day in the NFL. Let’s talk about the key things to know.
The Basics
The Jets need to cut their roster to 53 players by 4:00 pm Eastern. This will mostly be done by releasing players.
What happens to the players the Jets cut?
It depends on how much experience they have. For players with more than four years of time in the NFL, the process is simple. Their contract is immediately terminated, and they become free agents. They can sign a new contract with any team.
Players with less than four years of experience have less control over their
own destiny. They are subject to the waiver process. Every team in the NFL gets a chance to claim them off waivers. If any of the 31 teams decides to put in a claim, that player and his Jets contract are transferred to the new team. It’s essentially like trading for a player and giving up nothing in return.
If more than one team puts in a claim on a particular player, that player goes to the team that had a higher pick in the first round of the NFL Draft (which obviously is a mechanism to help bad teams).
To answer a question we get frequently, no a team does not go to the back of the line in waiver wire priority after it claims one player. It doesn’t work like your fantasy league. The priority remains the NFL Draft order whether a team claims zero players or ten players. (A few weeks into the regular season the priority order does become based on the league standings, though.)
If no team claims a player off waivers, then the player becomes a free agent. His contract is terminated, and he becomes free to sign a new deal with another team or (more likely) a practice squad. We will have more information on practice squads in a future article.
So the Jets can claim young players who are cut by other teams?
Yes, and I would argue that they should be very active placing waiver claims considering the relative weakness of the roster and lack of depth in key areas. Just remember that if the Jets are awarded a player off waivers, they will need to clear a roster spot for that player.
The league usually announces all cutdown day waiver claims at once the following afternoon. This sets off another round of corresponding cuts. Those players can then be claimed, and additional cuts need to be made to clear roster space.
All of this is to say the initial 53 man roster is just that, initial. There is a good chance there will be changes between 4:00 pm Eastern today and Week 1.
Is there anything else to know?
The path to 53 players doesn’t need to come purely from cuts.
The Jets can put injured players onto injured reserve. This would keep them on the team. They could not sign or be claimed anywhere else. They also would not count against the 53 man roster. They just would not be able to play in the first four games. The Jets would also need to clear a roster spot once that player was ready to rejoin the team.
Irv Charles is the one Jets player still on the Physically Unable to Perform list. This list is comprised of players who were unable to practice at the start of training camp because of a previously suffered football injury. There was no cost to keeping Charles on the list through training camp. Today the Jets need to make a decision. If Charles remains on the list after 4:00 pm Eastern today, he will need to miss at least the first four regular season games. He will, however, remain part of the team and not count against the 53 man roster.
The Jets will also likely be looking to trade players who are on the verge of being cut. It’s better to get something in return for a player who is going to be gone either way than cutting him and getting nothing. So don’t expect the Jets to announce their roster anytime before the deadline. They will be working the phones up to 4:00.
