ALL THE TRIMMINGS — QB Nate Hybl, OL Chad Ward, WR Richard Alston, TE Jeff Kostrewa (who was signed just one day ago), DE Corey Jackson, and WR Antoine Burns were cut on Tuesday. DE Israel Idonije was placed on injured reserve. That brings the roster down to 70. By Sunday, the Turk must root out 17 more.
Who will they be? Again, based on no special inside information, here is my analysis:
These seven players will almost certainly be cut:
DL Thomas Pittman
LS Bryan Pittman
OL Enoch Demar
OL Ray Redziniak
P Jay Taylor
WR Marc Soumah
LB Jeremy Loyd.
WR Frisman Jackson is on the Physically Unable to Perform list, which keeps him out for the first six weeks. RB Lee Suggs will probably join him or go on the Injured Reserve list, which would sideline him for the entire year.
That leaves eight more players to cut. Here are 16 “bubble” players, grouped by position:
Linebackers: Howard Clark, Sherrod Coates, and Mason Unck. Ace’s take: cut them all, leaving us with six LBs. If it appears Chaun Thompson’s knee will keep him out of the Indy game, PUP him and keep Clark to help on special teams.
Offensive linemen: Chad Beasley, Qasim Mitchell and Paul Zukauskas. Ace’s take: Keep Qasim due to his potential upside. Cutting the other two would leave us with eight on the line.
Defensive linemen: Cedric Scott and Felipe Claybrooks. Ace’s take: Keep Claybrooks, who also looks good on special teams. Even without Scott, that’s nine down linemen, which we’ll need in order to rotate players in to stay fresh.
RB/FB/TE: Billy Blanchard, Kevin McLeod, and Chad Mustard. Ace’s take: Keep McLeod, the team’s only legitimate fullback, and TE Mustard, listed at 6’6″ and 288 pounds.
Secondary: Rickey Sharpe, Kalvin Pearson and Leigh Bodden. Ace’s take: Keep two of the three, probably Sharpe and Bodden, and see who develops over the long term. That leaves ten players in the secondary, so maybe quality will emerge from quantity.
Wide receiver: Andre King and C.J. Jones. Ace’s take: Butch will probably keep them both, but we’re long at this position, and King turns 30 this year. If we cut him, we could keep Scott or Beasley to bolster our lines. Tough call. Let’s keep both King and C.J., at least until Frisman Jackson is healthy.
Of course, much depends on Thursday’s game with Atlanta. The timing is good: the Detroit debacle becomes old news faster, the team gets to fully recover before the season opener, and the coaching staff has plenty of time to analyze the game before the final cuts.
