Fans and media alike were caught by surprise this afternoon when the Raiders suddenly announced that second year safety Jonathan Dowling was being released by the team.
Dowling, drafted in the seventh round of the 2014 Draft, had been consistently running as the second team free safety behind Nate Allen and looked to be getting better as the weeks passed. In fact, he recorded his first career interception last week versus the Vikings, albeit one that doesn’t actually count in the books.
Instead, Dowling will be facing a waiver claim on Monday and by Tuesday will likely be headed to a new city to try to earn a spot on a new team’s final roster with precious little time before final roster cuts on September 5th.
How did this sudden and unexpected move come to be? According to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Vic Tafur, Dowling was cut due to maturity issues and not due to anything related to his play on the field.
As Vic’s sources tell him, there was no one event that necessarily led to him being waived but instead a slow build up of many smaller issues that finally led the coaching staff to decide that it would be better to move on from a young player who has potential but has a history of poor decision making (Dowling was drafted out of Wester Kentucky because he was kicked off of Florida’s squad after two games.)
While Dowling is not one of the top defenders on the squad, his release still sends a message to the team: “Get on board with what we’re doing here, or you won’t be a part of it anymore.”
After all, Dowling had taken by far the majority of the safety snaps behind Allen, far outstripping Brandian Ross and others on the squad. It seemed highly likely that the team was going to keep him for the final 53 when I made my predictions early this week and he also showed up on other writers’ lists including Levi Damien and Scott Bair’s.
With that in mind, it makes the statement to the team that one player is not bigger than the team’s cohesiveness. The players will see this waiver move and because they have experienced whatever maturity issues Dowling has exhibited, they will also understand the message behind the move.
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