This first of three roster cuts is fast approaching, with the Dallas Cowboys and the other 31 NFL clubs having until Tuesday, August 17 at 3:00 p.m. central to let players know of their fate. Each team will need to remove five players from their 90-man offseason roster this week and then again next Tuesday before the final paring down happens. That will bring the rosters down from 80 to 53 players.
While there’s a lot of fan interest in the moves, most of the time the players who are seeing their NFL dreams end are guys at the bottom of the roster. For the most part, NFL clubs have 40-45 players they know are going to make the roster at the end and then have about 12-15 guys vying for the final eight slots. Injuries play a role, of course, but most of the decision making tends to come down to who is going to be able to help out the most on special teams.
There are always exceptions though, and while the chances a big name has something happen by Tuesday are slim to none, it would be egregious not to mention the elephant in the room. Here’s a look at 11 names who could end up seeing the Turk on next week’s episode of Hard Knocks.