Well, I had hoped to get one more roster projection up-and-posted, but there's no point now since the cuts are quickly starting to roll in around the league. Today, two of the "big" cuts reported were cornerback Brandon McDonald and defensive end C.J. Mosley.
I doubted McDonald's chances heading into camp, but it seemed like he'd be "okay" as the fourth cornerback. Apparently not, and he won't even get the chance to "rape" Terrell Owens. Mosley, meanwhile, spent all of camp on the physically unable to perform list.
NOTE: GO HERE FOR THE FINAL BROWNS ROSTER CUT THREAD.
Here is the official list of Browns players who have been cut so far:
Offensive Players
- WR Jake Allen - No surprise given he had two horrible drops in the final preseason game, one that led to an interception. He's also made several blunders at the receiver position in other preseason games.
- WR Syndric Steptoe - He was a former seventh-round pick who happened to stick around awhile. I thank him for his cool name, but after several years, it was clear he really couldn't benefit our offense.
- TE Joel Gamble - We didn't get a long look at the young tight end, but he was already released once so this wasn't a surprise.
- OL Casey Bender - Bender had no shot at making the final roster, and neither did Fanaika below. They either didn't get reps in the preseason, or were a part of the offensive line that kept getting McCoy and Ratliff killed.
- OG Paul Fanaika - See above.
- OL Joel Reinders - We finally saw our YouTube project in action against the Bears for a few series. His highlights were allowing a pass rusher to easily blow by him and then to receive a lecture from Mangini on the sideline. There's still an off chance he could be on the practice squad for development.
Defensive Players
- DL C.J. Mosley - With Brian Schaefering coming on strong, this wasn't too big of a surprise I guess. On that note, I would've thought we would've just left him on the PUP for six weeks in case we needed him.
- CB Coye Francies - Can we please try to get Francies on the practice squad? He has a knack for taking a chance at making the tackle at the line of scrimmage rather than waiting for a receiver/runner to come to him.
- CB Brandon McDonald - This is probably the biggest surprise given the news that Gerard Lawson and Coye Francies had already been cut. This either means we will keep the extra safeties for special teams help, or someone like Chris Chancellor or DeAngelo Smith will sneak on the roster. If nothing else, we could probably find a veteran corner who was cut from a different team and sign him.
Use this as the official open thread for rumored cuts on the Browns or big cuts around the NFL. After all the cuts are made, I'll go back and look at the last roster projection I made. However, I'll go on record with one change here: with Montario Hardesty done for the year, I'd insert Chris Jennings in his place by default.