The Colts trimmed their roster down to 53 players today. Some of the decisions made sense, but others were absolutely stunning.
There were roster cuts all across the NFL today. Teams needed to trim from 90 players down to 53. Some of the decisions make sense for what the Colts are trying to build. But some others just didn’t make any sense.
One of the notable cuts was T.J. Green. He was a second round pick back in 2016, and has been disappointing in his career. He needed to go. Tyrell Adams also was released, and he needed hadn’t shown what he needed to to stay on either.
Fifth round pick Daurice Fountain also was let go. He had a good last preseason game against the Bengals, but it wasn’t enough to erase his poor body of work. As a fifth round pick, you aren’t guaranteed to make the roster, and that’s just what happened.
The most baffling decision, and one I whole-heartedly disagree with, was releasing John Simon. He was the most productive player on the Colts offense in preseason, and was a great player last year too. Simon gives maximum effort on every play and that is the kind of player you need on your team.
GM Chris Ballard is going to have to answer for this. Getting rid of Simon doesn’t send a good message to the rest of the team. He was one player who gave constant effort and production. I’m very interested to see the reasoning behind that move.
Jim Irsay tweeted out a all of the personnel moves earlier today as well.
Today’s personnel moves. pic.twitter.com/YCDX6MSxPT
— Jim Irsay (@JimIrsay) September 1, 2018
A lot of the other cuts made sense. Austin Howard was bad all preseason. So was Jeremy Vujnovich. Branden Oliver played great in Cinci, but was in a crowded backfield that included two rookies. Mo Allie-Cox never had a chance to make the roster either.
With the roster now trimmed, the Colts move on to setting the depth chart and getting ready for week one of the regular season against the Bengals.