NFL Announces 2024 Key Dates, Procedures for Roster Cut-Down, Trade Deadline

The NFL announced key dates for the 2024 regular season on Thursday, including the process for the roster cut down to 53 players at the end of training camp, and the trade deadline later this fall.

This year, as the NFL has done in recent years, the roster cut down will happen in one fell swoop, with league rosters reduced from 90 players to 53 players by 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 27.

The Steelers play their final preseason game on Saturday, Aug. 24 in Detroit against the Lions, so they may make some of their cuts before the deadline, but they will not be mandated to do so. The NFL has gone back and forth between stepped-down cuts and one big jump in years past. The current process allows full rosters for all three preseason games.

For the first time this year, two players will can be placed on the injured reserve list before the Aug. 24 and still be designated to return during the season. Previously, any player added to the IR before the cut-down day was required to miss the entire season. Those players will count against the club’s eight-player maximum number of (10 including the postseason) returns from injured reserve list.

The NFL also announced the new for 2024 trade deadline date will be Nov. 5. That came after a Steelers-led proposal to move the deadline back one week was passed earlier this offseason. The trade deadline had previously been the Tuesday after Week 8, but the Steelers successfully argued that a post-Week 9 deadline is a better fit for a 17-week season.

Other teams had proposed to move the deadline back two weeks, so it may not stay in early November for long. Last year’s trade deadline was Oct. 31. 

NFL KEY DATES FOR 2024 SEASON