Late cutdown day notes

September 1, 2021

Late cutdown day notes … All teams, of course, are now down to the NFL’s 53-man roster limit after a busy day yesterday. There were a couple of minor deals along the way that we neglected to report. In one, the LA Rams sent P Corey Bojorquez to Green Bay in a deal in which the Rams will get the Packers 6th round pick in 2023 and the Packers get the Rams 7th. In the other, Seattle released CB John Reid, whom they had acquired for  conditional pick in 2023  from Houston, in getting down to the limit yesterday which negated that trade.

Of course, just because teams are down to the 53-man limit doesn’t mean that everyone now is going to just sit back and wait for the season to start. Players who were released yesterday have until noon ET today to clear waivers and then can be signed anywhere so we can expect teams to do some tinkering to their rosters over the next few days. Teams can also start to sign their 16-man practice squads once the waiver period has expired.

For the record, embattled QB DeShaun Watson DID NOT get traded yesterday and IS included on Houston’s 53-man roster, but it is believed that talks are ongoing with at least Miami over a possible deal. Stay tuned. Meanwhile, the biggest shock release yesterday was the fact that New England outright released QB Cam Newton. It will be fascinating to see over the next few days to see where he ends up. Indeed, hands up everyone who had QB Josh Rosen on an NFL roster at the end of the day – he made the Atlanta 53-man – and Newton a free agent!

We are still working the numbers, but the early returns are that the 2021 draft class did pretty well when it comes to making a roster. Our preliminary count is that only 22 or so rookie draftees didn’t make their original teams 5-3 man roster which would be low by historical standards. We’ll have a full breakdown of the numbers once we have them all processed.