The Tennessee Titans had to trim the roster from 75 to 53 by Saturday afternoon at 5 PM CT. I will be using this post to update and comment on the reported releases. The following cuts have been reported thus far:
S Al Afalava
OT Daniel Baldridge
TE Brandon Barden (injured)
DT Stefan Charles
DT Zach Clayton
TE Jack Doyle
LB Gary Guyton
DT DaJohn Harris
S Corey Lynch
WR Marc Mariani (to injured reserve)
FB Collin Mooney
DE Nigel Nicholas
RB Jalen Parmele
LB Tim Shaw
QB Rusty Smith
LB Scott Solomon
G Kasey Studdard
WR Rashad Ross
C/G Fernando Velasco
WR Dontel Watkins
LB Jonathan "Tig" Willard
CB Khalid Wooten
All names listed above came from The Usual Suspects on Twitter, though others may have been first (e.g. Adam Caplan on Velasco), and were subsequently confirmed by the team in media releases and formally reported on the NFL's official transaction list.
With the release of Afalava, I will not get my entire roster prediction right. This might be good news for Corey Lynch or, less likely, Daimion Stafford. At one point I thought Parmele would have the edge on Jackie Battle, but the Titans made it clear throughout the preseason they liked Battle more. The other reported cuts thus far never had a realistic shot to make the team in my mind.
Saturday morning's early cuts include a couple more names in Tim Shaw and Rusty Smith I did not predict. Rusty was obviously on the bubble givne the other roster needs, but I really did not expect the Titans to cut Shaw, who was the special teams captain, played extensively early in the preseason, is on a unit that has been hit hard by injuries, has been healthy as a Titan unlike the at-least-for-now remining Patrick Bailey, and was not expensive. I would not be surprised to see the Titans scour the waiver wire for other linebackers.
Marc Mariani is headed to injured reserve. It is reportedly not the short-term version so he may be out for the year.
Corey Lynch cut, a move that was not a surprise to me but that Daimion Stafford won the job as the fourth safety is. I would not be surprised to see the Titans scour the waiver wire for a backup free safety and try to sneak Stafford onto the practice squad. I predicted earlier this month that Fernando Velasco would be the starting center; apparently, the Titans were more tired of his faults than I thought they were and decided to go with Rob Turner as the starter and the cheaper Chris Spencer as the non-Brian Schwenke swing backup.
The Titans are down to the mandatory 53. Now we just have to see if they add any players at waiver wire, particularly a safety or a linebacker or two. Once we know whether that will happen, I will write up my analysis of the final-ish roster.
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