The cuts are a little different this year. Teams are dropping down from 90 to 53 (with no intermediate cuts down to 75) and the moves are coming on Saturday at 4 p.m. EDT. In the past, the final cuts were made on Sunday. There will be some notable moves, especially with kickers and running backs.
The kicker position is heavily influenced by the new rule. In the past, most teams would have settled on one kicker by now. With the new system, there are seven teams that are carrying two kickers with a decent chance of winning the job.
Carolina:Gano or Butker
Chicago:Barth or Aguayo
Cincinnati:Bullock or Elliott
Houston:Novak or Fairbairn
Minnesota:Koehn or Forbarth
NY Giants:Rosas or Nugent
NY Jets:Catanzaro or Martin
Of that group, five of the teams have some kicker potential (all of the teams expect the Bears and Jets). I expect at least one of the winners of those kicking battles to rank in the top 10 in scoring at the position.
I will also be watching how the carousel spins with running backs. I expect we’ll see some moves that will affect running backs who are the best or second-best running backs on multiple teams.
NY Jets: Jets have been sniffing around, seeing if anyone is interested in trading for Matt Forte. They might cut him. That would elevate Bilal Powell into a starting role, with Elijah McGuire spelling him off the bench. McGuire hit a couple of runs early in the Tennessee game that caught my eye – my gut impression was that he might be as good as Forte and Powell. Forte is an older back, but he looked fine to me on Saturday night – I think he’ll be a contributor somewhere.
Baltimore: I’m not crazy about their running backs. They’ve got Terrance West and Buck Allen as runners, and Danny Woodhead as a third-down guy. They like youngster Taquan Mizzell, who’s another smaller, quicker third-down type guy. They could be looking to add another runner.
Jacksonville: Chris Ivory has a salary of $4.5 million, so the Jaguars could be looking to get rid of him. With Leonard Fournette, T.J. Yeldon and Corey Grant, they would be fine at tailback without him. Ivory would land as a No. 2 somewhere.
Kansas City: Spencer Ware is out for the year, so Kansas City could use another back. I think they’re fine putting third-rounder Kareem Hunt in the starting lineup, but Charcandrick West is a lesser backup, and C.J. Spiller is probably just a third-down type back at this point in his career. Forte would be an awfully nice fit. Ivory doesn’t fit as well into their offense. If Kansas City gets Forte, I would expect he would the lesser half of a one-two punch with Hunt.
Philadelphia: LeGarrette Blount doesn’t fit their offense. Too old and slow, and too much of a liability in the passing game. He’s averaged only 2.8 yards per carry in the preseason, and there have been multiple reports from the team beat reporters, wonder if Blount will make the team. If they chop him, Wendell Smallwood would move up into the starting lineup, with Darren Sproles and Corey Clement also getting some work. They might then be looking for another back (Forte?). Blount probably wouldn’t interest the vast majority of teams (I wonder if he might eventually re-sign with the Patriots if their new backs don’t work out that well).
Chicago: The Bears are overloaded with running backs, with Jordan Howard starting and Tarik Cohen and Benny Cunningham having roles off the bench. They might be willing to part with Jeremy Langford. He’s probably better than a lot of the No. 2 backs around the league. They’ll almost certainly have to dump either Langford or KaDeem Carey (who’s currently recovering from wrist surgery).
Washington: Washington likely will cut Matt Jones. He looked pretty good back in his rookie year. Multiple teams will be interested in bringing him in for a look.
—Ian Allan