Steelers' roster cutdown day looms, Mike Tomlin takes stock
So many of the circumstances surrounding it have changed. But among the items on the NFL calendar that remained at the same time on the same day and with the same potentially life-altering consequences for those involved is “cutdown day.”
Cutdown day remains the Saturday before Labor Day at 4 p.m. And with an abbreviated training camp, and no in-person offseason program nor preseason games, that task takes on a different feel in 2020 than in more typical years.
“I feel like I have enough information to make decisions — and that’s a good thing, because it’s time to make decisions,” Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said via video conference call after practice Friday. “And so we will push forward. I thought we made good use of the time that was provided in terms of the work allotted.”
The Steelers, like all NFL teams, will chop an 80-man roster to 53. On Sunday, once all those who were released go through waivers, a 16-man practice squad will be named.
In non-pandemic years, the camp roster was at 90. And because of the new collective bargaining agreement ratified in the spring, the size of the practice squad has increased. Additionally, per the new CBA, practice-squad eligibility was tweaked and two aspects were added: Each team can protect four practice-squad players from being poached by other teams between Wednesday and game day of that week, and each game a team can “call up” two practice-squad players to be part of a 46-man gameday roster for play.
Is this cutdown day different than ones in the past as a result?
“It is different for all of those reasons,” Tomlin said. “There are things to consider regarding those things and discussions to be had. But we have been in that process and in that mindset and in that acknowledgment for some time now.”
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Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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