It's that time of year again and the 49ers made seven cuts to their roster today to get down to the required 80 players. The unfortunate bubble guys that missed the cut are the following:
WR Tyler Beiler
OT Donovan Edwards
OG Nick Howell
WR Kevin Jurovich
LB Scott McKillop
P Sam Paulescu
RB Seth Smith
Probably the most notable is linebacker Scott McKillop. McKillop was a 5th round pick in 2009 out of Pitt and quickly earned a key backup role for the 49ers in his first two seasons. McKillop tore his ACL last season during a practice in August, and has been rehabbing it since. He hasn't been the same since suffering that injury and unfortunately didn't have a spot on the roster.
McKillop is probably not done in the NFL. A lot of the time, ACL injuries take upwards of two years to fully recover from, so here's to hoping he can rehab in the meantime and catch on with an NFL club down the line. When his knee has healed fully and he regains the speed and explosiveness that made him such a great special teams player and backup linebacker for the 49ers, I'm sure he'll get a look or two.
The cutting of punter Sam Paulescu seems to indicate that Andy Lee has recovered enough from his hip pointer injury to play this Thursday.