There will still be some
fine-tuning of rosters between now and the actual kick-off to the
regular season later this week, however, for the most part the 32 NFL
teams that are going to contest the upcoming season are now in place.
And while it is an imperfect indicator, results from this week's
cutdown date re-inforce the notion that the 2009 draft class was
necessarily all that strong. Indeed, 41 players players selected at
last April's
draft were released prior to Saturday's deadline for teams to be down
to the opening-day
53-man roster limit. That's well below the figure in 2008 when just 32
drafted players were released prior to the start of the season,
although it is more in line with numbers in 2006 (40) and 2007 (45).
The 2009 number is
also below the figure in the first half of the decade when around 35
rookie draftees were released prior to the opening of the season.
Meanwhile, another 21 rookie draftees were placed on a
reserve list prior to the start of the season, up slightly from 17 in
2008.
Not surprisingly, the majority of the released draft picks were
selected in the later rounds. Indeed, well over half - 25 of the 41-
players selected at the 2008 draft who were released prior to the
opening day
53-man roster deadline were taken in the 7th round, while another 7
were released from both the 5th and 6th rounds. At the same time, just
two players selected in the 4th round this year were cut last weekend,
while none of the 100 players taken within the
first three rounds of the 2008 draft were released prior to the
deadline. One player taken in this year's second round - Arizona LB
Cody Brown, the 63rd player taken this year - though, was placed on a
reserve list, as were four more players from the 3rd round.. For the
record, the highest drafted player released this year was
LB Slade Norris, a 4th round pick by Oakland who was taken with the
126th pick overall at the 2009 draft.
While the total number of drafted rookies who aren't on their teams
opening day rosters is up this year, the cuts were spread pretty much
across the league. Indeed, just 2 teams - Minnesota and the New York
Jets - neither
released nor IRed any of their players taken at the 2009 draft,
compared with 4 last yera and 9 in 2007. The numbers for the Vikings
and Jets, though, are somewhat misleading as Minnesota had just 5 picks
this year, while the Jets only had three. At the same time, Houston,
Carolina, Tampa Bay, San Diego and New Orleans didn't release any of
their draft picks this year, but did place at least one on a reserve
list. Overall, Tennessee and Denver, with 9 each, have the most 2009
draft picks on their roster, while the Jets, New Orleans, and
Baltimore, with just three each, have the fewest. Here's a quick
rundown
of the status of every team's draft class as of this evening. Of
course, these are just the raw numbers and don't refer at all to the
quality of the players kept.
TEAM
2009
picks
On roster
Cut
Placed
on IR
% on final
roster
Minnesota
5
5
0
0
100%
New York Jets
3
3
0
0
100%
Denver
10
9
1
0
90%
Jacksonville
9
8
1
0
89%
Miami
9
8
1
0
89%
Houston
8
7
0
1
88%
Cleveland
8
7
1
0
88%
Buffalo
8
7
1
0
88%
Green Bay
8
7
1
0
88%
Carolina
7
6
0
1
86%
Seattle
7
6
1
0
86%
San Francisco
7
6
1
0
86%
Tampa Bay
6
5
0
1
83%
Tennessee
11
9
2
0
82%
Pittsburgh
9
7
2
0
78%
San Diego
8
6
0
2
75%
Arizona
8
6
1
1
75%
Kansas City
8
6
1
1
75%
Indianapolis
8
6
2
0
75%
Atlanta
8
6
2
0
75%
Cincinnati
11
8
3
0
73%
St. Louis
7
5
1
1
71%
Washington
7*
5*
2
0
71%
Oakland
7
5
2
0
71%
Detroit
10
7
3
0
70%
New England
12
8
1
3
67%
Chicago
9
6
2
1
67%
Philadelphia
8
5
1
2
63%
New York Giants
9
5
3
1
56%
New Orleans
4
2
0
2
50%
Dallas
12
6
3
3
50%
Baltimore
6
3
2
1
50%
* Includes DE Jeramy Jarmon selected in summer supplemnetal draft
If you have comments or
suggestions, e-mail
the Editor, Great Blue North
Draft
Report. The GBN can also be reached by phone at (613) 727-3388; by
fax at (613) 951-0387; or regular mail at 44 Northview Road, Unit 8,
Ottawa,
Ontario, Canada, K2E 7E4.