Record number of picks survive the Turk … All 32 teams from around the NFL have now gotten down to their opening day 53-man rosters, and while there will still be plenty of roster tweaks around the league before the regular season kicks off in just under two weeks, but for now, at least according to our unofficial numbers, a record low number of players selected at the 2023 draft were released as teams set team’s initial rosters. Indeed, just 16 players selected this past spring were released prior to the deadline. That’s just below last year’s record of 17 and well under the total in the previous 5-year period when around 25 drafted rookies were axed each year. And those figures for the past two years were by far the lowest since the league went to a 7-round draft back in 1994. As recently as 2017, for example, 30 draft picks did not make their team’s initial 53-man roster, while the figures were 33 in 2015 and 36 in 2014.
At the same time, relatively few rookie picks ended up on reserve list like injured reserve, the Non-football injury list and the Physically-unable-to-perform list. This year, for example, just 10 players selected at this year’s draft ended up one one of those lists, compared with 20 in 2022.
The other thing that kind of jumps out about this year’s draft class is that only two players selected within the first 5 rounds was released prior to today’s deadline. They were CBs Darius Rush and Kyu Kelly, who were 5th round picks by Indianapolis and Baltimore respectively this past April. In comparison, as recently as 2021, 5 5th rounders did not make their opening roster as did one from the 4th. Indeed, it wasn’t all that unusual in the past for the highest player released to come as early as somewhere on the second day. That said, several players taken in the early were placed on a reserve list including four third rounders. although two of those – Detroit QB Hendon Hooker and Arizona CB Garrett Williams – were injured coming into the process.
Overall, almost (14) of the league’s 32 teams kept all of their 2023 draft picks on the roster to start the season, while another 8 did place at least one pick on a reserve list.
