All 32 NFL teams have until 6 p.m. ET Sunday to trim rosters from 90 players to 53. Do the math: that's about 1,184 players out of work by the deadline. CBS Sports' cut tracker is following every reported move for every team, and the list will keep updating as the afternoon goes on.
The NFL moved this year's final cutdown up from the league's traditional late-August slot. For decades, the last wave of cuts came after the fourth preseason game, leaving players scrambling to catch on a week before the opener. Now the deadline lands on Aug. 30, giving released players a full week to find a new home and practice before Week 1.
The 53-man limit has been the standard for a long time, but the path to it keeps changing. Teams used to cut in stages. Now it's a one-day event, and the waiver wire becomes the most important transaction board in sports.
Watch the names that get waived in the final hour. The most intriguing cuts aren't always the oldest. Teams sometimes hope an undrafted rookie slips through, then he gets claimed by a competitor and becomes a rotational piece by Thanksgiving.
The tracker matters because cutdown day is where careers quietly turn. A player who's on the street at 5:59 p.m. can be on a 53-man roster by Tuesday morning. The winner isn't the team that makes the cleanest cuts. It's the team that knows which just-released player to claim first. That's where the season can be won.
