By Alex Kozora
The initial roster cuts were announced yesterday afternoon. While there’s so many angles we could attack for this article, we’ll focus on the 2014 rookie class as a whole. As Pittsburgh Steelers’ fans are way too familiar with by now, two healthy drafted rookies could not crack the 53 this year and one landed on injured/reserve.
Below, we’ll look at how that stacked up with the rest of the league. All the 2014 draft picks that were cut are listed below.
Round Five
147. Ricardo Allen/DB – Atlanta
157. Shaquille Richardson/DB – Pittsburgh
162. Ed Reynolds/DB – Philadelphia
172. Jimmy Staten/DT – Seattle
Round Six
179. Jon Halapio/OG – New England
184. Kendall James/DB – Minnesota
186. Lache Seastrunk/RB – Washington
187. Bennett Jackson/DB – New York Giants
190. Matt Hazel/WR – Miami
194. Keith Wenning/QB – Baltimore
202. Tavon Rooks/OT – New Orleans
203. Andrew Jackson/LB – Indianapolis
207. Matt Paradis/C – Denver
213. Tajh Boyd/QB – New York Jets
214. Garrett Gilbert/QB – St. Louis
Round Seven
217. Ted Bolser/TE – Washington
226. Michael Van Dyk/OT – St. Louis
227. Kiero Small/RB – Seattle
228. Zach Hocker/K – Washington
230. Robert Blanchflower/TE – Pittsburgh
240. Tevin Reese/WR – San Diego
241. Christian Bryant/DB – Seattle
244. Jeremy Gallon/WR – New England
249. Michael Sam/DE – St. Louis
252. Lavelle Westbrooks/DB (IR settlement) – Cincinnati
253. Yawin Smallwood/LB – Atlanta
254. Terrence Mitchell/DB – Dallas
Analysis
In all, 27 of the 256 picks were cut. That’s a little over ten percent. From most to least, the cuts team-by-team.
Seattle Seahawks: 3
St. Louis Rams: 3
Washington Redskins: 3
Atlanta Falcons: 2
New England Patriots: 2
Pittsburgh Steelers: 2
Philadelphia Eagles: 1
Baltimore Ravens: 1
Cincinnati Bengals: 1
Dallas Cowboys: 1
Denver Broncos: 1
Indianapolis Colts: 1
Miami Dolphins: 1
Minnesota Vikings: 1
New Orleans Saints: 1
New York Giants: 1
New York Jets: 1
San Diego Chargers: 1
The caveat to the above list lies with the amount of selections. The more picks, the more players you’re likely to cut.
Thirteen teams had nine or more selections. Of the six teams that cut multiple draft picks, all but the Redskins had at least nine. Washington had eight.
And the obvious qualifier here is players who landed on injured reserve aren’t counted. The San Francisco 49ers may have drafted 12 players but multiple ones ended up on a reserve list. I treated everything equal for consistency’s sake. I’m well aware Richardson was hurt but only players that were sent to injured reserve were excluded from being cut. Refer to Dave’s master list he posted last night. That was the guide I used.
Four picks from the fifth round were cut. As you can tell, Richardson was the second highest selection to receive a pink slip.
In the sixth, 11 selections were shown the door. In a mild surprise, the seventh round had just one more, 12.
Eight defensive backs, four offensive lineman, three quarterbacks and wide receivers, two running backs, tight ends, defensive lineman, and linebackers, and one kicker make up the positional breakdown.
