Over the next four days, each NFL team will make hard choices to get down from their current 80-man lists to initial regular season 53-man rosters to take into Week 1. Our site is keeping tabs on the Lions’ moves all weekend with a live tracking article, but the timing this year is a little more complicated than normal for teams due to COVID precautions. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero posted a schedule to Twitter that was sent by the league to all teams.
The NFL will allow players released today and tomorrow to stay in team hotels and tested for COVID-19 through Monday, as practice squads, IR moves and other transactions are sorted out. Waiver claims are due at noon Sunday. Here’s the full breakdown that went out to clubs: pic.twitter.com/6fguW7dzPW
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) September 4, 2020
A couple of interesting things to notice in the last column pertain directly to COVID precautions: players will be staying at the team hotels and can be tested all the way through the end of Labor Day weekend.
For the purposes of 53-man roster watching, though, what’s really interesting is the detail provided for Sunday’s three league notices. While the transaction deadline to actually name 53 players to be on initial rosters is 4 p.m. ET on Saturday (at which time the Lions must also declare what they are doing with Austin Bryant), processing of released players does not actually happen until Noon on Sunday.
As we wait for Lions roster cuts to come in, it's almost guaranteed that Detroit will clear out 2 roster spots with:
— Jeremy Reisman (@DetroitOnLion) September 4, 2020
- Jayron Kearse to Reserve/Suspended list
- Austin Bryant to Reserve/PUP
Both currently count against the 80-man roster, but won't for the 53.
At that point on Sunday, all teams simultaneously find out which waiver claims were successful and have only one hour to make an offsetting move to clear a roster spot. Considering all teams would have just cut their rosters down to 53 players the day before, it is unlikely any team being awarded a waiver claim will already have an open spot waiting for an awarded player.
The other important aspect of the Notice #1 transaction processing is that players announced as cuts on Saturday actually become unaffiliated players eligible to then sign with any team to a practice squad. Remember: all players including veterans can be signed to practice squads this year.
For the conscientious Lions fan, then, the big rushes of information will come at Saturday 4 p.m. ET (53-man deadline) and Sunday at 1 p.m. (practice squad signings start to appear). Practice squads should be finalized for all teams by the time Monday’s 4 p.m. notice rolls out.
An oddity on the text for the last day is the point about designation for return: there is no limit on the number of players that can return from the Reserve/Injured list in 2020. It will be interesting to see whether or not the Lions actually have to designate either of their two players on injured reserve (fullback Nick Bawden and defensive lineman Jashon Cornell) as an official transaction when the Monday notice flips that switch or if it’s just assumed that all IR players are “designated.”
It’s going to be a busy weekend, so we hope to see you in the tracker and on the site to trade hot takes on all of the team’s roster moves. Now, on to the rest of today’s Notes:
- NFL Network and YouTube TV reached a carriage agreement announced yesterday on the league’s official website. NFL Network will become part of the regular YouTube TV package while NFL RedZone will be included with the service’s new Sports Plus add-on (which will cost an additional $11 per month).
- From MLive’s Lee Thompson, the Minnesota Vikings waived former Lions sixth-round pick and annihilator of trees Anthony Zettel on Thursday.
- Earlier in the week, our fearless leader Jeremy Reisman wrote about the roster rule changes in place for 2020 and how they might affect the Lions. Turns out there was another one he could have included:
I somehow missed the time limit being reduced from 6 weeks on IR to 3.
— Jeremy Reisman (@DetroitOnLion) September 4, 2020
Could affect a guy like Hunter Bryant if the Lions go that route with him. https://t.co/JtdDK5dRJb
- According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the league will control what pre-recorded audio teams may play in their stadiums to simulate fan noise. The curated noise files may not be played by teams through their PA systems above 70 decibels and any other audio they would have normally played in the presence of fans may not combine with the curated audio to exceed 75 decibels.
Purdue University compares 70 decibels to: "Passenger car at 65 mph at 25 ft (77 dB); freeway at 50 ft from pavement edge 10 a.m. (76 dB). Living room music (76 dB); radio or TV-audio, vacuum cleaner (70 dB)." https://t.co/cpMVOwBucw https://t.co/U5G0KrxacA
— Benjamin Raven (@BenjaminSRaven) September 4, 2020
- Starting center Frank Ragnow has been teasing that new content is arriving on his YouTube channel Grizzly Man Outdoors for the past few days. Now we know that whatever the new video is, it is going to be posted at 6 pm.
- The Athletic’s Chris Burke spoke to Jeff Okudah about how reading sparked a “Quest of Enlightenment” (subscription required) for the rookie:
We heard all summer about Jeff Okudah’s willingess to learn and ask questions during Lions team meetings.
— Chris Burke (@ChrisBurkeNFL) September 4, 2020
Here, he dives into why he thinks his mind works the way it does:https://t.co/5tgwJnLqwB pic.twitter.com/wl3Ta5SfgA
- Almost every day, the official league Twitter account has been posting a new #NFLVotes post quoting a player on the importance of voting. Today’s post featured Lions tackle Tyrell Crosby:
.@Tyrellcrosby wants young voters to be heard. #NFLVotes pic.twitter.com/XWRV4MAIQp
— NFL (@NFL) September 4, 2020