[Burt the Butcher]

Chuck, you have to assign contracts to your RFA's, UFA's and Rookies before the Deadline. The IR opens immediately after this deadline. So you have to have room on your active/TS squads prior to moving players to IR.

If you have rookies you do not wish to keep, you can just cut them in separate thread, and note this in your declarations. This is the preferred way - But yes, if you leave them off your declarations, then they will be considered cut.