Across the league, Saturday was one of the toughest days of the season for players. Conversely, Saturday was the deadline for the easiest part of any coach’s… the cuts.
***I figured I would resurrect a classic bit in honour of cut down day. I used a few years back but it’s too good not to use again… plus I’m too lazy to keep coming up with new stuff***
Now while we weren’t able to cut everyone we wanted to, we did cut a lot of people.
Smith you’re cut. Jones, Bolden and Solomon you’re cut. Exume, Tyler, Glover, you’re gone. Newman, we liked you’re hustle… that’s why it was so hard to cut you. Congratulations to the rest of you, you made the team. Except Wright, Fance, Weatherspoon,Thiel, Kashindi, Bullock and Silva. You guys are cut.
Now everyone give me 5 laps and hit the showers. Of Frenette, you don’t have to… you’re cut.
Really no major surprises. Bullock caught a few people off guard but I called it on Friday. He showed a lot of promise last year but didn’t have an impressive preseason. Also, while a coverage LB such as Bullock is highly valued in Etch’s system, under the Hall/Marshall system
Frenette was the closest thing to a surprise given that he was a proven vet. While Frenette was arguably one of the best long snapper in the league, he’s currently unemployed because his resume didn’t contain anymore skills. He was a one dimensional player. While there may be a minor drop-off between the snapping of Frenette and Huclack/Krausnick-Groh, that will more than be made up with the other skills they bring to the table such as actually being able to cover a punt and being a viable back-up for other positions (not too mention he fact that they are young and likely even a bit cheaper). There’s just no room for one dimensional players anymore… if there were I would have a thriving career as a QB Kneel specialist.
As an aside, since Alexander Krausnick –Groh looks to be sticking around Riderville for the foreseeable future, the man needs a damn nickname. His current name is too long to say and more importantly type. Since no one else seems to be stepping up to the plate on this one, I guess I will have to handle it myself (again). AKG would be the easy solution but that’s not nearly entertaining enough. My vote is for … If any of you readers have a better suggestion I’m open to it.
Outside of the cuts, the big news was that Brent Hawkins has been placed on the 9 game IR, meaning that his should problems are worse than originally anticipated. It’s too bad because with Shologan and Romero chewing up the inside, he was in store for a big year. Unfortunately, until at least the Banjo Bowl, our hopes lie with Montez Murphy, who despite a very impressive training camp, I’m still not sold on. I’d like to believe he’s as good as he’s looked this year but I can’t shake the memory of his 3 really mediocre seasons on 4 different teams. Hopefully I’m wrong about him though because he’s the best we’ve got for now.
Speaking of best we’ve got… Milo and Johnson survived the preseason despite going a combined 1 for 6 on FG attempts. This is like the epitome of the phrase “We did 17 takes and that was the best one.” Johnson will be fine on punting (unless of course he suffers from the same second year collapse as Louie Sakoda). I’d like to believe in Milo but it’s really hard to do so when he hasn’t actually kicked a FG in a game yet. I’m mean sure he’s done fine in practice but the world is also full of people who are really good at Call of Duty but if our national security relied on them actually shooting guns, I think we’d all be a bit concerned. Oh well, not much we can do now but hope and pray… or just either punt or gamble on every 3rd down beyond the 25 and effectively write the FG attempt out of the playbook.
A new Rider season kicks off in just 6 days so hang on for another rollercoaster season.
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