The Eagles on Tuesday trimmed their roster by another two players, leaving them with 87 players on their 90-man roster.
Center Keegan Render was waived and veteran cornerback Trevor Williams was released. This comes one day after they waived undrafted wide receiver (and former college quarterback) Khalil Tate.
It seems likely that the Eagles are trimming their roster as they near training camp in what is sure to be an unusual summer amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
There was a report a while back that the NFL might reduce roster size this summer from 90 to 75. While that didn’t happen, it seems like the Eagles might be limiting their roster on their own, cutting players who don’t have very good chances to make the final 53-man roster.
Think about it: There likely won’t be a preseason this year, teams are going to try to adhere to social distancing standards and there will be limited practice reps for bottom-of-the-roster players as teams scramble to get their starters ready after missing all spring. All of those are likely reasons for trimming the roster right now.
In a normal year, you would expect the Birds to enter training camp with every roster spot filled. But this isn’t a normal year.
That is a shame for the individual players who are being released. Tate was certainly a project player after playing quarterback in college. This is obviously not a great offseason for project players.
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Meanwhile, Render didn’t stand much of a chance to make the final roster, given that there are plenty of players ahead of him on the depth chart.
Williams, 26, is a tougher one. The former Penn State product got off to a promising start in his career with the Chargers. He was the 10th-best CB in the NFL back in 2017, according to ProFootballFocus. He has played in 39 career games with 27 starts.
As Williams came off an injury-shortened season with the Cardinals in 2019, the Eagles took a flyer on him with a futures contract in January. But without OTAs and now with an unusual summer, he never even got to put on an Eagles uniform.
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