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Every NFL team has to trim their roster down to 53 players by 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Aug. 26. The numbers game is cruel in the NFL, and considering teams carry 90 players during the offseason, nearly half of the players fighting for a roster spot won’t make the cut.
Undrafted players and low draft selections are at a particular disadvantage, but some players who few expected to make NFL teams coming into the year have performed too well not to make their respective team’s 53-man roster. Here are 10 training camp/preseason standouts that have played their way onto teams around the league.
The quarterback competition has been the most commonly discussed positional battle in Cleveland. The Browns settled on Joe Flacco as their Week 1 starter, but Cleveland will likely roster four quarterbacks. That would be an NFL rarity, but the team doesn’t want to see other programs poach any of Kenny Pickett, Dillon Gabriel, or Shedeur Sanders. It isn’t unrealistic to think that any and all of those four signal-callers can see live reps behind center at some point during this season.
Luckily for them, one receiver has really stood out during the preseason. Gage Larvadain was undrafted, but he has played so well that he has even earned runs with the first team. This depth chart promotion came before Larvadain put a cherry on top of his preseason performances with a four-catch, one-score showing during the preseason finale.
Larvadain played for three different schools in college, including Southeastern Louisiana in the FCS. Now, he will join Jerry Jeudy and Cedric Tillman in the quest to make life easier on whoever is throwing the football in Cleveland.
Adjusting to different quarterbacks isn’t easy, but Larvadain has shown that he has chemistry with each of the Browns’ gunslingers. He may even force Deontae Johnson, a former Pro Bowler, off the roster. Fellow undrafted rookie receiver Isaiah Bond has a chance to make the 53-man roster, too.
The Atlanta Falcons have a lot invested in their quarterback room. The team will ride with former first-round pick Michael Penix Jr. as their starter, but they also have the most expensive backup in the NFL in Kirk Cousins. A trade involving Cousins was long expected but has never come to fruition.
Now the Falcons may be forced into keeping another quarterback: Easton Stick. The four-time FCS champion, who has spent his entire professional career prior to this year with the Los Angeles Chargers, has thrived during the preseason. In fact, his 520 passing yards were the most in the NFL.
As of now, nobody needs Cousins’ services, but an injury to a starting quarterback could lead to a team calling about trading for him. That makes Stick an essential roster inclusion for the Falcons because they’d need somebody to replace Cousins as the backup quarterback. Stick has shown he deserves to stick around in Atlanta.
[Matthew...
