The Athletic: A breakdown of Cut Day at OBD

[YoloinOhio]

Subscription required, a few excerpts

 

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For Beane and McDermott, it’s important they meet with each player, face to face. That doesn’t happen everywhere, but they hope it makes it easier for some players to get an honest explanation and a respectful meeting.

 


“At the end of the day, if you’re honest with them, I think that’s the only way to do it,” Beane said. “We talk through anything. You can ask us any question. There’s a lot of emotions. Sometimes there’s tears, sometimes guys are really appreciative, sometimes there’s anger. We get it. … People won’t agree with the decision or like the decision, but I think in time, as they move on, they’ll respect the way that you handle it.”

 

 

More than half the players in the league have been cut at some point, whether it was on cutdown day or at another time during the year. A lot of those players have never experienced the feeling of getting cut from a team prior to reaching the NFL.

 

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General managers aim to be blind to draft position and name recognition when it comes time to set the 53-man roster. Saturday, Beane became the first NFL general manager to cut LeSean McCoy. Beane also cut Ray-Ray McCloud after drafting him in the sixth round last year.

 


“We preach it, so you have to do it,” Beane said. “You see the undrafted guys that we play over guys that were drafted. We drafted two receivers last year, and Robert (Foster) played more than either one of them. Players see who is playing. They’re at practice, they’re at games. They’re watching the same film we’re watching. For the most part, they have a good idea, especially if it’s their side of the ball. They’re in the meetings when coaches are getting on this guy and that guy. If you’re playing and there’s another guy who is constantly doing better, you’re going to lose respect. You have to be levelheaded. It is hard. Sometimes you have to cut draft picks. Sometimes you have to cut a guy that you thought would be a great addition in free agency because it just didn’t work.”

 

That creates a hectic finish to the weekend for the Bills’ personnel staff. With nearly 1,200 players hitting the market at once, Beane spends the 24 hours following the cutdown deadline combing through the available talent in an effort to upgrade. In the past, Beane would have some of the college scouts help by studying preseason tape and evaluating the best players who had been cut. It was cutting into the time it took for them to get on the road and start their college scouting process.

Since he’s been in Buffalo, Beane sends his college scouts on the road after a few weeks of training camp. Then he, assistant general manager Joe Schoen, director of player personnel Dan Morgan, director of pro personnel Malik Boyd and the rest of the pro staff work on preparing for cutdown weekend. This year, Brian Gaine joined the effort, as well. Film is easily available, and the Bills already have a database of information on players from their time studying them in college.

Edited September 1, 2019 by YoloinOhio

[TroutDog]

It was a great article. 

 

With all the pain of cut down day, I choose to look at the positives: this regime has nearly built the team they want and that makes the decisions all the harder. 

 

By next year we will be well positioned for a run assuming Josh continues his forward momentum (and I believe he will). 

Edited September 1, 2019 by TroutDog

[hondo in seattle]

Nice article.  This was the most painful cut day in recent memory.  We lost some good, NFL-quality players.  

[ProcessAccepted]

1 hour ago, hondo in seattle said:

Nice article.  This was the most painful cut day in recent memory.  We lost some good, NFL-quality players.  

Totally agree. It feels odd to support a team that had a surplus of talent. I could get used to this.