The NFL recently announced important dates for the remainder of 2023. Here are the dates to file away:
- Deadline for franchise-tagged players to sign extensions: 3pm CT, July 17
- Roster cutdown from 90 to 53 players: 3pm CT, August 29
- Post-cutdown waiver claims due: 11am CT, August 30
- Fall owners’ meetings: October 17-18
- NFL trade deadline: 3pm CT, October 31
- Vested veterans, if cut, become subject to waivers: November 1
- Deadline for franchise-tagged players to sign tenders: 3pm CT, November 14
Two of the six players tagged this year — Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson and Commanders defensive tackle Daron Payne — has reached an extension agreement. Tony Pollard is the only other player to sign his franchise tender. Saquon Barkley, Josh Jacobs and Evan Engram have not put pen to paper yet. Pollard, Barkley, Engram and Jacobs will have until July 17 to sign extensions. Absent any deals by July 17, these players must wait until January 2024 to resume negotiations. Teams are still permitted to trade tagged players after July 17, but only if they have signed their tender.
After revisiting the three-tiered cutdown structure over the past two years, the NFL will opt for a late-August transaction flurry. Rather than having teams trim their rosters from 90 to 85 players and then from 85 to 80 and 80 to 53, the league will reintroduce the 90-to-53 cut.
While rumors of the NFL considering moving the trade deadline back from its usual spot — the Tuesday after Week 8 — it is sticking with its modern setup. The rumored talks were to included dialogue about moving the deadline back one or two weeks, seeing as the league has extended its season by a week since slotting the trade date post-Week 8 back in 2012. Major League Baseball and the NBA have their respective trade deadlines beyond the midseason point, but the NFL will stick with its date just before that juncture.
Any vested veteran released before Nov. 1 will pass straight to free agency, which separates this class of player from those without required service time. However, all cuts will be grouped together — with players of any experience level subject to the waiver wire if cut — from Nov. 1 through season’s end.
If Barkley, Jacobs and Engram do not sign their respective tenders by Nov. 14, they will be ineligible to play in 2023. Only one player this century — Le’Veon Bell (2018) — has taken this route, though two did so in the 1990s — Washington defensive lineman Sean Gilbert (1997) and Kansas City D-lineman Dan Williams (’98).