Breaking down cutdown day’s biggest news
The NFL did it again, turning a mundane weekday into a national event. Except unlike “Schedule Release Day” and “Back to Football Saturday,” this latest holiday wasn’t all smiles and sunshine.
This past Tuesday was “Roster Cuts Day” — when the NFL had one massive cutdown day following training camp.
The NFL used to do it in waves — last year team rosters were gradually trimmed from 90 players to 85, to 80, to 53. But this year the league decided to do it in one fell swoop, with 880 players waived or released on Tuesday, plus about 100 other player transactions across the league, including injured reserve, physically unable to perform, and more.
“Pro scouting staffs ultimately watch lots of players, regardless when the cut is,” one AFC executive said. “Now we just do most of that work before the cut actually happens.”
This year’s cuts didn’t see too many surprises, but there were a few noteworthy moves. Let’s take a look at the biggest news and nuggets from cutdown day:
■ Bill Belichick seemingly took a gamble when he released both backup quarterbacks, Bailey Zappe and Malik Cunningham, leaving Mac Jones as the only quarterback on the Patriots’ roster. The Patriots were able to re-sign Zappe and Cunningham to the practice squad, but only after exposing them to waivers, which they cleared.
But Belichick’s gamble was likely calculated. Out of the 683 players to hit waivers on Tuesday — those with fewer than four years of experience — only 24 got claimed, or 3.5 percent. None of the 18 quarterbacks who hit waivers were claimed by another team. No running backs or wide receivers were claimed, either. Matt Corral, released Wednesday by Carolina and claimed Thursday by New England, is the only quarterback to get claimed thus far.
“Players getting claimed typically have to learn a new system without the benefit of an offseason or training camp,” the AFC executive said. “Teams and coaches are often more comfortable keeping slightly less talented players who they’ve spent time with rather than newcomers. To claim a player, usually that new guy has to be significantly more talented than the player he’s displacing from the active roster. That’s a high bar.”
The Patriots have flexibility at backup quarterback, with Corral on the 53man roster and Zappe and Cunningham on the practice squad. If Corral isn’t up to speed right away, he can be a game-day inactive, and Zappe and Cunningham can each be called up three times to the game-day roster. But the Patriots don’t seem to be done searching for a solid No. 2 quarterback.
■ The highest-profile story came in Indianapolis, where the Colts didn’t like any trade offers and decided to keep star running back Jonathan Taylor, who instead was placed on the PUP list, which keeps him out at least the first four games.
Taylor, the 2021 rushing champion and All-Pro, still doesn’t want to be a Colt or play for $4.304 million this year, the last year of his rookie contract. But the Colts didn’t want to just give him away.
“The situation sucks,” Colts general manager Chris Ballard said. “It sucks for the Colts, it sucks for Jonathan Taylor, and it sucks for the fans. It’s where we’re at, and we’re going to work through it.”
The Dolphins were one team widely reported to be interested in Taylor, while the Packers were quietly involved as well, according to ESPN. But it doesn’t sound like the Colts were too serious about trading Taylor. According to several reports, the Colts asked the Dolphins for star receiver Jaylen Waddle in addition to a high draft pick, which is so outlandish that it couldn’t possibly be a real offer.
Ballard said “relationships are reparable,” but it’s hard to see how this saga doesn’t end with the Colts trading Taylor before he plays another down. The trade deadline isn’t until Oct. 31, and the Colts may be able to get a better return for Taylor during the regular season if a team suffers an injury at running back.
■ The first rule of “Tank Club” is you don’t talk about “Tank Club,” but the Cardinals certainly appear to be eyeing next year’s No. 1 pick and Southern Cal quarterback Caleb Williams.
It was no surprise to see Kyler Murray, returning from a torn ACL last December, placed on the PUP list, which keeps him out at least four games. But it was eye-opening to see the Cardinals also release 36-year-old journeyman
Colt McCoy, who battled an elbow injury but was the Cardinals’ first-team quarterback throughout the spring and training camp and started their first two preseason games. The Cardinals also released veterans Jeff Driskel and
David Blough.
That means for Week 1 in Washington, the Cardinals’ options at quarterback are Clayton Tune, a rookie fifthround pick; Josh Dobbs, who was acquired in a trade with the Browns on Aug. 24; or Driskel, who was re-signed to the practice squad.
“I know the QB situation will play out however the coaches see fit. For me, I am ready to compete every day,” Dobbs said.
This Cardinals season is already setting up to be an all-time disaster.
■ The Bills unsurprisingly kept 34year-old pass rusher Von Miller on the PUP list nine months after he tore his ACL. He’ll miss the first four games, including division games against the Jets and Dolphins, but the Bills need him more for the end of the season. The
Bills play at New England in Week 7 and host the Patriots in Week 17.
Meanwhile, the best story of training camp was Damar Hamlin returning to action and making the Bills as a backup safety. The Bills didn’t know if Hamlin would be hesitant on the field after his life-changing ordeal last January, but Hamlin has cleared every hurdle. He had 10 tackles in three preseason games, playing 80 snaps on defense and 19 on special teams.
“From my nonmedical standpoint, I think he’s checked all the boxes as far as that goes,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said.
■ Per Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap, the teams with the most similar rosters from 2022: Bengals and Bills
(76 percent return rate), Ravens (75.4 percent), Chargers (75 percent), and Jaguars (73.8 percent).
The teams with the lowest percentage of players from 2022: Cardinals (43.5 percent), Texans (49.2 percent), Bears (50.8 percent), Panthers (54.4 percent), and Falcons and Titans (56.5 percent).
■ A mixed bag of results for former Patriots. Jacoby Brissett (Commanders), Jarrett Stidham (Broncos), Braxton Berrios (Dolphins), Damien Harris (Bills), and Justin Herron (Raiders) are all on 53-man rosters. So is linebacker
Cameron McGrone, a 2021 fifth-round pick who has found a spot with the Colts. Hjalte Froholdt, a 2019 fourthround pick who was the first position player ever drafted out of Denmark, has seemingly won the starting center job for the Cardinals, his fourth team.
Signed to a practice squad after being cut are cornerback Joejuan Williams (Vikings), safety Eric Rowe (Panthers), offensive linemen Chasen Hines (Dolphins) and Bill Murray (Bears), and tight end Dalton Keene (Texans).
Released toward the end of camp and looking for work: 2019 first-round pick N’Keal Harry (released by Vikings), linebacker Chase Winovich (Texans), tight end Devin Asiasi (Bengals), and tackle Yodny Cajuste (Jets).
TURNING THE PAGE 49ers move on from QB Lance
The biggest story of roster cuts happened four days before the deadline, when the 49ers cut their losses with Trey Lance and traded him to the Cowboys for a fourth-round pick.
GM John Lynch and coach Kyle Shanahan are fortunate that they have built an impressive roster that reached three NFC Championship games in four years. And that they stumbled upon Brock Purdy, last year’s seventh-round pick who was the surprise of the 2022 season and is now the starting QB.
Most GMs and head coaches don’t survive a whiff as big as the 49ers made on Lance, giving up three first-round picks for the right to take him No. 3 overall in 2021.
“When you put that much into a player, it usually is really tough to rebound from,” Lynch acknowledged. “Fortunately, we’ve been able to continue to grow this team, to make this team better. And we were very fortunate for Brock to become what he’s become.”
Lance came into the league a raw prospect, and injuries derailed his development. A broken finger suffered in the fourth preseason game wrecked his rookie year, and a broken ankle ended his second season af- ter just two games. Lance struggled to gain footing this preseason and lost out to Sam Darnold and Brandon Allen to be Purdy’s backup. Shanahan took the trade hard.
“I will always feel like I let Trey down,” he said. “Obviously, we took our shot and it didn’t work out. So, that’s on us for that. But I’m not going to say anything as in failure. That’d be too much of a negative towards Trey.”
The 49ers were surprised they were able to get even a fourth-round pick from the Cowboys.
Lynch said Thursday on KNBR radio that he didn’t want to send Lance to Dallas, but the Cowboys’ offer was by far the best.
Still, the 49ers aren’t celebrating. “I’m not doing cartwheels over it because my preference would’ve been that it worked out,” Lynch said. “And there’s circumstances for that, and we can explain them away, but the reality is the reality.”
The 49ers finally get a first-round pick again in 2024, and have managed to remain near the top of the NFL despite losing out on three straight firstrounders. But the void in high-end young talent could catch up with the 49ers soon.
ETC. Dolphins made good use of trades
Then there are the Dolphins, who have been restocked with elite talent thanks to trades with the Texans and 49ers. In 2020, they got two 1s and a 2 in a package deal centered around tackle Laremy Tunsil. The Dolphins later used the No. 3 overall pick acquired in the Tunsil trade to get the three No. 1s from the 49ers.
All those picks resulted in drafting receiver Jaylen Waddle in 2021, trading for receiver Tyreek Hill in 2022, and trading for pass rusher Bradley Chubb in 2022. The Dolphins also got developing superstar safety Jevon Holland with the Texans’ second-round pick in 2021.
Dolphins GM Chris Grier couldn’t have hit bigger home runs with those trades. The only problem, like the
49ers, is getting wrong the quarterback evaluation — in this case picking Tua Tagovailoa over Justin Herbert in 2020.
Brandt’s influence still felt
Rest in peace, Gil Brandt, Tom Landry’s former right-hand man for 30 years who died Thursday at 91. Brandt was the Cowboys’ first chief talent scout when the team was born in 1960, helped establish them as “America’s Team” with two Super Bowl wins in the 1970s, and was a pioneer in the scouting community, breaking barriers with computerized scouting, the use of psychological testing, and the creation of the Combine, which is one of the NFL’s signature events.
“His influence can still be seen in the current Combine and how teams evaluate college prospects today,” Saints GM Mickey Loomis said.
Brandt, a 2019 Hall of Fame inductee, always had a good story to tell. He loved Bill Belichick, recalling in 2013 how Belichick once called him up to ask how the Cowboys were once able to win 17 games in a row.
“I said, ‘Coach, aren’t you visiting the president today?’ ” Brandt said. “He said, ‘Oh, that was this afternoon. I’m on my way home now. I need to know what you guys did to win 17 straight games.’ ”
Extra points
One entity happy to see Aaron Rodgers with the Jets — CBS. The Jets haven’t made the playoffs since 2010 or been relevant since 2015, but that likely will change with Rodgers in tow. “It’s a pleasure to have the New York Jets exactly where we are in the pecking order,” CBS Sports chairman Sean McManus said this past week. “It’s the biggest television market in the country. He is in many ways one of the most marketable quarterbacks in the history of the NFL. They’ve got a great young defense, terrific weapons on offense, and a first balloter at quarterback. This Jets-Cowboys game [Week 2 in Dallas] is the most anticipated Jets game in many, many years. To have a relevant Jets team on your network eight times as we do is really, it’s a dream come true.” . . . Despite more cross-flexing games than ever, CBS is still primarily the broadcaster of AFC games, and lucked out this year with the deeper conference and most of the game’s top quarterbacks. The Chiefs will be on CBS eight times, and CBS has four marquee games — Jets-Cowboys in Week 2, Eagles-Bills in Week 12, Bills-Chiefs in Week 14, and a Bengals-Chiefs rematch in Week 17. “The story lines in the AFC are amazing this year,” McManus said
. . . The Bengals are lucky that Joe Burrow is a better team player than I would be in his situation. Burrow returned to practice on Wednesday, a month and three days after suffering a strained calf muscle on July 27. While Lamar Jackson, Herbert, and Jalen Hurts signed $260 million contracts this summer, Burrow is still waiting for his deal. Considering Burrow’s importance to the organization — they were one of the NFL’s worst before his arrival, and now have made two straight conference championship games and one Super Bowl — who could blame him if he refused to take another snap until the team paid him his big contract? Especially given Burrow’s injury history — a torn ACL as a rookie, appendicitis last year, and now a strained calf that isn’t expected to keep him out of the regular season. The Bengals are lucky that Burrow apparently doesn’t want to play hardball
. . . In 2008, the Dolphins became the NFL’s first $1 billion team. Now, per Forbes, the average NFL team is worth $5.1 billion, with the minimum value at $3.5 billion (Bengals) and the Cowboys topping out at $9 billion. The Patriots ranked second at $7 billion. Stephen Ross’s $1.1 billion investment in the Dolphins has quintupled to $5.7 billion in 15 years . . . The Patriots’ release of quarterback Bailey Zappe was one of the biggest surprises of cutdown day. But a league source said the Patriots actually began souring on Zappe late last season. They were hoping he would push Mac Jones, but Zappe instead fell behind in practice, and the gap between the two QBs only widened. In retrospect, Belichick’s refusal to publicly name Jones the starting quarterback in training camp was more about seeing if Zappe could rise to the challenge than not naming Jones the starter. The Patriots like Zappe enough to keep him on the practice squad, but he didn’t show them enough in training camp to cement his job as the No. 2.