Roster management is part and parcel of the game. You need to make sure that you have enough players across the different positions throughout the season to actually play the games on your schedule, and you've also got to manage the injuries that happen, and also make sure that your team is ready for each game. This here is going to give you the quick lowdown... firstly, there are a couple of numbers we need to keep in mind throughout our roster

60 - this is the number of players you are allowed to have on your roster at any point after the current season has finished and throughout the whole preseason.
53 - this is the number of players you are allowed to have on your roster at any point during the regular season only. This also includes during the postseason.
46 - this is the number of active players you are allowed to have for any game during the regular season and postseason.

Keep these numbers in mind, they will be useful throughout your ownership. If you stick to a simple plan with these numbers, you can't go wrong with your roster.

As with all these threads, do not post in here. If you have questions or want advice, please use Discord.

Your Roster
Your roster appears on the Team Home Page area, just click on "My Team" and then "Team Home Page" on the drop-down menu, and your roster will appear. It is automatically sorted by position, with your quarterbacks (QB) at the top and your strong safeties (SS) at the bottom. This is automatically updated based on what you do with your depth chart, any trades or cuts you make and also any position/jersey numbers you make. Make the change(s) on the relevant pages and then head back to this page, and the changes will be there.



You can sort by any of the columns you desire, just click on the column header in bold and it will sort by that column. Be mindful that if you leave this page and come back, your roster will be sorted back by position (this is by default across the whole website). Each of those columns represents a different aspect of your roster:

Name - the players' name along with their jersey number.
Pos - the position they are currently set to. Refer to help with changing positions.
Exp - the number of years of experience the player has currently in the league.
Height - the players' current height in feet and inches.
Weight - the players' current weight in lbs (pounds).
Health - their current health status. Refer below for details on injury designations.
Opinion of you - the players' current opinion about you. This changes throughout the season depending on their playing time, or if you trade them, or if players are traded to your team.
Volatility - their volatility, for when it comes to training camps, and rating increases/decreases.
Cur - the players' current rating based on your position weights.
Fut - the players' future rating based on your position weights.

You will see at the top of the team page, the details regarding your team from your current salary cap space, to how many players you have currently on your roster. Keep an eye on this throughout the season, as injuries and trades may happen and if you are over the roster limit for that particular week of the season, you may be forced to either trade away a player or cut someone to get under the limit or you may not be able to offer a contract to a player you want to use for cover in a particular position.

Preseason Rosters
During the preseason, and the offseason, you are allowed to have a maximum of 60 players across your roster, so you can fill up on a particular position or bring in additional coverage for any injuries, retirements, or trades that you want. You still need to manage this within the salary cap and the cap space you have available, so be mindful of this. It is always a good idea after the season is finished and before the draft, to have available space for the number of draft picks you have (i.e. if you have 8 picks in the draft, have 52 on your roster before the draft).

Handy Tip: After the end of season stage sim has been processed, any players on your roster that decide to retire, will disappear and move into the retired player pool. This may reduce the number of players on your roster, so it is a good idea to take a screenshot or save a copy of your roster before that stage, so you can see who has retired, or use the "Transactions" tab on your Team Home page and filter to see who retires each season.

During the whole preseason, you can have all 60 players active for the games, there are essentially no restrictions on your roster throughout the preseason. This is a good time to give those fringe players or players you are wanting to have a look at some game time to see if they are good enough for a roster spot during the regular season or to try out new formations and plays in your playbook.

You don't need to cut any players during the preseason unless you want to. That is entirely up to you. Just remember to always be at 60 players or less during the four preseason games.

Note: do not, under any circumstances, let the AI make any cuts for you, not just in the preseason but throughout the regular season as well. If at any gameweek sim you are over the roster limit, the AI will just randomly select the number of players needed to be cut to get your team to the required limit. If you make the cuts yourself gives you a say in who is cut, and avoids the AI potentially cutting your star players.

Source: https://electrosports.myfootballnow.com/community/3/7313?page=1#44117

Regular Season/Postseason Rosters
After the final preseason game and prior to the first regular season game of the season, you need to make some roster moves. This is the period of time when you need to cut your roster down to 53 players!!! You can only have 53 on your roster at any point during the regular season and throughout the postseason as well (this includes teams that don't make it into the postseason). This is where you need to make some easy and tough choices when it comes to your players. Normally, a few hours before the first regular season game, someone will go through each roster and check to see if they are at the required limit of 53 players or going to be there when the cuts are made and will alert you via Discord that you need to make some cuts and/or trades to get your team to that 53 player limit before the game sim begins processing.

Handy Tip: if you have a roster size that is right on the limit of 53 players (or 60 during the preseason) and you decide to offer a contract to a free agent, or make a waiver wire claim, ALWAYS balance that new arrival with a cut or a trade.

NOTE: you can make these cuts prior to the Game sim being processed, as long as you have the required cuts pending before the game, your team will be compliant as the game will process the pending cuts before starting the game.

You can always view what cuts you are making in the "Pending Contracts" tab in "My Team", as well as cancelling any cut you have made. There are some tips to help you make sensible cuts to bring your roster to 53 players.

Cut players in positions where you already have adequate cover already
i.e. you have two punters on your roster, you really only need one as punters rarely get injured and there is always plenty on the free agent market that are going to be solid cover if needed, and having two on your roster is just taking up a valuable spot you can use elsewhere. Take a look and see what positions your players are suitable to play in, you might find someone who can play backup in two different positions.

Cut players who have little to no bonuses attached to their contract
these are cuts that can be easy, as long as you are cutting the right player. Don't just cut someone because they have no bonus on their contract, or you are getting a large sum back in your free cap space. Look at the overall picture with the player.

Cut players who are probably rarely going to see the field
i.e. you have 3 fullbacks (FB). Unless you are going to include plays in your playbook that specifically use 3RB's (that is, in the 311 personnel set), you are just wasting a spot on your roster that could be used elsewhere.

Use trades to reduce your roster size
you can use trades to trade away players that you don't want or are not going to make the roster. There is no requirement to trade if you don't want to, but it is an option that can help, and you might be able to squeeze out an extra draft pick (or more) if you are lucky. Be mindful that as preseason comes to an end, trades might be harder to get through since after preseason, everyone will be cutting players so they can pick up your discarded players for next to nothing, and they don't have to give up anything in return.

It is important to keep an eye on your roster during the season. If you decide that throughout the season you want to bring in a new player because you have some injuries and want a bit more cover, or you trade for that up-and-coming superstar and you go over the 53-man roster limit, then don't worry. Just balance the acquisition with cutting a player, but be aware that you need to be at 53 on your roster by the game week sim, you can be over at the midweek sim.

Example: Gameweek 2, your team suffers an injury to your last remaining tight end (TE), and you have nobody else on your roster that will be able to fill in, so you offer a free agent TE a contract (either as a free agent or a waiver wire claim), but if he accepts the contract you will have 54 players on your roster. What you can do is still offer the contract, wait until the midweek sim to process, get the player, and then cut someone for the gameweek stage.

Active & Inactive Players
During the preseason, this is not an issue as you can have all 60 players active on your roster at any time. During the regular season, out of the 53 players you have on your roster, you can only have 46 of them actually active for any one game. Now, you can change who you want active and inactive for each game, but there can only be 46 players active for each game. To check to see how many players you have active and inactive throughout the season by checking your depth chart, which is in the drop-down menu of "My Team"



The whole bar shows the number of contracted players on your roster. The yellow portion is the number of active players on your roster and the red portion is the number of inactive players. This changes depending on what you do with each player. Below is every single contracted player on your roster, along with their position, current and future ratings (in the brackets) and the years of experience they have. Again, this is sorted by position, but you can use the drop-down menu to only show particular positions or groups of players. You can view each player's profile box here by clicking on the little "i" on the right side of their box.



When a player joins your team, either via a trade or free agency or at the draft, they will appear here and will be greyed out, and their box will have a green plus symbol on the left side. To activate a player, click on the green plus. You will then see it change to a red minus symbol and the box will be coloured and not greyed out. To make a player inactive, just click on the red minus and it will change to be greyed out and will show a green plus symbol. The bar at the top will also change as you make these changes.

For each game during the regular season and postseason, you will need to have a minimum of 7 players showing as inactive for the game. Most of the time, these 7 will be injured players who you don't want to play at all, but if you have less than 7 injuries, you will need to make some other players inactive for the game. Once the game has been processed and you are setting your team up for the next week's game, you can change who is inactive for each week.

Note: you don't need to remove an inactive player from the depth chart if you don't want. There is no requirement but be mindful that the game may activate one of them if you are under the 46-player limit and they are on the depth chart, as the game will want you to have 46 players. On the other side, you can have less than 46 players active for a regular season or postseason game if you so choose.

You don't need to share who is inactive with the rest of the league if you don't want to, however, your main team roster (at the top of the thread) will show any players who are inactive in italics.

Injury Designations
MFN uses injury designations to describe the severity of a player's injury. These are "Out", "Doubtful", "Probable" and "Questionable". These are the same that were used in the National Football League until around 2016 and can be useful when deciding on whether to make a player active or not for a particular game in the season. MFN uses eight different areas when assessing a player's health, and if any of these are below 100, the player will likely show up as an injured player on your team roster. To check a player's health, click on the player to bring up their profile box and then go to "Health". Anybody who is healthy will have all eight bars at 100.



Obviously, this will change week to week, so a player might only have a one-week injury, and then will, once the week has passed (so after the next game), they will show up as healthy and you can move on. When reviewing a player and determining whether or not they are suitable to play (of if you should make them active), then use the destination they have to decide.

Out - this means it is probably a good idea not to have this player play in the game at all. One (or more) of their health bars will be at 0. They may also show in their profile box "Send to IR". They will most likely be one of the first you will make inactive for the upcoming game. They really should not be playing at all.
Doubtful - this is for an injury that is quite severe, one or more of their health bars will be quite close to 0, but not fully there. If you decided to play them, you are going to get highly limited, incredibly awful performances from them. Again, these injured players should be one of the first to be made inactive to allow them the best possible time to heal from their injury.
Questionable - these are for injuries where you could play them, but their effectiveness would be quite limited, so a bit of a risk to play them. If you did start a player with this designation, you probably don't want them playing as a starter, they would be more suited to coming into the game as a backup if times got tough. The best idea is to also make these players inactive for your game.
Probable - these are players who have an injury, but they are likely to be OK to play, again. The downside to them playing is very little to non-existent. There is a small risk that they might be further injured, but the risk is very little. You can make them active and still rest easy with them.
Healthy - no injury to speak of, they can play.

Again, keep an eye on these as the season progresses, you might see a player on your roster that is out for 8 weeks, but moves from one designation to another quicker than you think, and you might have them back earlier than you planned.

Injured Reserve
This is a special roster that teams have when a player reaches 0 on one or more of their health bars, and the player is out for quite some time, or maybe even a week. However, using the injured reserve option comes with downsides and upsides.

Downside
You can't use that player for the remainder of the regular season (and postseason). You don't lose them from your roster, so you don't need to worry that someone else will snap them up and start using them, they are still contracted to your team for the season, but you just won't be able to make them active or have them play in any remaining games on your schedule, including any postseason games you might play in.
The other downside is that once you make that decision, it is immediate. You don’t get time to reverse this decision. Once you choose to send them to the injured reserve list, that’s it. They are there for the season.

Upside
You get a brand-new roster spot!
That's right. If you decide to send a player with a health bar that shows "0" to injured reserve, you get a roster spot available to fill. Now, you can fill that position with a player in the same position as the player you send to the injured reserve, or you can use it elsewhere. There is no restriction on the use. Your roster will show as having an extra player under contract for the season.

So, you have to weigh up the pros and cons of this decision when you have a player that is eligible for the injured reserve list. You can choose to send them and pick up the extra roster spot to help out for the remainder of the season, or you can choose to just make them inactive and hope that they are able to return at some point in the season.