N.F.L. Alchemy Weekend Thread

N.F.L. Alchemy Weekend Thread

The magic is happening. We’re right in the middle of it. Can you feel it?  The National Football league is literally being transformed as we speak. Every NFL team is in the midst of making their final cut-downs to the mandatory 53 man roster limit. Many teams have already done a majority of the work by releasing players yesterday. NFL.com news reports the important dates in the league year and this is one of them. In fact, it’s hard to think of another day of the year that is more important to so many.

“September 3: Prior to 4:00 p.m., New York time, clubs must reduce rosters to a maximum of 53 players on the Active/Inactive List.”

In many rookies and undrafted free agent’s lives, this is the day of “dreams-come-true” and for other’s this is the day of dashed hopes for life long dreams.This is also a day when many general managers sign players who have been released from other teams to fill holes in their own rosters not only for depth but sometimes to gain a starter. For the Kansas City Chiefs John Dorsey it represents that time of year when he simply improves the team… at a time of year when we previously haven’t expected the Chiefs GM to do that. If Dorsey has many more early September’s like he’s had in the past we’re going to have to put him up for Sainthood. Jaye Howard is Dorsey’s prize Labor Day fire sale acquisition and he’s been nothing short of sensational and the expectations this season to see him and Dontari Poe at full strength is registering off the New Madrid seismograph. Ron Paker is another early September signing and he’s now the Chiefs starting Safety. Last year he signed a rather handsome contract with Kansas City. From sportrac, “Ron Parker signed a 5 year, $25,000,000 contract with the Kansas City Chiefs, including a $5,000,000 signing bonus, $8,000,000 guaranteed, and an average annual salary of $5,000,000.”

John Dorsey has picked up offensive linemen at this time of year too. He picked up Mike McGlynn (oops, there goes the Sainthood thing-ma-jig) and he’s also snagged RT Ryan Harris in 2014 and current swingman Jah Reid in 2015. Let’s not forget how this offseason began for John Dorsey. There’s this from Joel Thorman this past March 10th at the end of the first day of free agency,

“The Kansas City Chiefs are done with the first day of free agency and it was a fun one. The team retained several key players such as Tamba Hali, Derrick Johnson and Jaye Howard while signing Mitch Schwartz. Sean Smith is the last big domino to fall. We’ll recap by looking at the Chiefs winners and losers on day one. Is there a bigger winner on day one than Chiefs GM John Dorsey? Things started off very slow with Jeff Allen, Tyvon Branch and Chase Daniel signing deals elsewhere. Hanging in the balance was Derrick Johnson and Jaye Howard. Not only did Dorsey lock up those two in the span of a few hours, he topped it off by signing arguably the top right tackle on the market in Mitch Schwartz.”

If you’re a Chiefs fan and you don’t like what John Dorsey has done this offseason, you need to go to confession and admit your sins to man (or woman, as the case may be) upstairs… or in the booth.

Now, the only real hole on the Chiefs roster is at inside linebacker where the Chiefs need a semi-truck type player. However, as these things go, every time I expect Dorsey to sign a particular player, or for a specific position, he doesn’t accept my palm-readings… for some lame excuse of a reason. So, I’m faux-focusing on a “new strength coach” this weekend with the hope that Dorsey will be fooled by my misdirected energy of consciousness and voodoo-yoga poses.  <As he waves his arms wildly over his dragon nut covered in fairy-hairs and pixie-poo.>

Let’s take a look at what has already happened and open this up for posting important tweets and news items as it becomes known to us.

We know that DBs Marcus Cooper (trade), Jeron Johnson and Jamell Fleming are all gone. Here’s a tweet from Cooper to Chiefs fans:

https://twitter.com/Mr_Cooper860/status/771886230610993152″ xlink=”href

There’s a rumor out there which says the Philadelphia Eagles are shopping their 2015 second round pick, CB Eric Rowe. With Andy Reid and John Dorsey turning over every cornerback stone this offseason to make up for the loss of Sean Smith to the Oakland Raiders, don’t be surprised to see another deal done to get Rowe in red and gold by the end of today. Rowe came out of the University of Utah, Alex Smith’s old school, and ran a 4.37 second 40 yards dash (he also ran an unofficial 4.27). At 6-foot-1 and 205 Rowe won’t have any trouble finding a landing spot in the NFL if he’s cut and that would also mean that the Chiefs would virtualluy have no chance of landing him. Eric Rowe’s combine workout can be found here. Rowe looks fast and has powerful leg strength to boot. He was a 4-year starter at Utah and if the Chiefs could land him it would shore up their corner positions for years to come. Peters-Rowe-Acker-Gaines-Nelson… there would enough there to create an excellent defensivre backfield considering what Al Harris and Emmitt Thomas bring to the table.

Here are the rest of the National Football League wide “Cuts to 53” that we know of, which have been reported to NFL.com. As you can tell most teams haven’t made any cuts down to the 53 limit as of 5:00 a.m. on this fine Saturday morning. As we find out more, we’ll post it here.

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Arizona Cardinals

Cuts to 53: DB Cariel Brooks, WR Marquis Bundy, OT Rob Crisp, G Antoine McClain, RB Kerwynn Williams. CB Chris Clemons, LB Donald Butler, C Taylor Boggs, QB Jake Coker

Atlanta Falcons

Cuts to 53: OLB Max Starr, K Shayne Graham, OT Bryce Harris, DE Nordly Capi, OT Laurence Gipson, DE Malliciah Goodman, DT Cory Johnson, CB Devonte Johnson, S Damian Parms, OL Collin Rahrig, WR Corey Washington, LB Matt Wells

Baltimore Ravens

Cuts to 53: WR Keenan Reynolds

Buffalo Bills

Cuts to 53: TE Blake Annen, LB Kroy Biermann, WR Jarrett Boykin, CB Mario Butler, WR Kain Colter, DT Brandon Deaderick, DL Lavar Edwards, FB Jerome Felton, RB Dan Herron, LB Randell Johnson, LB Manny Lawson, WR Dezmin Lewis, OL Marquis Lucas, OT Chris Martin, CB Sterling Moore, G Cyril Richardson, CB Sammy Seamster, LB Max Valles, C Fernando Velasco, DT Casey Walker, RB James Wilder Jr.

Chicago Bears

Cuts to 53: DB K’Waun Williams

Cincinnati Bengals

Cuts to 53: S Jimmy Wilson

Dallas Cowboys

Cuts to 53: DB Jeremiah McKinnon, LB Henoc Muamba, DT Zach Wood

Detroit Lion

Cuts to 53: LB Chi Chi Ariguzo

Los Angeles Rams

Cuts to 53: DE Ian Seau, WR Austin Hill

Seattle Seahawks

Cuts to 53: G Jahri Evans

Tennessee Titans

Cuts to 53: WR Justin Hunter, RB Bishop Sankey, RB Dexter McCluster, FB Sam Bergen, OL Jeremiah Poutasi, OL Will Poehls, TE Jerome Cunningham, TE Alex Ellis, RB David Fluellen, LB Curtis Grant, S Marqueston Huff, OT Tyler Marz, C Ronald Patrick, CB Kalan Reed, S Curtis Riley, WR Ben Roberts, K Aldrick Rosas, LB Justin Staples, LB J.R. Tavai, WR Andrew Turzilli, CB B.W. Webb, DT Antwaun Woods

If you’re a Chiefs fan… who happens to get their hopes up frequently like I do… and who also enjoy Star Wars and believe in the power that an increased Midi-clorian count can give to Jedi… then I have but one thing to say to you (well, actually two)… Go Chiefs and may the force be with you!