Chiefs Roster: Tracking latest news, moves in the cutdown to 53 players

By 3 p.m. (Arrowhead Time) on Tuesday, the Kansas City Chiefs must cut 38 players from their 90-man active roster in order to get it down to the in-season limit of 53 players.

The team will eventually release a complete list of all of its moves — but until then, news about some of them will trickle out. Here, we’ll track all the roster moves Kansas City is reported to have made.

With each new report, we’re also updating our Chiefs roster page, so you can easily see how many players are left in each position group.

How roster changes are made

When players with fewer than four accrued seasons are cut, they have been waived. (Players acquire an accrued season when they are on a team’s active roster, its Reserve/Injured list or its Reserve/PUP list for at least six games in a given season).

When players with at least four accrued seasons are cut, they have been released. They immediately become free agents.

Waived players may be claimed by another team, which then assumes the balance of their contract. The team that had the most recent draft’s first pick has precedence over waiver claims from all other teams. The team with the most recent draft’s 32nd pick has precedence over waiver claims from no other teams — and so on.

If a waived player isn’t claimed by noon on Wednesday, they become free agents.

Players can also be waived with an injury designation — commonly referred to as waived/injured. If these players go unclaimed, they automatically revert to the team’s Reserve/Injured list.

That is one of three Reserve lists that do not count against the 53-man limit. The other two are the Reserve/PUP (physically-unable-to-perform) and Reserve/NFI (non-football-injury) lists. Players on these lists at the final cutdown must miss at least four regular-season games before being designated for return.

The salaries for players on a team’s Reserve/PUP and Reserve/Injured lists are paid in full (unless there is a contract provision specifying otherwise), and they count against the salary cap. The salaries for players on Reserve/NFI are not paid (unless there is a contract provision specifying otherwise).

Players placed on Reserve/Injured in the offseason (up through the final cutdown day) must miss the whole season. If a player is placed on Reserve/Injured after the final cutdown day, they may be designated for return after they have missed at least four games.

But on final cutdown day, a team may identify up to two players currently on its Reserve/Injured list as being eligible to be treated as if they are placed on Reserve/Injured after the final cutdown.

Teams may make only eight designations for return during a given season — a limit that is extended to 10 if the team appears in the postseason. If a team labels a player as eligible for return at the final cutdown, it counts against this limit — even if the player is never actually designated for return.

Players designated for return from a Reserve list are eligible to practice with the team for up to 21 days. At any time during that period, they may be activated to the roster. If they are not, they must remain on the Reserve list for the remainder of the season.

Finally… players may be removed from the roster by being traded to another team. Just like with a waiver claim, the player’s new team assumes their existing contract, which counts against their cap. But any money that has already been paid to the traded (or waived) player (such as signing and workout bonuses) must be carried against the original team’s cap.

Reported Chiefs roster moves