Ask any NFL coach the worst part of their job and the overwhelming response will be cutting players.
More than 1,100 players will be released when teams have to trim down their rosters to 53 by 4 p.m. EDT Tuesday, a process that has already started. It’s a difficult task for coaching staffs. Nobody enjoys telling players to turn in their playbooks because they didn’t make the team.
“It rips at my heart. It does because if they were my son, I see them through that lens because my kids are getting older now and you see how hard they work and what they put into it and they’ve done everything that we’ve asked,” Buffalo Bills coach Sean McDermott said. “These guys are so grateful, they’re so appreciative and full of class. Again, it’s hard from a football standpoint but even harder from a, ‘Hey, these guys are good guys and they’re winners,’ (standpoint). Sometimes it doesn’t last in football, right? But that’s where you get a reminder that football isn’t everything and life is what’s most important. I told these guys they’re going to be winners in life and that’s ultimately what is most important.”
Teams that have several talented players competing for the same position end up with the toughest decisions. It’s a welcome problem.
“When you become a good team, the cuts get harder,” Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles said. “When you don’t have anything, you can keep everybody. The cuts become harder. It’s always difficult because you don’t want to be a guy to tell (someone) they can’t play pro ball anymore. It doesn’t mean it’s the end of the road, it just means it’s the end of the road here. That’s always tough when you have to tell someone that. I think any coach will tell you that same thing. (There are) always difficult decisions, but we understand that going in from a coaches’ and players’ standpoint, and we make decisions we think will make us better and we move on from there.”
Teams can bring guys back on the practice squad if another team doesn’t claim them off waivers. Each team can have up to 16 players, including a maximum of six eligible veteran players with unlimited experience, on the practice squad. The remainder have to be players with two or fewer accrued seasons. Teams can also have one additional player from the International Player Pathway program.
Players can be signed off a practice squad to another team’s active roster at any time.
“It’s tough this year, probably the toughest that it will be and has been for myself because I feel like our team is a very competitive team,” Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. “We got a lot of really great depth, a lot of great guys that you want to keep around. Most of the discussions lie in how can you try to keep as many guys as possible. Not who you’re getting rid of, but how can you keep these guys around. That’s the tough part about it. It’s trying to keep more not, per se, who you’re getting rid of.”
___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Rob Maaddi, The Associated Press
