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By 5:00 EST today, NFL teams must trim their rosters down from 90 to 75 players. That's 15 cuts, which represents a neat one-sixth of the 90-man limit. As was reported yesterday on BTB, the Cowboys have already made two cuts, releasing DE Martez WIlson and FB J.C. Copeland. That leaves a full thirteen designations left to be made.
And they must be made carefully. Dallas can't simply cut the thirteen "worst" guys left on the team. Rather, they must look carefully at the numbers and pare each position down a bit, leaving sufficient numbers to field a team for the fourth preseason game - which, as you know, is the one where teams traditionally rest their starters. With the plethora of players either injured or on their way back from injuries, this is likely to be a much more difficult cut-down that is usually the case.
With that in mind, I turned to the experts - my fellow BTB front page writers - and asked them who they thought would be the "unlucky thirteen." O.C.C., Joey, and Neithan2000 were kind enough to share their predicted cuts. Here's what the four of us came up with (Note: "Des."=designation):
| OCC | Joey | Neithan | Rabble | ||||||||
| Player | Pos. | Des. | Player | Pos. | Des. | Player | Pos. |
Des. | Player | Pos. |
Des. |
| Matt Johnson | S | IR | Matt Johnson | S | IR | Matt Johnson | S | IR | Matt Johnson | S | IR |
| Jordan Najvar | TE | IR | Jordan Najvar | TE | IR | Jordan Najvar | TE | IR | Jordan Najvar | TE | IR |
| DeVonte Holloman | LB | IR/ Ret | DeVonte Holloman | LB | IR/ Ret | DeVonte Holloman | LB | IR/ Ret | DeVonte Holloman | LB | IR/ Ret |
| Adewale Ojomo | DE | CUT | Adewale Ojomo | DE | CUT | Adewale Ojomo | DE | CUT | Adewale Ojomo | DE | CUT |
| Stephen Goodin | OG | CUT | Stephen Goodin | OG | CUT | Stephen Goodin | OG | CUT | Stephen Goodin | OG | CUT |
| Orie Lemon | LB | CUT | Orie Lemon | LB | CUT | Wayne Tribue | OG | CUT | Wayne Tribue | OG | CUT |
| Casey Kreiter | LS | CUT | Casey Kreiter | LS | CUT | Casey Kreiter | LS | CUT | Casey Kreiter | LS | CUT |
| Tom Hornsby | P | CUT | Tom Hornsby | P | CUT | Tom Hornsby | P | CUT | Tom Hornsby | P | CUT |
| Caleb Hanie | QB | CUT | Caleb Hanie | QB | CUT | *Amobi Okoye | DT | IR | Caleb Hanie | QB | CUT |
| Johnny Thomas | S | CUT | Johnny Thomas | S | CUT | Johnny Thomas | S | CUT | Johnny Thomas | S | CUT |
| Josh Aladenoye | OT | CUT | Josh Aladenoye | OT | CUT | Josh Aladenoye | OT | CUT | Keith Smith | LB | CUT |
| Tim Benford | WR | CUT | LaRon Byrd | WR | CUT | Tim Benford | WR | CUT | Tim Benford | WR | CUT |
| Dez Briscoe | WR | CUT | Dez Briscoe | WR | CUT | Dez Briscoe | WR | CUT | Dez Briscoe | WR | CUT |
*Neithan notes that, if the team can put Okoye on some form of IR, his nominated cut is LB Keith Smith.
Not a lot of disputes here among our team of Close Cowboys Watchers (although I do believe that, had the team waited until today to release Martez Wilson, many of us would have missed on that one). Here's where we vary:
- O.C.C. and Joey see Orie Lemon getting the axe; Neithan and I call out a second guard, camp addition (and camp body) Wayne Tribue.
- Three of us see Caleb Hanie clearing out his locker; Neithan sees him sticking around, at least for a few more days.
- The other guys wave farewell to Josh Aladenoye; I think he'll play against the Broncos, so they cut the last linebacker on the field on Saturday, Keith Smith.
- Three of us predict that Tim Benford's run in Dallas is over; Joey thinks that LaRon Byrd will be the one asked to take his playbook to Garrett's office.
What do you think, BTBers? Who are your 13 unluckies? Where did we hit? Miss? Go to the comments section and let 'er rip!