Madden 24: When is the Week 1, 53-man roster update coming?

Madden 24 was officially released this past week. While many of you are probably eager to jump into franchise mode, I’d recommend holding off for at least a few more weeks. That’s because the rosters in Madden 24 right now, while largely correct, are not the finalized team rosters we’ll see during the opening week of the NFL season.

As Madden 24 was released in the middle of the preseason, teams are still figuring out who will make their final 53-man roster. There are still cuts to be made, new signings as a result of players becoming available, and even some possible trades. As it stands, the rosters in Madden 24 at launch are not 100 percent reflective of what we’ll see come Week 1 of the NFL season.

If you want the most up-to-date rosters when playing Franchise mode in Madden 24, you’ll want to wait until the Week 1 roster update arrives. So when will that be exactly?

When is the NFL’s 53-man roster cut deadline?

In previous seasons, teams would have multiple deadlines to trim their rosters. They would start with 90 players and eventually trim down to 53 before the start of the regular season.

This year, there is only one roster cut deadline: Tuesday, August 29 at 4 p.m. ET. This is a few days after the final preseason game is played and 11 days until the regular season kicks off.

Although this is the deadline for the 53-man rosters in real life, this won’t be when Madden 24 is updated. After all, there will be hundreds of roster updates to be made.

When is the Week 1 Roster Update releasing for Madden 24?

Typically, the Week 1 Roster Update is release hours before the first Thursday night game of the season.

Last season, for example, the Madden 23 Week 1 roster update arrived on September 8th, just before the NFL season opener between the Los Angeles Rams and Buffalo Bills. The same is true for both Madden 22 and Madden 21, as both games saw their Week 1 updates release before the Thursday night game.

There are typically hundreds, if not thousands, of roster changes that EA must make between the final cut deadline and opening kickoff. EA has never missed the opening week deadline as far back as I can remember, so there is a good chance that the finalized Week 1, 53-man rosters will be live on evening of Thursday, September 7.

EA could release smaller updates throughout preseason

Even though the major roster update won’t go live until September 7, most likely, there’s a good chance EA releases some smaller roster updates throughout the remainder of the preseason. In the past, these updates were in tandem with roster cut dates but as there is only one deadline this year, the developer might just wait.

In any case, if you want to play your franchise with the most accurate team rosters, you might want to wait until September 7 to start. There’s no way to automatically update the rosters in franchise mode once you’ve started. You’d have to restart completely once the update arrives.