Tag: 2022 53-man roster

The dust settled following two days of manuevers, and fans now have a clear picture of who the Dallas Cowboys are going into battle with. While there could still be a major addition on the way, if a deal is worked out with future Hall of Famer and Texas native Jason Peters, Dallas now knows who will be available to them for Week 1 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The club moved a couple of players to injured reserve and signed two players to one-year agreements to fill those spots. They also filled out 15 of their allotted 17 practice squad spots. If Peters signs, they’ll likely try to move on guy from the 53 down to the PS, but for now, here’s a look at the 68 players under contract for the 2022 season opener.Quarterback (1)

In the aftermath of the roster reduction, Dallas Cowboys fans are left with some new realities. In almost every corner of content creation, initial 53-man rosters were predicted and projected, but cutdown day always throws a few curveballs. No one knows the front office’s plans, but much like mock drafts, trying to come up with precise evaluations of training camp performances, exhibition-game fluctuations and balancing the now vs. the future allow a myriad of iterations to be put together.

That’s all done for now. Or, is it? The composition of this 53-man roster, the result of a roster changeover and a lot of competition, leaves several questions left to be answered. Here’s a look at several takeaways, which include the ever popular QTNA: questions that need answers.

There’s a big difference in being waived or released. As the 32 NFL clubs whittled their way down to 53 players, the two terms are often bandied about, but not everyone knows the difference between the two. A player who has been in the league for a minimum of four seasons is considered a vested veteran. That player has to be released. He is immediately eligible to negotiate a contract and sign with any team that is interested in him.

On the other side of that coin is a player who has not yet accrued that many seasons. When a team cuts a non-vested veteran, they are waived. That means that his contract is still intact for the next 24 hours, with a deadline for teams to put in claims on that contract. This happens every day of the league year, and for 2022 the first waiver claims will be honored at 11:00 a.m. Central on Wednesday, August 31.

The order of the waiver claim is static for the first four weeks of the season, mirroring the original order of the 2022 NFL draft. Slots for picks traded away revert to the original team, obviously. For Dallas that means they sit No. 24 in waiver order.

If a player clears waivers — their contract isn’t selected by another team — then that player is free to negotiate a deal with anyone, including returning to the original team (or any team) on their practice squad. This is clearly what Dallas hopes happens to their young guys, but it isn’t completely up to them.

Here’s a look at the waiver order for 2022’s first few weeks.

The cuts are in and the Dallas Cowboys have whittled their offseason roster down to the league-maximum 53 players ahead of Tuesday’s 3:00 p.m. Central deadline. There were a handful of surprises, as Dallas’ front office took the path we knew they would to the extreme. They released almost all vested veterans on cheap

In our final 53-man roster projection, we ended up getting __ out of the 53 names correct, __%. Over the last several weeks we discussed the likelihood that Dallas was going to release several vested vets who were on cheap deals. While some of the names are different, the concept was definitely used repeatedly here.

We hear the concern every year from a section of the fan base. “There’s no way Dallas will be able to cut that player without another team claiming them off waivers. No way that dude gets to the practice squad!” Some times, those fans are right. Most of the time, those fans are wrong. Those chants of worry often come from the most tuned in parts of the fan base. Those who subscribe to twitter lists of every media member covering the Cowboys, every blogger, every knowledgeable fan.

They’ve kept track of every kind word from someone on the coaching staff, every excellent OTA rep and certainly every impressive play made during training camp in Oxnard. Every year, there’s a series of guys who become camp darlings for some. But here’s the thing, every club has them. Every team, save for the really bad ones, have a bunch of players who aren’t good enough to be part of the major rotation and exist on the fringes of the 45-man game day roster, much less the 53-man active roster. Other teams rarely want those guys from your favorite club. They have their own guys.

And those guys have been in camp all spring and summer, were mostly handpicked by their front office and their coaching staff and are well integrated. They’ve proven to be the-prospect-with-potential under the circumstances and style of play that organization will use for the coming season. They would be preferred over grabbing the guy that would have to learn the system on the fly, getting little in the way of helpful reps in regular season practice.

Sure, there are players who other teams covet. Teams that lost out on a player in a UDFA bidding war; those are the most dangerous. But by and large, teams are able to get the guys they want back to the practice squad. Sometimes, when a team feels the prospect is really at risk, they’ll reach out to a low-cost veteran, someone who doesn’t have to clear waivers under a one-year deal who they can create a wink-wink agreement to bring them back after stashing someone on returnable IR.

The Cowboys have done this before, with Jake McQuaide and Jeremy Sprinkle in 2021, C.J. Goodwin and others in 2020. Occasionally the club is burned, but this more so happens after injuries occur during the season and teams poach prospects to fill in the holes in their roster.

With all that said, here’s a list of players who the in-the-know fans are worried about, but would likely be able to make their way to the practice squad were Dallas to release them in the cut down to 53 players.