The first round of NFL roster cuts is still a couple of weeks off, but the details of the roster cut procedure have been tweaked slightly for the 2011 season, thanks to the NFL lockout. Pro Football Talk reports that the NFL has announced it will have the customary two deadlines for roster cuts, but that teams must cut their rosters to 80 players by August 30 and 53 players by September 3.
The 53-player rosters are the final rosters that the league's teams will take into Week 1, which begins with the NFL season opener on Thursday, September 8. But the 80-man rosters are slightly larger than the 75-man rosters the NFL had originally announced, and will allow teams to evaluate more players in the fourth week of the NFL preseason, which ends September 2.
Fans can expect the final week of the NFL preseason to mean a bit more this year than most, as more players are fighting for spots on the fringe of final rosters — but they can also bet on seeing starters and stars for even shorter cameos than usual.