When Lane Kiffin first arrived at the Oakland Raiders he stressed that no players place on the roster was safe and that competition was paramount, everyone would have to earn their position and there would be no more scholarships... well with the roster cuts yesterday he was true to his word, lets take a look:
- Players cut to get the team down to the final 53 are; WR Alvis Whitted, OT Chad Slaughter, RB Zack Crockett, WR Carlos Francis, WR Chris McFoy, TE O.J. Santiago, TE James Adkisson, OT Mark Wilson, C Jesse Boone, DE Dave Tollefson, DT Josh Shaw, LB Kurt Campbell, CB Marquice Cole, S Donovin Darius, S Eric Frampton, K Tyler Fredrickson, DT Anttaj Hawthorne, DE Quentin Moses and G Kevin Boothe.
- The most surprising cut is Moses, who was taken with the first pick in the third round of this years draft and thought of as the future RE for the Raiders, Moses had a lot of pass-rushing ability but was sometimes considered a liability against the run and was outplayed by fellow rookie Jay Richardson and free agent signing Chris Clemons.
- Other notable cuts include Kevin Boothe, who was the teams best offensive lineman last season after starting 14 games at RG, but was not a system fit in Coach Tom Cables new zone blocking scheme. Donovin Darius was heralded as a fantastic signing earlier in the off-season but never lived up to the hype and struggled with injuries and Al Davis favorite Alvis Whitted is finally cut from the roster, proving that this truly is Lane Kiffin's team.
- There are 22 new players on the roster (in silver) brought in under Kiffin, not including younger players who only made the practice squad or were cut last year such as Adimchinobe Echemandu, Chris Morris and Hiram Eugene.
- QB (3): Daunte Culpepper, Josh McCown, Andrew Walter.
- RB (3): LaMont Jordan, Justin Fargas, Adimchinobe Echemandu.
- FB (2): Justin Griffith, Oren O'Neal.
- WR(5): Jerry Porter, Ron Curry, Johnnie Lee Higgins, Mike Williams, Travis Taylor.
- TE(3): Zach Miller, John Madsen, Tony Stewart.
- OL(9): Barry Sims, Robert Gallery, Jeremy Newberry, Cooper Carlisle, Cornell Green, Mario Henderson, Paul McQuistan, Jake Grove, Chris Morris.
- DL (8): Derrick Burgess, Terdell Sands, Warren Sapp, Tommy Kelly, Jay Richardson, Gerard Warren, Tyler Brayton, Chris Clemons.
- LB (6): Sam Williams, Kirk Morrison, Thomas Howard, Robert Thomas, Ricky Brown, Isaiah Ekejiuba.
- CB (7): Nnamdi Asomugha, Fabian Washington, Stanford Routt, Chris Carr, John Bowie, Chris Johnson, Duane Starks.
- S (4): Michael Huff, Stuart Schweigert, B.J. Ward, Hiram Eugene.
- ST(3): P Shane Lechler, K Sebastian Janikowski, LS Jon Condo.
~ RB Michael Bush: Reserve/Non-Football Injury (PUP)
~ RB Dominic Rhodes: Reserve/Suspended
~ QB JaMarcus Russell: Un-Signed
This isn't the end as more roster moves are likely before the season begins, players from other teams can be claimed off waivers and the Raiders have their 8-man practice squad to organize, then there's the whole Russell debacle, watch this space...
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1 comment:
Nice read, theres rumors that kiff is upset that some of the players that were cut, he did not want to let go, as to make us believe that Al had his hand in this, but as this write up explains Kiffin and Kiffin alone is responsible for the 53 members on the roster.
Cant wait to see what happens!
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