Two quarterbacks or three? Six linebackers or seven? Eight offensive linemen or nine?

For 32 teams, a 16-game, four-month season is one in which the most difficult battle to fight is attrition: bumps and sprains that keep star players sidelined for one or more weeks and injuries that put them or other key players on the season-ending injured reserve list.

Honing a roster is a year-round task, but it gets difficult tomorrow and becomes downright gritty on Saturday. Those are the deadlines for two NFL-mandated roster cuts.

By 4 p.m. EDT tomorrow, teams must trim rosters to no more than 75 players. By Saturday afternoon, less than two days after the final exhibition games are staged, the cuts become savage. Teams must cut to 53 players.

"It's getting down to that time where you have to make some tough decisions with some guys," Kansas City Coach Herm Edwards said.

The Chiefs must make a call eventually on Priest Holmes' comeback attempt. Holmes arrived at training camp saying he could be a starter in place of then-holdout Larry Johnson, but Holmes has yet to prove he's all the way back from a neck injury suffered in a game in 2005.

Then there's Chris Simms. A once-promising career now clouded by arm and medical issues won't detour until later in the week, if at all. Tampa Bay General Manager Bruce Allen said Simms will see more playing time in Thursday's exhibition closer against Houston, but Simms is in a numbers game nonetheless.

He's not battling to beat out starter Jeff Garcia. He's fighting with Bruce Gradkowski for a roster spot.

Whether he wins, "Those are things I can't control," Simms said.

Jacksonville, with a fairly deep roster, shouldn't have too many difficult decisions until later in the week. Then Coach Jack Del Rio will have to decide how to sort out his receivers, whether to keep a third quarterback and whether to keep more than one fullback.

Veteran receiver Reggie Williams, a former starter who played as a backup throughout training camp, appears to have solidified himself.

"They always get a little easier when you get down to the time to make them," Del Rio said. "It's never easy to tell a young man that his dream of making the NFL roster for you is over . . . but I think when it finally shakes out in the end, you feel pretty good about the people you select."

In Miami, first-year coach Cam Cameron has receiver issues to settle. Thursday's exhibition finale at New Orleans should help shape a final spot or two on the Dolphins' suspect offensive front.

Tennessee and Carolina didn't wait for the initial cut deadline to arrive. The Titans and Panthers each waived seven players yesterday.

After final cuts are announced league-wide on Saturday, personnel specialists will scan the waiver wire and make up wish lists of castoffs to fill an eight-man practice squad. A good number of teams' practice squads will be made up of players the teams themselves just released.