NFL teams must trim their rosters to 53 players by 6 p.m. ET on Sunday, Aug. 30, and the league’s annual cutdown deadline is already doing what big institutions do best: deciding, from the top, who gets to stay and who gets dumped. All 32 clubs started with 90 players apiece, leaving a minimum of 1,184 potential roster spots to disappear overnight. That’s the machinery. Clean, brutal, and perfectly legal inside the league’s own rules.
Who Gets Cut Loose
Players released can land on practice squads days later, and some can be claimed by other teams before the 2026 NFL season. Players with four or fewer accrued seasons are subject to waivers, while veteran players with at least four accrued seasons are outright released and become free agents immediately. The league calls it roster management. For the players, it’s a forced shuffle through a system that treats labor like inventory.
The Athletic reported that superstar defensive end Aaron Donald is coming out of retirement to rejoin the Rams and team up with Myles Garrett. It also reported that Packers running back Josh Jacobs and Broncos edge rusher Jonathon Cooper have been placed on the NFL’s Commissioner Exempt List. Those are the names at the top of the pile, the ones whose movement gets headlines while the rest of the league gets sorted into waivers, releases, and maybe a practice squad if the numbers work out.
USA TODAY Sports said the Jaguars traded for Miami Dolphins quarterback Quinn Ewers, the Cowboys acquired veteran offensive tackle Broderick Jones from the Steelers, the Dolphins acquired Kyle McCord from the Packers for a sixth-round pick, the Steelers traded Kaleb Johnson to the Packers, the Jets are acquiring C Jordan Meredith and a 2029 seventh-round pick from the Raiders for a 2027 sixth-round pick, the Falcons are acquiring DT Gervon Dexter Sr. from the Bears for Clark Phillips III and a fifth-round pick, the Cardinals are acquiring TE Hunter Long and a 2028 seventh-round pick for a 2028 sixth-round pick, the Texans are acquiring backup OT Nate Thomas from the Cowboys, the 49ers are acquiring OL Jarrett Patterson from the Texans, and the Patriots are acquiring OT Walter Rouse from the Vikings. The trade market keeps moving while the cut list grows. Same league, same hierarchy, different paperwork.
The People on the Bottom
USA TODAY Sports listed cuts and waivers across the league, including Atlanta Falcons DT Eric Johnson, LB Channing Tindall and G Brandon Walton; Baltimore Ravens G Evan Beerntsen, C Nick Dawkins, DL Aaron Graves, WR Cornelius Johnson, LB Jamon Johnson, CB Robert Longerbeam, RB Dontae McMillan, WR Chris Moore, QB Austin Reed, LB Kaimon Rucker, F Lucas Scott, WR Octavian Smith, RB Jonathan Ward, CB Lardarius Webb Jr., DL Dion Wilson Jr. and LB Reid Williford; Buffalo Bills WR Mac Dalena, OLB Cade Denhoff, CB Jordan Dunbar, G Bruno Fina, ILB Theron Gaines, WR Mecole Hardman Jr., C Sincere Haynesworth, DL Zion Logue, CB D.J. Miller, S Wande Owens, WR Dante Pettis, LB Otis Reese IV, WR Quentin Skinner and TE Shane Zylstra; Carolina Panthers DT Kyon Barrs, WR Elijah Cooks, RB Miles Davis, DT Tywone Malone, TE Caden Prieskorn, WR Roc Taylor, T Ryan Hayes (waived-injured) and WR Dan Chisena; Cleveland Browns CB Tre Avery, TE Brenden Bates, TE Drew Biber, T Jeremiah Byers, P Nik Constantinou, S Christopher Edmonds, CB Nate Evans, CB Tyler Hall, DT Coziah Izzard, DT Patrick Jenkins, CB Jeremiah McClendon, T Izavion Miller, DE Jamil Muhammad, WR Ben Patterson, OT Tyre Phillips, TE Jack Stoll (from IR), TE Jermaine Terry II and WR Cedric Tillman; Denver Broncos WR Kyre Duplessis; Miami Dolphins CB Alex Austin, RB Coleman Bennett, OT Kevin Cline, EDGE Seth Coleman-Lyles, TE Ethan Conner, ILB Stephen Dix Jr., RB Donovan Edwards, DL Alex Huntley, S Louis Moore, DL Cam Rice, ILB Jaheim Thomas and WR Theo Wease Jr.; New England Patriots RB Hassan Haskins; New York Giants RB Dante Miller, CB Ugo Amadi, RB Damon Bankston, TE Josiah Deguara, DL Leki Fotu, WR Isaiah Hodgins, OL Brenden Jaimes, LB Anfernee Orji and WR Kobe Prentice; New York Jets LB Kobe King, DE Nathan Voorhis, DT Mazi Smith and QB Bailey Zappe; Philadelphia Eagles WR Brandon Hayes and OT Myles Hinton; Pittsburgh Steelers TE Jaheim Bell, LB Jamin Davis, OL Greg Crippen, DB Jaylon Guilbeau, DB Jack Henderson, DB Brandon Hill, WR Jakobie Keeney-James, DB Tamon Lynum, DB Daryl Porter, WR Cornell Powell, RB Alex Tecza and WR Isaiah Winstead; and Seattle Seahawks LB Joseph Vaughn. The list reads like a labor purge because that’s what it is: a mass culling from a billion-dollar apparatus that never has to explain itself to the people it discards.
What the League Calls Order
The Athletic also reported that the Panthers are releasing QB Kyle Trask, that the Packers have released safety Mark Perry, that the Chiefs have cut wide receiver Xavier Lloyd, that the Bills are trading OL Sedrick Van Pran-Granger to the Colts along with a 2027 seventh-round pick for a 2027 sixth-round pick, and that the Bills intend to waive WR Stephen Gosnell. It said the Buccaneers will keep undrafted free agent Jalon Daniels as their backup quarterback behind Baker Mayfield after he beat out veteran Jake Browning for the QB2 job in Tampa Bay. The Athletic also said the Bears traded defensive tackle Gervon Dexter to the Falcons on Sunday morning for cornerback Clark Phillips plus a Day 3 pick for next spring, and that the Bears' decision reflected confidence in Kentavius Street, rookie Jordan van den Berg, Grady Jarrett, Neville Gallimore, undrafted rookie Jayden Loving and veteran James Lynch.
The Athletic explained that teams must have their rosters trimmed to 53 players by 6 p.m. ET Sunday, and that if a team trimmed its roster to fewer than 53 players and claims a player waived by another team by Monday’s deadline, it must make a corresponding move to stay in compliance. It said teams that claim a player must make room for him on the 53-man roster and cannot claim a player and place him directly on the practice squad. It also said the waiver claim order is based on the year’s original NFL Draft order through the preseason and first three weeks of the regular season, that the Las Vegas Raiders will have the first chance at any player waived this year, that teams have until 1 p.m. ET Monday to put in claims, that if a player clears waivers he becomes a free agent and can sign with any team including the practice squad of the team that cut him, and that teams can typically sign 16 players to the practice squad with a 17th allowed if he is part of the league’s International Player Pathway program.
The Athletic said the NFL defines an accrued season as spending at least six games on a team’s 53-man roster, physically unable to perform list or injured reserve. It said players who enter the season on the PUP list must miss the first four games, but can start practicing after the Week 2 game under a new 2026 rule. It said teams may designate two players on cutdown day to return from injured reserve after a minimum of four games without counting them toward the 53-man roster initially, while other players who are to return from IR must first make the 53-man roster and then be placed on IR the following day. It said teams can designate up to eight players to return from IR during the regular season, with two additional IR-to-return slots if they make the playoffs, and that players placed on IR before or on cutdown day without a return designation are out for the season.
The Athletic also said 29 players were claimed off waivers on cutdown day last year, with the Tennessee Titans picking up four, and 27 players were claimed in 2024, with the Carolina Panthers picking up six. It said the Las Vegas Raiders top the claim order this year. The whole setup is a reminder that even in a league built on spectacle, the real power sits with the clubs, the waiver order, and the deadline clock.