It’s time for the GOP to begin the same process NFL teams undertake every August — winnowing their rosters down to opening-day size for the new season.

Nothing personal, men. It’s a numbers game, and you’ve got plenty of time left to hook on with some other team — actually, that’s not true, most of you couldn’t even make Jacksonville. But it sounds better than just having “the Turk” drop by your room and tell you to bring your playbook with you.

These are all “very nice people,” as Donald Trump would say. They’re just not going to take you to the Super Bowl, or Super Tuesday.

So here are the Republican candidates who should be on the political waiver wire:

• Ex-Gov. Jeb Bush: Think of him as a former first-round draft choice who spent his first two years on IR and is now in the third and final year of his rookie contract. Can’t cut him outright — it would cost too much against the salary cap. Recently ran the 40 in 8.3. If he were a wide receiver, his nickname would be “Butterfingers.” Remember when they said that Jeb was the real talent in his generation of Bushes, not George? That was a very long time ago. Last won an election in 2002.

• Ex-Gov. Rick Perry: At the Manchester forum, he began addressing his remarks to some guy named “Joe,” even though there was nobody on the stage named Joe. Then Thursday in Cleveland he lauded a fellow by the name of “Ronald Raven.” Talks about his eight years as governor of Texas, even though he served 15. Last time he blamed painkillers for his meltdown. What’s the excuse this time?

• Sen. Rand Paul: Just before the Fox debate, a couple of his campaign aides were indicted for allegedly bribing an Iowa state senator in 2012 to switch his caucus endorsement from Michelle Bachman to Rand’s father, Ron Paul. They’re charged with buying a state senator — for $70,000. In Iowa! Around here, as ex-Sen. Alan Sisitsky once said, you can buy one for a water cooler. BTW, one of the indicted aides is Rand’s brother’s son-in-law.

• Gov. Chris Christie: He says if you’re retired and have investments giving you a certain income, then you don’t “need” Social Security. His call, he’ll decide if you “need” a return on the money you’ve been involuntarily paying into the system your entire life. Looking at Christie, I’d say he doesn’t “need” any more doughnuts. But I wouldn’t recommend trying to step between him and a platter of Boston cremes. Bridgegate didn’t kill Christie, hugging Obama did.

• Ex-Sen. Rick Santorum: Keeps saying he finished second to Mitt Romney in 2012. Yes, but only because the other also-rans had to return to their day jobs. Santorum doesn’t appear to have one. Last won an election in 2000.

• Ex-Gov. Jim Gilmore: You’ve heard of Happy Gilmore? This is Unhappy Gilmore. Last won an election in 1997. Ran for the U.S. Senate in 2008, lost 65-34.

• Ex-Gov. George Pataki: Best remembered, if at all, as the guy standing next to Rudy Giuliani in the ruins of the World Trade Center in 2001. Last won an election in 2002.

• Gov. Bobby Jindal: Only 44, it’s not too late for him to make a new career for himself. Up on the JV stage, he’s Ebenezer Scrooge being haunted by the chain-dragging ghosts of campaigns past — Gilmore, Pataki, Santorum, Huckabee. Don’t end up another political Jacob Marley, governor!

• Sen. Lindsey Graham: He’s running around the country telling miniscule audiences, “When Bill (Clinton) says, ‘I didn’t have sex with that woman,’ he did.” There are so many reasons he should be leaving this particular topic alone, starting with Sen. Mark Kirk’s recent description of his South Carolina colleague as “the bro with no ‘ho.’ ”

• Gov. John Kasich: Early front-runner for the Jon Huntsman Profiles in Irrelevance Award 2016. You’re already reading how he’s “grown” in office, not to mention “evolved.” In other words, he won’t make waves. He also won’t make the All-Star team.

• Ex-Gov. Mike Huckabee: Last won an election in 2002. Isn’t there a tabernacle or Pentecostal church somewhere that needs a new speakin’-in-tongues snake chucker to fill the TV vacuum left by Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart?

All of the above can be summed up in four words: Forgotten, but not gone.

Listen to Howie every weekday from 3-7 p.m. on AM 680 WRKO.