After making two trades – Patrick Crayton to San Diego and Pat McQuistan to Miami – on Friday, the Cowboys have officially trimmed the roster down to 53 players, but cutting 20 on Saturday afternoon.
Among the notable cuts were cornerback Cletis Gordon, who had one of the better training camps of any defensive player. In fact, we spent a lot of time wondering about the fourth cornerback spot and the Cowboys didn't even keep a fourth corner, cutting Gordon, along with rookies Bryan McCann and Jamar Wall, the only 2010 draft pick to be waived.
Veteran defensive tackle Junior Siavii was also waived.
In trading Crayton on Friday, the Cowboys decided to keep Sam Hurd, although he could possibly redo his contract for a lower base salary than the expected $1.7 million. Hurd and Kevin Ogletree round out the receiver corps as the Cowboys also released wide receivers Jesse HolleyandManuel Johnson, two players who were on last year's practice squad and could likely return there again this year.
Released players have 24 hours to be claimed by another club before teams can sign the eligible players to the eight-man practice squad. It's expected that players such as Holley, Manny Johnson, McCann and Wall could all be headed to the practice squad if they clear waivers.
Among the bubble players who have made the team for now are four undrafted rookies – Phil Costa, safeties Barry Church and Danny McCray and fullback Chris Gronkowski. Also, linebacker Leon Williams remains on the roster as well.
The Cowboys also decided to keep just two tight ends on the current roster, with Jason Witten and Martellus Bennett.
Here are the 20 players released by the Cowboys on Saturday:
OT Will Barker
OG Travis Bright
DE Marcus Dixon
RB Herb Donaldson
TE DajLeon Farr
CB Cletis Gordon
WR Jesse Holley
WR Manny Johnson
OLB Curtis Johnson
CB Bryan McCann
RB Lonyae Miller
LB Steve Octavien
TE Jason Pociask
TE Martin Rucker
DT Jimmy Saddler-McQueen
LB Brandon Sharpe
DE Junior Siavii
OL Mike Tepper
CB Jamar Wall
CB Teddy Williams
