With NFL rosters pretty much finalized and week 1 just a few days away, I thought it would be a good time to look at just how much turnover there has been in the NFL in 2024. I looked at every roster in the NFL, not including practice squads (it does include players on reserve lists) and determined how many players were on the roster at the end of the 2023 season. The first column is inclusive of practice squad members from 2023 and the second column excludes practice squad players from 2023 as part of the calculation.
| Team | Pct Active 2023 (Inc. 23 PS) | Pct Active (Exc. 23 PS) |
| Colts | 81.7% | 81.7% |
| Browns | 73.8% | 73.8% |
| Cowboys | 78.3% | 73.3% |
| Ravens | 73.8% | 70.5% |
| Packers | 72.4% | 67.2% |
| 49ers | 70.5% | 67.2% |
| Chiefs | 68.4% | 66.7% |
| Bengals | 67.2% | 65.6% |
| Falcons | 66.1% | 64.4% |
| Jaguars | 67.8% | 64.4% |
| Saints | 66.7% | 63.3% |
| Cardinals | 62.7% | 62.7% |
| Buccaneers | 65.6% | 62.3% |
| Jets | 63.3% | 61.7% |
| Broncos | 69.5% | 61.0% |
| Seahawks | 60.3% | 60.3% |
| Lions | 65.1% | 60.3% |
| Texans | 64.6% | 60.0% |
| Patriots | 59.7% | 59.7% |
| Bills | 62.7% | 59.3% |
| Eagles | 65.6% | 59.0% |
| Raiders | 60.3% | 58.6% |
| Bears | 65.0% | 58.3% |
| Steelers | 63.3% | 58.3% |
| Giants | 61.3% | 58.1% |
| Rams | 59.7% | 58.1% |
| Titans | 60.9% | 56.5% |
| Vikings | 58.1% | 56.5% |
| Dolphins | 64.7% | 54.4% |
| Chargers | 55.2% | 53.4% |
| Panthers | 51.6% | 48.4% |
| Commanders | 39.0% | 39.0% |
The average and median in the NFL are around 65% if we include the 2023 practice squad players and closer to 60% if we exclude them. This just illustrates how much teams churn through a roster year over year.
Only four teams will have 70% or more of their roster returning. The Colts lead the way with a crazy 81.7%. They are banking on some of the younger player improving as most teams who were at 9 wins and outside of the playoffs will tinker with their roster more than this.
The Browns have about 74% of their roster returning. They were a playoff team last season and their roster isn’t really built to deal with a ton of turnover unless they went into a full rebuild.
The Cowboys were also a playoff team and have 78% of the team returning if we consider 2023 practice squad players as part of the roster and 73% returning if we do not. Dallas rarely touches free agents these days and almost exclusively builds via the draft. Due to this they will likely rank low in turnover and higher in returns most years. If Dallas fails to advance deep into the playoffs this approach will come under even more scrutiny.
Finally, we have the Ravens at 74 and 71% respectively. Baltimore is also a team that focuses on development via the draft but this year the salary cap likely prevented them from really adding as they are not a team against adding players.
The 49ers and Packers were both above 70% if we include the practice squad players. These are teams at two very different ends of the spectrum. San Francisco is an older team trying to get one last run out of a group. Green Bay is young all around and developing.
On the bottom end we have a few standouts. The Commanders are just gutting their team with only 39% of the 2024 roster having been in Washington in 2023. This is long overdue for a team that was headed nowhere for years. The question for them will be how patient can they be with this process.
The Panthers are right around 50% returning. Carolina is an example of a team that hasn’t been patient enough with their rebuilds and it leads to groundhog day scenarios with various GM’s. It feels like for the last decade the team has a cycle where it runs into cap issues, guts the roster like this to deal with the cap problems and poor results on the field, gets over anxious and screws up the cap with extensions and free agent signings, fires the GM, and then watches the cycle restart.
The Chargers are around 54% and probably should have been lower. They made the decision to hold on to a few expensive players who I guess will possibly be traded in season. Maybe they will be a surprise team but they would worry me as a team that probably needs to take more of a step back than they did.
The most interesting team is Miami. Their salary cap issues and roster issues have flown under the radar of the excitement of a playoff season, re-signing some star players, and the general likeability of their head coach. If we do not include the practice squad only 55% of the team is returning from last season. That is a very low number for a team that was a one and done playoff team. If we include the practice squad though we jump to nearly 65% so they are really hoping that some low cost players from last season can fill roles on the active roster this year. If it works they could have a nice setup for the future. If not expect a lot of criticism on the front office.