It’s cut season. For a variety of reasons teams are letting go of players, usually some combination of salary vs production; what is often referred to as ‘cap casualties.’ With each cut, there is usually a handful of teams looking to scoop that player up in the hopes he might bolster their own roster. The old ‘one man’s trash is a another man’s treasure’ idea.
Some have already been cut. The likes Robert Alford who was cut by the Falcons and signed a 3-year deal with the Cardinals. Or today Buccaneers cutting defensive end Vinny Curry. And there are a great many who still figure to be cut by their respective teams.
Yet despite the constant cases of players changing teams and proving either that they are still valuable elsewhere or simply needed a change of scenery to make a comeback, fans consistently poopoo the idea of signing cut players. They like to use terms like ‘retread’ and trot out meaningless platitude like ‘he was cut for a reason’. Yeah, no shit.
It doesn’t take a deep dive to uncover a long list of “retreads” who were very valuable to their new team. They’re everywhere. On every roster. But since this is a Raiders site, let’s just look at some Raiders players. And I won’t even go very far in the past so as to not be accused of cherry picking or anything like that.
2018 leading rusher Doug Martin – cut by Buccaneers
2018 second leading receiver Jordy Nelson – cut by Packers
2018 top NFL kicker in field goal % Daniel Carlson – cut by Vikings
2018 top Defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins – cut by Colts
2018 interceptions leader (3) Marcus Gilchrist – cut by Jets
2018 starting cornerback Daryl Worley – cut by Eagles
2018 top special teams player Dwayne Harris – cut by Giants
You could, if you like, add two-time team leading receiver and newly minted Pro Bowl tight end Jared Cook to this list as the Packers opted to let him walk as a free agent in favor of Martellus Bennett (who they cut a few months later).
We haven’t left 2018 yet and the list is already pretty long.
Need more from previous years? How about Pro Bowl LT Donald Penn who was cut by the Bucs? 2017 Leading tackler NaVorro Bowman who was cut by the 49ers? Pro Bowl safety Charles Woodson who was cut by the Packers? Two-time Super Bowl winning QB Jim Plunkett who was cut by the 49ers? Sorry, reached back a ways for that last one. Just pulling them off the top of my head now.
I’m sure many will say that the list of players from last year’s team doesn’t matter because the Raiders were a bad team. This would suggest I couldn’t look at the rosters of the Super Bowl teams and find several valuable contributors. Okay…
The Pats Super Bowl hero cornerback Jason McCourty was cut by the Titans. They got their leading tackler Kyle Van Noy for the cost of moving from the 7th round to the 6th round. That’s ‘we’re about to cut him anyway’ compensation.
Rams late season and postseason hero running back CJ Anderson? Cut by three times in a year, last time by the Raiders. Ndamukong Suh? Cut by the Dolphins.
I could do this all day, but you get the picture. So, when other teams make their cuts, just stop with the ‘retread’ nonsense. Players are cut all the time for a myriad of reasons, most of which don’t mean they are trash that can’t help another team, especially a 4-win team with holes all over the roster.
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