The Oakland Raiders followed an uneventful cut on Tuesday with a head scratcher on Saturday.
Among others, the Raiders cut Stevie Brown, Trent Edwards, Lito Sheppard and Daniel Loper. Most people figured that there would be some notable names in Saturday’s list of roster cuts for the Raiders, but not these names.
The Raiders also cut all of their depth at cornerback by cutting Jeremy Ware, Walter McFadden, Lito Sheppard and Sterling Moore. This leaves Joe Porter, Chris Johnson, Stanford Routt, Demarcus Van Dyke and Chimdi Chekwa as the only cornerbacks on the team. If Chimdi Checkwa ends up being moved to safety, that leaves only four cornerbacks.
This move likely shows that the Raiders are finally realizing just how bad the cornerback situation in Oakland is. After Chris Johnson and Stanford Routt, the Raiders really had no viable options. Second year players Jeremy Ware and Walter McFadden looked like they took a step backwards this year and rookies Demarcus Van Dyke and Chimdi Checkwa are still very raw.
I expect camp stand out Sterling Moore, who was an undrafted free agent, to be signed to the practice squad if not signed by another team. He played well in camp and the preseason but is a long term project.
With other teams cutting their own notable names, the Raiders must try and sign a veteran cornerback before the season starts. Joselio Hanson, who was cut by the Eagles as a result of their overload at the cornerback position, immediately comes to mind. He played a decent amount of man coverage in Philly and is an NFL caliber nickel back.
Many Raiders fans were probably shocked the most by the cuts of second year safety Stevie Brown and guard Daniel Loper.
It was thought that Stevie Brown could compete for playing time this season after having a decent rookie season. Brown was certainly raw, but had that ball hawk mentality and instinct that leads to big plays in the secondary.
Daniel Loper was a back up guard for the Raiders last season who did a good job filling in for Robert Gallery when he was injured. At the time, some thought that after Gallery returned, he should move to right guard and replace the struggling Cooper Carlisle. With Gallery’s departure, he was considered a favorite to take the starting LG position. However, with Wisniwski moving to LG and Carlisle having a strong preseason, Hue Jackson must have decided that Loper was expendable.
Finally, perhaps the most shocking cut was quarterback Trent Edwards. Brought in during the offseason to compete with Kyle Boller for the backup position, but was never able to really out shine Boller. Despite that fact, with Terrelle Pryor suspended for the first five games of the season, this leaves the Raiders with only two quarterbacks to start the season.
These cuts leave the Raiders with a lot of holes on their roster. Hopefully, Al Davis and Hue Jackson are combing the cut lists of other teams in order to fill out this team before week one.