While the Pittsburgh Steelers 90-man offseason roster is sure to undergo quite a few changes throughout the remainder of the summer, a new resolution passed on Tuesday by NFL owners now means they’ll carry 90 active players through their final preseason game against the Carolina Panthers.
According to several NFL reporters, owners passed a resolution on Tuesday that now eliminates teams having to trim their 90-man rosters down to 75 players following the fourth week of the preseason, which for all but the two NFL teams who play in the annual Hall of Fame game, is after their third preseason game. In short, teams will now trim their active 90-man rosters down to 53 players after their final preseason game.
This is a welcomed move by the NFL owners as not only will it give several players one extra week to prove they belong on a 53-man roster or 10-man practice squad, it will also likely result in several other players who are deemed as roster locks being able to completely sit out a team’s preseason finale should that be necessary.
While preseason finales were already viewed by many fans as being pretty much unwatchable ahead of Tuesdays rule change, teams keeping an extra 15 players one additional week won’t stop me from watching the games and charting them.
On a related note and as expected, owners also passed an overtime rule proposal on Tuesday and that now means that extra periods will be shorted to 10 minutes from the traditional 15.
