Thoughts on the Redskins First Round of Cuts

The Redskins started cutting down to 75 players today, well ahead of tomorrow’s 4 p.m. deadline. Ten of the moves have already been announced, here is the team’s press release:

The Washington Redskins announced today that they have waived the following players:

LB Ricky Elmore

FB Eric Kettani

K John Potter

WR Chip Reeves

LB Quan Sturdivant

The team terminated the contract of the following vested veteran:

WR Donté Stallworth

The team waived the following players with injured designations:

CB Richard Crawford

LB Jeremy Kimbrough

The team placed the following players on the Reserve/Injured list:

LB Keenan Robinson

S Phillip Thomas

No big surprises here among the cuts. I thought originally John Potter and Eric Kettani would last till final cuts so they could get a little work in the final preseason game while starters rest, but neither was going to make the team. I figured since he was just signed Sturdivant would get a look in the final preseason game, but he really had no shot at the roster either.

The first five players that were waived will be subject to waivers and could be claimed by another team. Among this list it is unlikely that any will be claimed. Stallworth is free to sign with another team immediately, though he’ll probably wait to see what opportunities are out there. Among the injured players the most interesting thing is the fact that Richard Crawford was waived with an injury designation. While he is all but guaranteed to end up on injured reserve, he is technically exposed to waivers. I’m not clear why exactly this was done and he wasn’t just placed on the Reserve/Injured list like Keenan Robinson and Phillip Thomas. I had thought that all non-vested players (less than 4 years) had to pass through waivers before going on IR, but that obviously isn’t the case with Robinson and Thomas. What it could possibly be (and this is just speculation), is that some contracts for late round, UDFA, street free agents contain split-contract language. Meaning that if the player is on IR he costs less to the team. Since Crawford was a 7th rounder and Robinson and Thomas were 4th rounders, this could explain the difference. Perhaps to utilize a split level contract the player needs to go through waivers first.That is just speculation, but it is the best reason I can think of for the difference.