The whirlwind: Final cuts, waiver wire and practice squad primer

It’s the final Tuesday of August, and for the Seattle Seahawks and the rest of the NFL that means a tsunami of activity and player movement. Front offices must first trim the roster to 53 before performing post-cuts shuffling while also building out a practice squad. The following are the key deadlines for the coming days as teams prepare for the 2022 season.

Tuesday, August 30, 2022 prior to 4:00 p.m. New York time: All teams must reduce roster to 53 players.

Wednesday, August 31, 2022 prior to 12:00 p.m. New York time: All waiver claims for players waived from August 25, 2022 through August 30 are due. Players who passed through the waiver wire unclaimed become street free agents able to sign with any team or join the practice squad of any team.

Wednesday, August 31, 2022 beginning at 12:01 p.m. New York time: Teams may form a 16 member practice squad, subject to the restrictions of league rules regarding the number of “exception players” and “veteran players” on the squad discussed below.

Wednesday, August 31, 2022 prior to 1:00 p.m. New York time: All teams awarded a player off waivers will be notified prior to 1:00 p.m. Wednesday. Teams awarded a player off waivers have one hour from the time of notification to create the necessary roster spot to accommodate the player awarded off waivers.

Wednesday, August 31, 2022 at 4:00 p.m. New York time: The league will report the transactions teams made to accommodate players awarded via waivers.

Wednesday, August 31, 2022 at 4:01 p.m. New York time: Players placed on injured reserve by their team prior to this time are ineligible to play for the team during the 2022 season. Players placed on injured reserve on or after 4:01 p.m. New York time Wednesday are eligible to be designated to return after spending a minimum of four games on injured reserve.

Wednesday, August 31, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. New York time: The league will report all practice squad transactions which have been reported to the league office.

As for the rules regarding practice squad construction, the 16 members of a practice squad for any given team fall into three categories:

Practice Squad Eligible Players: Players with zero accrued season or with one accrued season in which they were active for fewer than nine regular-season games.
Exception Players: Players with two or fewer accrued seasons
Veteran Players: Teams with three or more accrued seasons

When assembling the sixteen man practice squad, the following requirements exist:

• No more than ten of the players may be exception players and veteran players combined and
• No more than six of the players may be veteran players.

Confused yet? If so, no worries, simply keep checking back with Field Gulls to stay updated on all the moves of the team when it comes