Tag: NFL cuts

1 notable veteran (Melvin Gordon?) who could be cut or traded for all 32 NFL teams this preseason

The NFL roster cutdown date is August 29. Here are the big names who could be looking for new homes by September.

Training camp practices have ramped up to full pads as August hits full swing. Soon, swollen rosters will be trimmed down to the NFL’s regular season limit of 53 players.

That’ll make August 29 a brutal day for young hopefuls and veterans looking  to extend their careers by one more season. Cutdown day will shear rosters nearly in half, dropping 47 players to waivers and then, barring a last-ditch reprieve from a needy team elsewhere, onto the open market.

Each August, a handful of big-name players get caught in that chop. This preseason will give us more of the same — though it may be short on star power.

This year’s list of cut candidates lacks a certain panache. Teams spent wisely this offseason and made their difficult decisions back in March, leaving a dearth of big names who seem destined to be cast back to free agency as summer turns to fall. As a result, some of the players on the list are former starters or high value draft picks who haven’t quite made a lasting impact on the league. Other teams are well managed enough — or simply not in the market of trying to hard in 2023 — that they can hang on to their veterans and wait and see if a trade market opens up during the season.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the potential veteran cuts on which each team will have to make a tough decision this August.

Chargers’ Tom Telesco says he has no plans to move Keenan Allen

Chargers GM Tom Telesco put all the speculations regarding WR Keenan Allen to bed.

With the Chargers currently $20.39 million over the salary cap, there’s been speculation that Keenan Allen could be moved to clear some up. But general manager Tom Telesco all but put the murmurs to bed.

“Keenan Allen isn’t going anywhere,” Telesco told reporters at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis, IN, on Wednesday.

Allen is scheduled to earn $15.5 million in 2023, with $21.7 million charged against the salary cap. If he were released before June 1, Los Angeles would save $14.8 million against the cap.

In 2022, Allen missed seven games due to a hamstring issue, finishing with 66 catches for 752 yards and four touchdowns.

The 10-year wideout has been vital to the Bolts’ offense throughout his professional career. During that span, Allen has caught 796 passes for 9,287 yards and 52 touchdowns.

“Keenan Allen, to me, he’s our Andre Reed. He’s our Charlie Joiner,” Telesco said. “He’s an incredible football player. We have a great quarterback, we need weapons around him, there’s never been any thought of that.

While he is getting up in age, set to be 31 this season and coming off an injury-riddled campaign, Allen is productive when healthy. He is still one of the best route runners in the league. He is a safety blanket to third down.

The Chargers need to add speed to their wide receiver room, but letting go of Allen would do more bad than good to the state of the offense.

Telesco will have some wheeling and dealing to do, as the Chargers must comply with the salary cap at the start of the new league year on March 15. But that will likely be without moving their top wide receiver.

“It’s not tempting to me,” Telesco said at his end-of-season press conference. “Good players make money, and I would rather have a lot of good players on our roster than a lot of cap space.”

Chargers’ initial 53-man roster for the 2022 NFL season

The Chargers have finalized the full 53-man roster to start the 2022 season. Take a look at each player on the active roster.

The Chargers have announced their initial 53-man roster heading into the 2022 season, which kicks off against the Raiders next Sunday, Sept. 11 at 1:25 pm PT.

Los Angeles can still make additional roster moves in the coming days via waiver claims and free agent signings. They’ll also begin constructing a 16-man practice squad.

Offense

Quarterback (3): Justin Herbert, Chase Daniel, Easton Stick

Running back (4): Austin Ekeler, Joshua Kelley, Isaiah Spiller, Larry Rountree III

Fullback (1): Zander Horvath

Wide receiver (5): Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Joshua Palmer, DeAndre Carter, Jalen Guyton

Tight end (3): Gerald Everett, Donald Parham, Tre’ McKitty

Offensive line (9): Rashawn Slater, Matt Feiler, Corey Linsley, Zion Johnson, Trey Pipkins, Storm Norton, Jamaree Salyer, Will Clapp, Brenden Jaimes

Defense

Defensive line (6): Sebastian Joseph-Day, Austin Johnson, Morgan Fox, Otito Ogbonnia, Jerry Tillery, Breiden Fehoko

Edge rusher (3): Joey Bosa, Khalil Mack, Chris Rumph II

Linebacker (5): Kyle Van Noy, Drue Tranquill, Kenneth Murray Jr., Troy Reeder, Nick Niemann, Amen Ogbongbemiga

Cornerback (6): JC Jackson, Asante Samuel Jr., Bryce Callahan, Michael Davis, Ja’Sir Taylor, Deane Leonard

Safety (4): Derwin James Jr., Nasir Adderley, JT Woods, Alohi Gilman

Specialists (3): K Dustin Hopkins, P J.K. Scott, LS Josh Harris

Chargers trim roster to 85 players

The Los Angeles Chargers waived five players.

The Chargers have trimmed their roster down to 85 players to meet the mandatory cut deadline, which was set for 1 pm PT on Tuesday.

To get it to 85, Los Angeles waived wide receiver Maurice Ffrench, quarterback Brandon Peters, safety Skyler Thomas, and defensive lineman Forrest Merrill and offensive lineman Isaac Weaver with injury designations.

This is the first of three roster cuts L.A. is required to make.

Here’s a look at the rest of the mandatory cut dates:

  • Tuesday, August 23: Down to 80.
  • Tuesday, August 30: Down to 53.

Giants cut CB James Bradberry who made Pro Bowl under Raiders DC Patrick Graham

CB James Bradberry had his best seasons for Raiders new DC Patrick Graham. Bradberry has now been released.

New head coach Josh McDaniels and GM Dave Ziegler have been busy this offseason adding familiar faces. It helps when taking a new job to have people with whom you are familiar. A pretty big name familiar face just hit the market.

The Giants cut former Pro Bowl CB James Bradberry, who spent the past two seasons under new Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham in New York.

Bradberry is just 28 years old. He has 15 career interceptions and has had double-digit pass breakups every one of his six NFL seasons, including 18 and 17 the past two seasons with Graham as his DC.

Obviously, this figures to make him a great fit with the Raiders, where he would be an instant starter and upgrade their defense significantly.

Currently, the Raiders’ outside starters figure to be Trayvon Mullen and Rock Ya-Sin. Neither of whom have had careers that make them sure starters. While Bradberry has started nearly every game since he entered the league with the Panthers in 2016.

Whether the Raiders can afford him right now is the question. Right now, they have around $5 million in cap space. They will free up a lot of money in a few weeks with June 1 designations placed on Cory Littleton and Carl Nassib.

Bradberry figures to have many suitors, one of whom was said to be the Chiefs when the Giants were trying to trade him. This means, should the Raiders NOT sign Bradberry, they could then be looking at facing him twice next year.

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Raiders cut 5 players from offseason roster

Housecleaning: Raiders cut 5 from offseason roster

Since the beginning of free agency, the Raiders have been busy adding players. Some 18 new free agents have been signed along with two players acquired in trades. Today, they tidied up the roster, cutting five players who had been on the offseason roster prior to the start of free agency.

The team officially waived S Jordan Brown, DT P.J. Johnson and T William Sweet and released S Natrell Jamerson, and WR Javon Wims. All of whom had been signed to reserve/future contracts back in January. Now they’re the odd men out.

Wims is cut following the additions of Davante Adams via trade with the Packers and the free agent additions of Mack Hollins and Demarcus Robinson.

Sweet was released following the re-signing of Brandon Parker and Jermaine Eluemunor.

Johnson spent the latter part of last season on the practice squad. The team overhauled their DT group with the additions of Bilal Nichols, Andrew Billings, Kyle Peko, and Vernon Butler.

Brown and Jamerson exit just a day after the team added Duron Harmon to a safety group that has everyone returning.

Following Terron Armstead signing, Dolphins cut veteran starting tackle Jesse Davis

Fallout from the Dolphins signing Terron Armstead has put veteran starting right tackle available for RT needy team like Raiders

Throughout free agency, I’ve heard Raiders fans begging the team to sign Terron Armstead. But as a three-time Pro Bowl left tackle, he was going to get big money as a free agent, so that was never going to happen. Not with the Raiders set at left tackle with Kolton Miller. But Armstead getting signed may work in the Raiders’ favor anyway.

Armstead landed his big contract with the Miami Dolphins. And today, the fallout has put a versatile veteran starting tackle on the market who could be just what the Raiders need.

What the Raiders need is a new starting right tackle. They have brought back Jermaine Eluemunor and Brandon Parker, but neither of them have proven they can be the answer at right tackle. Parker is a reserve swing tackle at best and Eluemunor is best served as a reserve utility guard/tackle.

Jesse Davis, on the other hand, has a great deal of starting experience. Primarily at the tackle spot.

The 6-6, 318-pounder has never missed a game in his five-year NFL career. And over the past four seasons, he’s started almost every one of them. The past three years, those starts have largely come at tackle.

In total, Davis has started 46 games at tackle the past three seasons. Of those, 38 have come at tackle — 31 at right tackle and seven at left tackle.

In 2019 Davis started 15 games, all at tackle. He gave up four sacks with four penalties in 975 snaps. In 2020, he started 15 games, with nine of those starts coming at tackle and allowed just one sack with two penalties.

Last season was statistically Davis’s worst season, giving up eight sacks with four penalties in 1063 snaps. And yet it was still better than Brandon Parker who gave up the same number of sacks (8), with more than twice as many penalties (9) in nearly 200 fewer snaps (881).

I’m not going to compare Davis to Donald Penn, but his situation definitely reminds me of Penn’s. Where he has a supposed down year, prompting his team to sign a big free agent and let him go. I say it’s worth a shot to see if Davis can win the starting right tackle job in Las Vegas.

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Cowboys to release former Raiders WR Amari Cooper if they can’t find trade partner

Just two seasons after WR Amari Cooper got a huge 5-year, $100 million deal from the Cowboys, they’re looking to dump the former Raiders top pick.

Apparently, three years is when Amari Cooper’s expiration date comes up. The former Raider’s first-round pick was traded to the Cowboys six games into his fourth season for a first-round pick.

A season later, he got a huge five-year, $100 million contract. Two years into that contract, the Cowboys are already looking to dump him. According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, they are looking to trade Cooper and if no one makes an offer, they’ll cut the four-time Pro Bowler.

At the time of the trade, everyone seemed to need to decide a winner and a loser. My take was it was a win-win. Cooper was clearly not happy with the Raiders and was coming off a season in which his targets had dropped to nearly half what they had been. Not to mention he was approaching decision-making time with regard to his contract. To get a first-round pick back for him was a win for the Raiders.

But the Cowboys also got one of the league’s better receivers, and he immediately began paying dividends for them. His production went through the roof over the final nine games of the 2018 season, and he headed back to the Pro Bowl, helping the Cowboys make the playoffs.

He kept up the production of the following two seasons. But his hefty contract has the Cowboys ready to cut ties.

Last season was the first Cooper made $22 million. It was also his worst statistical season since 2017. The Cowboys have two receivers in Michael Gallup and Cedrick Wilson who are headed for free agency. They figure they can sign both of them for less than the cost of Cooper alone. And with CeeDee Lamb still on his rookie deal, the Cowboys would be set at receiver.

Now we wait to see if any team is willing to take on Coop’s massive contract in a trade or just wait for him to hit the market and compete for his services at that time.

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Former Texas WR Collin Johnson was claimed by the New York Giants

After being cut by the Jacksonville Jaguars, wide receiver Collin Johnson found a new home when he was claimed by the New York Giants.

A fifth round pick in the 2020 NFL draft, Collin Johnson was one of five receiver casualties for the Jacksonville Jaguars on Aug. 31 as head coach Urban Meyer decided to not retain the former Longhorn.

It was somewhat of a surprise to see his name among the final cuts for Jacksonville, but it did not take long for the former Texas standout to find a new home. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the New York Giants claimed the 6-foot-6 receiver off waivers on Wednesday.

The Jaguars had a pretty crowded receiver room, and after their signing of Marvin Jones Jr. it made it that much more difficult for the rest of the receivers to find a role.

Johnson saw limited playing time in his rookie season, catching 18 passes for 272 yards and two touchdowns. He was hoping to obtain a larger role this season with the new staff. However, he did not really have many chances during preseason. Johnson was only targeted a total of five times in three games, bringing in two receptions for 24 yards and one touchdown overall.

The Giants receiver room has been injury depleted as of late, giving Johnson a second chance at life in the NFL. New York currently has four receivers on the roster listed as questionable, and also have some unproven former high draft picks in Dante Pettis and John Ross.

Johnson has an opportunity to fight a role in New York’s offense immediately.

Former Longhorn Shane Buechele clears waivers, lands on Chiefs practice squad

Shane Buechele ends up on the Kansas City Chiefs practice squad.

One day after being waived by the Kansas City Chiefs, former Texas quarterback Shane Buechele has been signed to the Chiefs practice squad.

Buechele, who started his collegiate career at Texas and finished at SMU, had a very solid college tenure that saw him throw for over 11,000 yards with two 3,000-yard passing seasons and 87 touchdown passes.

After surprisingly not being claimed on waivers by another team, it was announced via Twitter by the KC Star’s Herbie Teope on Wednesday that Buechele would indeed land on the Chiefs practice squad.

 

He found his success at SMU after he lost the starting job at Texas to now Indianapolis Colts quarterback Sam Ehlinger. After declaring for the 2021 NFL draft, Buechele did not hear his name called, but was considered a priority undrafted free agent shortly after the draft concluded. He eventually chose to sign with the Chiefs.

Buechele preformed quite well this preseason for the Chiefs, throwing for 422 yards, completing 67% of his passes, and three touchdown passes. It wasn’t quite enough, as it appears the Chiefs are content with having just two quarterbacks on the active roster in Chad Henne and Patrick Mahomes.

While Buechele was never going to replace Mahomes by any means, he did look like he was playing well enough to possibly be the third quarterback on the roster. However, he is getting a shot to be a professional quarterback in a different capacity, and is always one play away from being on the 53-man roster.