Post Cut Day Maneuvering

Oops

The Redskins continue to surprise as they solidify the regular season roster. Cut day was Saturday then once everyone has cleared waivers teams may re-sign up to eight players for the practice squad. The Redskins surprised me with who they signed and didn't sign and are made two questionable moves in the aftermath, moves that made me say, what the fuhh.....?

First the practice squad then the other moves. The Redskins signed the following players to the eight-man practice squad:

FB Brian Bell
DE Alex Buzbee
CB John Eubanks
OL Kili Lefotu
LB Matt Sinclair
WR Burl Ives Toler
LB Anthony Trucks
CB Byron Westbrook

Brian Bell surprised me, he dropped two passes in the Jaguars preseason game. Pete Schmitt looked good in the one game I saw (Titans preseason) and although I never really got a look at Fred Beasley, he was an NFL veteran known quantity.

Alex Buzbee is part of the youth movement on the defensive line. Watch them get pancaked again and again this season.

With that name John Eubanks has a career as a game show host after football. I could not tell him from David Macklin from Leigh Torrence but I guess the team thought more highly of David and Leigh than John.

Kili Lefotu is still under longterm observation after vapor locking in his dorm room during last season's training camp.

The Redskins were loaded with young linebackers with HB Blades, Dallas Sartz (cut) and Anthony Trucks and Matt Sinclair made the practice squad. I did not see much of Matt in the preseason and have no real opinion.

Burl Ives Toler seemed to me to be the most distinguished of the indistinguishable no-name receivers the Redskins cycled through this preseason but then again maybe it's just the name. Carl Berman seemed to be roughly as good and about the same size as Burl but I think Carl fell victim to being Jordan Palmer's favorite target during his ah-ah-ahwwwwful second half in the Jaguars preseason game and the team wanted to flush all trace of Jordan away and that meant Carl. More on Jordan in a moment.

I liked Anthony Trucks, he seemed to make the best out of playing with the second and third teams in preseason. But again, a linebacker with a name like Trucks? As in did anyone get the number of that Trucks? Instantly memorable and he may have ridden that name as far as he will.

Byron Westbrook must have some promise, and with Shawn Springs held together by rubber bands and duct tape, it's good the team is trying to bring along some future talent. Will Byron and John Eubanks be future stars or the Mike Rumph and Kenny Wright of the future, who knows.

Jordan Palmer did not make the practice squad and is off the team, a sixth round pick in the 2007 draft, gone. Near as I can tell no other team has picked him up so it looks like he cleared waivers and the team passed on him. Based on the Jaguars preseason game this does not surprise me but they released World Bowl 15 MVP Casey Bramlet to keep Jordan. Now the Redskins go into the season with a 25 year old starter in Jason Campbell and 36 and 35 year old backups Mark Brunell and Todd Collins.

I guess the math is that barring catastrophic injury the team has a few years to bring along another player. I guess I am of the mindset of a former Redskins coach from a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, a guy named Joe Gibbs that espoused a theory that says you are always developing your next quarterback.

Joe Theismann had Jay Schroeder who had Doug Williams who had Mark Rypien who had Cary Conklin who had Chris Hakel. The Redskins backup is ten years older than the starter and there's no one else!

Epilogue: I guess Casey Bramlet was not all those potatoes. After snarfing him right up after the Redskins released him, the Atlanta Falcons, a team desperate for quarterbacking, cut him.

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But here's the funny thing. Someone at Redskins Park doesn't realize preseason is over. The team kept TE Eric Edwards and let Jake Nordin go, giving the team three tight ends, about the right number. Then yesterday after the practice squad feeding frenzy around the league they cut Eric and signed (op. cit.) TE Cody Boyd, an undrafted rookie free agent the Steelers had cut. So that means the two tight ends they tried out and got a long look at, Eric Edwards, Jake Nordin, didn't foot the bill but some guy cut from some other team did. This makes no sense because if Cody was all that, would not have the Steelers kept him?

Alls I know about Eric Edwards is that he caught three in a row from Todd Collins in the fourth quarter of the Titans preseason game to set up Marcus Mason's touchdown and he looked pretty good to me. Even Jake Nordin had a good catch in the Jaguars preseason game but no, these guys are out and some unknown is in, on the roster, the team would rather take a chance with someone else's garbage than go with the guys that spent the summer learning the system. maybe I'm wrong and Cody will be a Pro Bowler, who knows, he's a big guy and maybe they just need a big dude to block.

But wait it gets worse. They signed 25 yeard old, 5-11 186 lbs Shaun Bodiford who was cut by Green Bay. I know, it's like who? So Burl Ives Toler (ok he's on the practice squad), Carl Berman, Jerel Meyers, Ryan Hoag, Jason McAddley, Kyle Brown and Corey Bradford were all no good? And this guy Bodiford, a dead ringer for Mike Espy, is the answer?

And it's all pretty much irrelevant anyway. Santana Moss, Antwaan Randle El, Brandon Lloyd are 1-2-3, with James Thrash being the co-number three. The fifth receiver in this offense could be a Chris Berman sock puppet on Tony Kornheiser's good hand and would get as many catches.


The Redskins putative depth chart is here. I'll have my take on this tomorrow.



Jordan Palmer: Mitchell Layton / Getty Images