The Eagles have until 6pm to get their roster down to 53 and have made some surprising cuts in the last few minutes. First came the release of Joselio Hanson, a solid, but pretty well paid third corner. With the trio of Asante Samuel, Nnamdi Asomugha and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Hanson was clearly seen as surplus to requirements. The Eagles had reportedly tried to trade him, but obviously couldn’t get a deal done. The team also let go of last years' starting center Mike McGlynn.
"Yeah, those are good players and guys who played a lot of football for us and we appreciate their efforts and they'll get a great opportunity to catch on somewhere pretty quickly here" said Eagles GM Howie Roseman. "And those are tough decisions and at both those positions we feel like we have some depth and kind of a combination of some youth and veterans. And we went through the process and we kind of came out on that end, but not easy decisions."
The Eagles then released last years’ third round pick Daniel Te’O-Nesheim and preseason sack leader Phillip Hunt. Those two could certainly end up back as practice squad players. Adam Caplan reports that undrafted DT Cedric Thornton will make the roster.
The released of Phillip Hunt is certainly a surprise given how good he was in preseason and camp. However, the Eagles are fairly well stocked at defensive end, but have a lot of injury question marks at DT. With Anthony Dixon, Mike Patterson and Trevor Laws all missing significant time in preseason, it would seem like the team wanted extra depth at DT rather than DE.
TE Donald Lee was also somewhat of a surprise cut after he had a solid preseason. That means the Eagles go with two TEs, Brent Celek and Clay Harbor. That said, Lee could be a prime candidate for the to sign after week one. Under NFL rules, "vested vets" such as Lee can be signed after the first week of the season without the team having to guarantee the contract.