The NFL deadline for the cut-down to 53 man roster is September 4th. A handful of days later the NFL season gets kicked off.NFL Schedule:
September 4 - Roster cutdown to maximum of 53 players.
We'll use that same deadline for our teams to get down to 53 (but use end of day on the 4th so you know which guys were kept in reality). The extra time before our sim will allow me to single out teams that maybe are inactive or need GM replacing with some time to do that before our sim season starts.
I'll be working to get 1st round draft pick signing functionality up today, as well as soon updating the league universe of players, player grades (as posted at ESPN for Madden rankings), and list of retirements/suspensions and position flexibility if there are changes to the official NFL roster listed positions (as well as going through some old message I have for position requests) in preparations for the new season as the actual NFL rosters for this year take shape. I'll also soon take another crack at getting all the remaining draft picks signed to prevent unrealistic low round holdouts. The depth chart will probably be altered a little also per some off-season discussions to get more players involved (not just one designated kick returner all game, etc.)
The season is getting closer. I don't believe our sim teams need to make final roster decisions about which backup LB to keep before the NFL makes their decisions (as who is kept or not in reality is often very important to who we'd want to keep -- as are pre-season games where guys like that get more opportunities to showcase themselves), but the real decisions will be made soon and ours immediately upon theirs.
Let's start to get ready for some regular season football coming soon. Roster cut down to final 53 less than 10 days away...