Sunday, August 30th is a big day for the NFL this year. In 2026, the league has set the deadline for teams to cut their rosters down from 90 players to 53 for Sunday at 6:00 PM Eastern Time (5:00 Central), an odd time compared to recent deadlines. Recent years have seen the league require cuts come in on the Tuesday following the final week of preseason games, giving front offices a few extra days.
This year, however, the league’s decision to hold a game in Australia in week one led it to push the cutdown
date a bit earlier. Green Bay Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst revealed that in a press conference earlier this week, noting that while not a fan of the shift, there’s not really anything he or the other 31 GMs around the league can do about it.
That means that the Packers will have a little less than 48 hours from the completion of their final preseason game (around 10 PM Central on Friday night) to the cut-down deadline. Here at Acme Packing Company, we will be following along with all of the Packers’ moves to get from 90 to 53, which will include releases, players going on the reserve/PUP list, and more.
The Reserve/Physically Unable to Perform list is one mechanism for teams to keep players on their roster in a reserve role if they failed a physical exam before training camp, went on the active/PUP list to start camp, and stayed there all summer long. Players who go on reserve/PUP to start the regular season do not count against the 53-man limit, but they may not be activated until after their team’s fourth regular season game, though they can start practicing after two games have passed.
The Packers have four players still on the active/PUP who are eligible for the reserve/PUP to start the season: Luke Musgrave, Matt Orzech, Micah Parsons, and Jordon Riley. Parsons has generally been targeting the Packers’ week 6 game against his old team, the Dallas Cowboys, for his return. Perhaps surprisingly, he is not seen as one of the favorites to win the NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year award; FanDuel sportsbook has his odds at just +3500, good for 10th in the NFL. That slots in behind teammate Tucker Kraft (7th, +2700), while a host of quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes, Kyler Murray, and Jayden Daniels lead the way.
Stay tuned here for news on the Packers’ roster as it is revealed.
Players to be waived
- None so far
Reports of bubble players who have made the initial 53-man roster
- None so far
