Greg Schiano has described the deadline for making final roster cuts as a "hard day".

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers released 21 players yesterday and placed kicker Lawrence Tynes on the non-football injury list to reduce their active squad to 53.

The head coach told the team's official website: "It's a hard day. This is a good group of people, and they've busted their rear ends for this organisation, we work hard around here. Guys have pushed through pain and done things.

"It's the most competitive sports league in the world, 1,696 guys get to do it when it's all said and done, in the whole world. But that doesn't lessen the disappointment at all for these guys.

"Today's a special day for some and a really bad day for others, but at the end of the day, it's probably not as good as people think, and it's not as bad. This league goes like [in a circle]. These guys that are here are good football players and tough guys, so they'll probably resurface, a lot of them, somewhere else."

The Bucs will play the New York Jets in their opening game of the season next weekend.