Reviewing The Right 53?
The latest round of Kansas City Chiefs roster cuts have taken place and we’re left with our 53 man roster. Technically it is 54 with safety Eric Berry and his roster exemption. However, that will go away in a week and 1 more player will be cut. A couple days ago I posted the roster I thought John Dorsey and Andy Reid and would select. Today I am going to score that assessment and take a look at the misses. A couple of these cuts were a little surprising and some were overdue.
First order of business… What’s the score?
Overall, I identified 81% of their picks. It’s a B- and I am not too disappointed since half of those were on guys new to the team this year and I was basing the picks on pretty limited views. To break it down a bit further, I was 97% on the “Locks”, 50% on the “Probables”, and 43% on the final 7.
The Locks
Aaron Murray was the miss here. I don’t disagree with him being cut, but thought he fit the system better than Tyler Bray and would end up continuing to be developed. However, based on the final preseason game, Bray was clearly the better player.
The Probables
The players I missed from this group were – Frankie Hammond Jr., Rod Streater, Jarrod Pughsley, Marcus Cooper, and Jamell Fleming. Of these guys, Hammond, Cooper, and Fleming looked awful at times and probably should have been cut a long time ago. They somehow endured and were on the roster, so I thought they would stick for some reason much less tangible than actual NFL skill. Pughsley seemed to be a step up skill-wise on the first two, and he knew the system. Surprised they picked Jordan Devey over him (but he’s now gone as well). I hope Pughsley makes it to the Practice Squad (Update: he did). Rod Streater was the biggest surprise on this list since we picked him up to shore up a position of significant need of some veteran experience. R&D must have seen enough from the other vets and rookies to let him go and get a pick in the process.
Here’s a new one: the price for #49ers to acquire Rod Streater from #Chiefs was a swap of conditional 7th-round picks in 2019.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) September 4, 2016
The Final 7
The last group, and biggest coin flip bunch, was the final 7 to fill out the roster. I looked at this two ways, first, did I get the positions correct and second who was in them. My inability to count correctly (I only listed 6 positions for the 7 names I gave) aside, I nailed the positions. Considering there is a typical breakout of players, this shouldn’t have been too difficult. In this case, there was some debate on carrying 4 TEs and on carrying 4 RBs on top of the FB. Seems R&D went true to form on this assortment, though. The names I missed here were Darrin Reaves, David King, Andy Mulumba, and Jeron Johnson. I can’t say I am really surprised as I was making this judgment on limited game film and stats. However, now Reaves and King are on the Practice Squad.
Aside from the players traded, we can see how close to the bubble they were when we see who makes the Practice Squad (Update: RB Darrin Reaves). We can also take a look at who gets cut (Update: LB Ramik Wilson and G Jordan Devey) when we pick up guys from other team cuts (Update: ILB Sam Barrington and OT Bryan Witzmann).
Overall, I am pretty happy with how the roster is shaking out and the high level of talent on the team. I am looking forward to the R&D work done on the bottom of the roster. I’ll be interesting to see how many picks Dorsey racks up during this cut & stabilize period. So far, 1 draft pick traded out and 1 draft pick traded in, plus it looks like Dorsey is also swapping some hot dog vendors in the Streater deal. But don’t get too excited about getting the hot dog vendor, as that deal doesn’t happen until 2019.
What do you guys think? Any player that R&D let go that could come back to haunt us? Anyone else cut from the roster that is a shocker (not based on their play, but from R&D sticking with them previously, despite that play)?
And there’s The Rub.
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Editor’s Note: Hats off to Frank Leggio for keeping score on his own predictions. How about the rest of you? Can you say who you hit or missed on?