31 of the 32 NFL Coaches for the 2026 season are present for the annual group picture at the Owners’ Meeting in March. Only 4 of them were in the same group shot in 2015. And, only one of them is with the same team; Andy Reid with Kansas City. The League is built upon a foundation of personnel churn.

Bill Parcells, he of four Head Coaching gigs said that, “Every NFL job comes with an expiration date.” He wasn’t wrong. This is a league that eats up and spits out humans at a dizzying rate of speed. When Dan Campbell took over the reigns at Detroit in 2021 he inherited a full roster. By 2024 the only inherited player remaining was the Punter, Jack Fox. For those keeping score that’s a 98.1% turnover in 3-years or roughly one-third of the inventory moving out every year. It loosely dovetails with the overall average NFL career length of 3.3-years. For every Tom Brady with 23-years of playing time there are legions that don’t last a season. Such is the system

Steady Flow

Back in an old repurposed World War 1 vintage Navy Hospital a young Ensign explained the forgettable intricacies of Thermodynamics. One that stuck, however, was the “Steady Flow Open System” model. In simplest terms if one takes a pipe, open on both ends then shoves fluid in one end until it’s full then any more fluid put into it will come out the other end. It may come out at greater velocity, but Conservation of Mass still applies: What goes in one end is equaled by what comes out the other. There are all kinds of things one can do like put a pump in the middle, etc, etc. But, mass in equals mass out. The NFL is a piece of pipe full of bodies. Every new guy entering the League pushes a guy out that was in the system. And, the flow rate is stunning.

We all know that each team has 53-players on the “Active Roster” during the season. With 32-teams that works out to 1,696 on Game Day squads. But, that’s not the whole universe of NFL players. Each team has up to 17-players on the “Practice Squad” good for another 544 slots. The Injured Reserve population does not count against roster limitations, although their salary does count against the Salary Cap. Washington had 18-players in the IR list over the course of the last season. For the last game there were 15-players on that list. Without counting every team let’s say that the average per team was 10-players. That’s another 320 bodies. The total in the system is now up to 2,560.

So, what comes into the system? There were 257-Draft selections. This may come as a surprise, but more players are signed as Undrafted Free Agents than are drafted. This year the number was 418. Not all of the UDFAs are going to make teams. But, they enter the system at least long enough to count against the 90-player limit per team at Training Camp. So we have 675-players coming in. The introduced population is over 26% of the total. If that’s what’s coming in then the equivalent is coming out.

Tiers

There are layers to the NFL Player universe. As mentioned earlier the average career length is 3.3-years. But, a Pro-Bowl caliber player lasts nearly 12-years on average. The Quarterback position also averages 3-years. But, that’s because of the churn at the QB3 level. That drags down the overall average while elite QBs last for a good long time. Matthew Stafford is entering year #18.

Then there are “Starters.” Offensive Linemen, as a group, average 3-years of tenure. But, the League is stuffed with Tackles and Guards playing past age-35. The Starter group lasts much longer than average.

There are the “Core Four” Special Teams crews. Washington’s Jeremy Reaves is entering season #9. He had more snaps on Defense than Teams last year. But, that was because the Secondary was decimated. He still was in on over 55% of the Teams’ snaps. Every team has a small cache of nearly anonymous Teams players that last for nearly a decade. But, most of the Core Four guys are coming and going like a turnstile.

Practice Squad guys are constantly on the bubble. Lasting more than two-years on the Practice Squad is rare. You’re either going up to this team or some other, or you’re going out.

And, that takes us to one last tier; The Unemployed. There is a river of unemployed players out there. Some have voluntarily retired. Others have been overtaken by Father Time; think Bobby Wagner. Maybe they get brought in for spot duty after a rash or injuries. Maybe not. Someone once said that an NFL team was an assemblage of independent contractors. It is a tough argument to refute.

Locally

How much turnover will there be for the WFT compared to last year? Well, if we apply that generic 26% attrition rate to the team it would mean the team would lose 5.8 Starters and 21 personnel from the 79 total that were on the roster over the course of the year. The number of Starters that are gone is actually 7. And, the number of personnel no longer on the team is 29. It would figure that Washington would be above the averages given the age of the 2025 roster.

Training Camp still is a battle for roster spots. But, only at the bottom. Washington has 92-players under contract. Only 70, plus Injured Reserves will be moving on. There are 8-players coming from the UDFA ranks. Some of them will speed through to the exit without having played a single regular season snap. Draft picks stick. Since the League dropped the rounds down to seven the guys in the last round still get a shot. It may not last long. But, the days when teams cut nearly all their Draft picks is long gone.

Rookies report to Camp on Friday the 24th of July. Full camp starts on Monday July 27. There probably won’t be a lot of “Camp Battles” for starting positions. Maybe Ben Coleman challenges Chris Paul for the Left Guard spot. Maybe the 3rd round Receiver Antonio Williams asserts himself as WR2. There are things warranting attention. But, the real battles will be for the bottom of the ladder. Rarely covered with any depth those battles are life-altering. Make the team and the player becomes part of the system…for a while at least.