Every NFL roster is down to 53 players following Sunday's deadline. Among the unfortunate realities of the offseason is that not every signee will make a team's squad by Week 1, and for hundreds of players, this weekend marked the end of their employment. Some of those who became roster limit casualties were quite surprising.
For every eyebrow-raising move like the New York Giants keeping Odell Beckham Jr. around and the Minnesota Vikings running things back with J.J. McCarthy as a backup quarterback, there was a head-scratching release. Numerous projected second-teamers, recent early-round draft picks and prolific veterans hit the waiver wire.
Here are 12 of the biggest surprises from roster cutdown day. It is an unceremonious end to the Will Levis experiment in Tennessee. Just three years ago, Levis arrived as the No. 33 overall pick and the Titans' potential franchise quarterback.
As recently as 2024, he was the unquestioned starter when healthy. He has not played since then, though, and not only did he lose his role as the face of the offense to Cam Ward, but he also slipped behind two others on the depth chart. The Titans kept Mitchell Trubisky and Hendon Hooker as their backups instead of Levis, which goes to show how far he has fallen in less than two years.
The Dolphins found their starting quarterback and moved on from literally everyone else in his group. Malik Willis just watched all of his position mates be shown the door. Miami started by trading No. 2 quarterback Quinn Ewers to the Jaguars, and then released both Cam Miller and Mark Gronowski.
Since they need a backup, of course, the Dolphins agreed to terms on a trade to bring in Kyle McCord from Green Bay. That makes it two former Packers in the quarterback crop and only two players in total after the Dolphins entered the weekend with four. A couple of months ago, few would have believed that Justin Joly would be without a job.
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