The NFL has approved a new rule this season that will mean a brutal day for players hoping to realise their dreams of making it onto a team.
It was confirmed this off-season that the league would be changing it's roster cutdown days - and that teams will now trim their roster from 90 to 53 in a single cut down. This has been changed from teams initially having to trim their rosters by a few players at a time by a number of different cut dates throughout the preseason.
Now, however, players will be able to go from the full slate of 90 players on the pre-season roster down to their 53-man regular season roster on a single day. That date has now been confirmed as August 29, with 3pm Central Time the deadline for those cuts to take place.
The result is likely to be the most brutal cut day the NFL has seen. Over 1,100 players will see their dreams crushed between the third and final preseason game and that new deadline. Previously, the number being cut on the notoriously brutal final day would have been a lot lower with dozens released before that date.
Teams can still release players when they see fit to do so, but without having to meet reduced roster requirements before certain dates, it is likely most decisions will wait until the last possible moment. Each team is likely to now keep 90 players throughout the pre-season, with organisations not usually playing their starting or important role players too much prior to the campaign beginning to prevent risking injuries before the year has even begun.
And while that will give players more opportunities to shine in their bid to make an NFL roster, it will mean that there will be some brutal cut days for teams across the leagues - potentially having to tell 37 different players on the same day that they are being let go.
For each team who feature on the NFL's show Hard Knocks, that's usually one of the more highly-anticipated episodes - where players wait to be told whether they would be making the roster - instantly setting themselves up financially.
Players on the practice squad and throughout the off-season typically make around $7,000 per week - while players who make the 53-man roster will be given a minimum salary of $750,000 per year.
For those who do not make the team, it can be their last chance in making it in the sport - with some moving to Canada or the European leagues, while others have given up the sport completely.
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith was almost one player to not make the 53-man roster in 2019, when he battled for a back-up spot with former first-round quarterback Paxton Lynch. Smith recently admitted that he feared he would be out of the NFL at around that time, but went on to become a starter and Pro Bowl quarterback three years later.
