The Roster Final Five

The Redskins have made their initial rounds of cuts. There were some mild surprises as well such as Kevin Simon a 7th round pick this year and projected to be the main backup for Lemar Marshall and Robert Johnson the presumed 3rd Tight End as well as some predictable others. But with those cuts the Redskins roster is now reduced to 75 players.

But not all 22 players are battling for roster spots. In fact I think there are only 5 roster positions actually open for competition at this time. Many of these Redskins are fighting for practice squad births and barring that to show enough that another team may take a shot on them. I think the following players and positions are safe roster bets, barring catastrophic injury on Thursday night:

QB: Mark Brunell, Jason Campbell, Todd Collins
RB: Clinton Portis, TJ Ducketts, Ladell Betts, Rock Cartwright
FB: Mike Sellers
TE: Chris Cooley, Christian Fauria
WR: Santana Moss, Brandon Lloyd, Antwaan Randle-El, David Patten, James Thrash
OL: Chris Samuels, Derrick Dockery, Casey Rabach, Randy Thomas, Jon Jansen, Tyson Walters, Mike Puccillo, Spencer Folau
DL: Cornelius Griffin, Phillip Daniels, Renaldo Wynn, Andre Carter, Joe Salave’a, Cedric Killings, Anthony Montgomery, Demetric Evans
LB: Marcus Washington, Lemar Marshall, Warrick Holdman, Rocky McIntosh, Khary Campbell, Jeff Posey
DB: Shawn Springs, Carlos Rogers, Sean Taylor, Adam Archueletta, Mike Rumph, Kenny Wright, Ade Jimoh, Pierson Prioleau,
LS: Ethan Allbright
K: John Hall
P: Derrick Frost*

*unless the redskins sign another Punter that lasts more then 6 freakin hours. Really 6 hours? I think I could last six hours on the team. It may be the last six hours of my life but I think I could do it. I am thinking the Redskins on 3rd and long should let Mark Brunell throw a high long bomb for an interception.

Usually it comes down to special team play for the last Five spots, but this year may be different. Many of the special teams Aces like Rock Cartwright & Khary Campbell are already sitting in the cat bird’s seat. So the final 5 roster spots will most likely be determined by how a player backs up the individual position as well as special teams play.

I think there are 12 players who legitimately can make claims to battling for the final 6 roster spots. Thos players are Nehemiah Broughton (FB), Manuel White (FB), Jasper Harvey (OL), Ikechuku Ndukwe (OL), Buck Ortega (TE), Kedrick Golston (DT), Spencer Havner (LB), Robert McCune (LB), Kenny Battle (CB), Christian Morton (CB), Reed Dougherty (S), Vernon Fox (S)

On the surface it looks pretty simple. There are in most cases 2 players battling each other at the same position. It is not as simple as it sounds. Will the Redskins go with youth who might grow into a better player, or will they go with a veteran hoping to sign the youth to the PS and keep both? And besides battling the guy in the same position as you are also competing against the other bubble players. Will the Redskins keep 9 or 10 OL? 6 or 7 LB? Will they need a 3rd TE or a 9th DL more? With Springs hurt do we keep an inordinate amount of corners and hope players like Rumph can back up Safety in a pinch?

We are all just guessing right now but I believe it will shake out as such:

The Redskins will keep Nehemiah Broughton as the backup FB not because he has out played Manny White, but because of his versatility and ability to play RB in a pinch. Manny White is gone as he is not eligible for the PS.

The Redskins will keep the third TE instead of the 9th DL and thus Buck Ortega makes the team. Why? Versatility. Sure Sellers can play an emergency TE but that would mean someone else would have to play FB. Also Renaldo Wynn and Demetric Evan’s versatility will allow for the loss of the usual 9 GW likes to keep. Kedric Golston will have a PS spot waiting for him.

Keeping 7 Lbs Spencer Havner makes the squad. Havner can play special teams and contribute while McCune has been injured and losing stock. Robert McCune has an outside chance at making the PS but at 27 who knows whether the Redskins will decide to part ways.

Only keeping the traditional 9 offensive Linemen, Ikechuku Ndukwe will drive the equipment manager nuts but get the last spot. Jasper Harvey is a great young story but I think this is one of the cases where the Redskins risk his release so they can sign him to the PS. Ndukwe is not eligible for the PS.

The final spot goes to Christian Morton. I think Reed Dougherty will stay with the team on the PS and unfortunately Kenny Battle and Vernon Fox may not have enough time to really get in some work. With the injury to Springs, the injury history of Rogers, and the versatility of Prioleau and Rumph, this makes sense. Dougherty will be on the PS waiting to be activated in case of major injury.

So that is how it shakes out. Check out the Cherokee forum where I have put up a poll and you can try and figure out the permutations yourself.