ClutchPoints
With just nine days left until the 2025-26 NFL season kicks off in the City of Brotherly Love, teams are making their final adjustments before embarking on what they hope is a successful campaign. Expectations vary around the league, but there should be a sense of urgency emanating from all 32 front offices. Although organizations will remain active participants in the free agent and trade markets, they made most of their personnel-based decisions on Tuesday, also known as roster cut day.
Players flooded into the waiver wire after squads shrunk down to the mandatory 53-man limit, a process that had to conclude by 4 p.m. ET. It is obviously tough for the athletes themselves, who must now pack their bags and seek employment elsewhere, but many fans are also disappointed after getting attached to training camp standouts or savvy veterans.
Welcome beginnings can sometimes follow bitter endings, however. No, I am not as corny as I sound.
There are a few individuals in particular who should get another chance to prove themselves. Some might even say they shouldn’t have been released in the first place. As the dust settles, now is the perfect time to break down the five biggest surprises from the last round of roster cuts. There are some blasts from the past and inconsistent youngsters, but all of these guys seemingly stood a decent chance at keeping their current uniform.
Marquez Valdes-Scantling has had to reestablish himself as a competent deep threat throughout his seven-year NFL career, and now he must do so again after the Seattle Seahawks decided there was no room for him in their wide receiver corps. The 2018 fifth-round draft pick is no game-wrecker, but considering he signed a one-year, $4 million contract with the NFC West squad in March, his departure is quite notable.
What made the move even more unexpected is that the Seahawks do not boast much depth behind Pro Bowler Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Super Bowl 56 MVP Cooper Kupp. Rookie Tory Horton, a fifth-rounder out of Colorado State and Nevada, clearly showed management enough despite injuring his ankle in the second preseason game. Valdes-Scantling should land on his feet. Perhaps an old employer will come calling.
The two-time Super Bowl champion underwhelmed with the Buffalo Bills during the 2024-25 campaign, but he enjoyed a midseason surge after joining the New Orleans Saints. He recorded 17 receptions for 385 yards and four touchdowns in eight games with them. Given the uncertainty surrounding the team, a reunion makes sense. Even if he does not return to The Big Easy, the 30-year-old could still provide reinforcements this year.
The Los Angeles Chargers devastatingly lost left tackle Rashawn Slater to a season-ending knee injury and are under immense pressure to perform in the playoffs after last year’s Wild Card Weekend fiasco. In other words, this franchise needs stability. Apparently, and surprisingly, safety Tony Jefferson does not fit LA’s vision...
