And the roster purging has now started around the league. The Giants have released Michael Boley, Chris Canty, and Ahmad Bradshaw. The Lions released Kyle Vanden Bosch and Titus Young (Young was then grabbed up by the Rams. Good luck with that Rams.) The Eagles cut Demetress Bell. (About six months too late. I thought they'd cut him coming out of camp. He was a massive disappointment.) Many of these players had roster bonuses coming due soon, so the teams cut them now rather than pay them.
All of these cuts are largely designed to free up cap space to let teams resign players whose contracts are expiring to prevent them from becoming free agents, and snatch up a few free agents come March. The Eagles reportedly now have somewhere between $15 and $23 million in cap space and are likely to cut/trade a few more guys (Nnamdi Asomugha, Vick, etc.) to get up to around $30 million in cap space. I'm hoping we're a little saner in how we use that cap space and don't just snatch up any free agents out there. The advantage the Eagles have this year in free agency is that every player on the team is starting from scratch with a new coaching staff, so you can splurge a bit more in free agency. Anyone who doesn't buy into Chip Kelly's approach, whether an Eagle vet or a free agent can then be cut and replaced with a player who does. When you're bringing free agents into an established roster it's a tad trickier, but there's nothing established with the Eagles right now, so you can take the chance and bring in a few more free agents.
Expect more names to be crossing the waiver wire over the next few days as teams shuffle their rosters around. Some, like Ahmad Bradshaw, may end up resigning with the team that cut them at a reduced price. Some, like Demetress Bell, may be out of work a long, long time.
Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!
