With National Signing Day come and gone and 20 recruits on board, Northwestern's 2016 football roster is beginning to take shape. Here is what the roster currently looks like, sans non-scholarship players. The Wildcats, like all Division I football teams, are allowed 85 scholarships.
| Senior | Junior | Sophomore | RS Freshman | Incoming | Total | |
| QB | 0 | 1 Matt Alviti | 1 Clayton Thorson | 1 Lloyd Yates | 1 Aidan Smith | 4 |
| RB | 1 Warren Long | 2 Justin Jackson Solomon Vault* | 1 Auston Anderson | 1 John Moten IV | 2 Jeremy Larkin Jesse Brown | 7 |
| WR | 2 Austin Carr Andrew Scanlan | 1 Macan Wilson | 2 Jelani Roberts Flynn Nagel | 2 Cameron Green Charlie Fessler | 3 Ben Skowronek Ramaud Chiaokhiao-Bowman Riley Lees | 10 |
| SB | 0 | 2 Garrett Dickerson Jayme Taylor | 1 James Prather | 0 | 1 Eric Eshoo | 4 |
| OL | 4 G/T Shane Mertz (6th year) C/G Ian Park G Connor Mahoney T Eric Olson | 2 C/G Brad North G/T Sam Coverdale | 2 T Blake Hance T Tommy Doles | 3 C Jared Thomas T Adam Lemke-Ball G/T Andrew Otterman | 4 G Cameron Kolwich G Nik Urban T Jesse Meyler T Gunnar Vogel | 15 |
| DL | 3 DT C. |