Number of picks surviving the Turk up a tad this year … It took longer than we hoped, but we have finally got all the cuts from today’s roster deadline transaction. Of course, 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, the number of players selected at the 2024 draft who were released as teams set team’s initial rosters was up somewhat from the last couple of years. This year, for example, again according to our still somewhat unofficial tally 24 players selected this past spring were released prior to the deadline. In contrast, just 16 had been released by this time last year, while the figure was 17 in 2022, by far the lowest totals since the league went to a 7-round draft back in 1994. In fact, this year’s total is more in line with that from the previous 5-year period when around 25 drafted rookies were axed each year. On the other hand, this year’s total is below that from the middle of the last decade when 30 or more picks did not make their team’s initial 53-man roster on an annual basis. In 2017, for example, 30 draft picks were released prior to the start of the season, 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.
