NFL Rules on Adding a Player to the Roster at the Last Minute

On any given Sunday in the National Football League, each team has an active roster of 45 players who can play in the game. In addition to that 45-man roster, each NFL team can carry eight players who make up a practice squad. These players are not allowed to enter the game unless they are moved to the 45-man roster before the start of the game. In a league where injuries are rampant, it's important to know how a player can be added to the official roster at the last minute.

  1. Emergency Quarterback

    • The quarterback is the lifeblood of any football team. When the prized quarterback goes down in the middle of the game, all eyes turn to the backup to fill the shoes of the starter. However, because the position is so fragile, the NFL allows teams to designate a third-string quarterback, who is counted outside of the 45-man roster. The third-string quarterback can come in the ball game only if the first two quarterbacks are hurt. In this way, the third-string quarterback is a last-minute roster substitution.

    24-Hour Waiver Window

    • During summer football camp, teams can bring up to 80 players to camp. After the third preseason game, that number must be reduced to 65, and before the season actually begins, that number needs to shrink to 53 players (45 on the active roster and eight on the practice squad). However, a team can add a player to its roster at the last minute by signing any player who was waived from another team within 24 hours. The caveat is that if a team does sign a waived player, then that player must be added to the 53-man roster.

    Injured Reserve Versus PUP

    • Players can be designated to other lists that a team can draw from to add players at the last minute. One of those lists is the "Physically Unable to Perform" (PUP) list. This differs from the Injured Reserve (IR) list because players on IR cannot play for the entire season. A coach may, at the last minute, take someone from the PUP list and replace a player from the 53-man roster with him. This tends to happen when a player is coming back from an injury and the team is not sure if he will be ready to play by game time.