Roster cutdown day

I find myself a little more emotionally attached to players on my dynasty team when it's time to trim the roster from 60 to 53 guys. You'd think that 53 guys would be plenty, but there's always one or two "what if" players. You go one of two ways. Either you don't want to drop a player who has been on your roster for a long time, like when I finally had to cut bait with Torry Holt this offseason. Then there's the "upside rookie" you select as a free agent like Blair White. White has some upside but he got cut by the Colts, which should be good enough to eliminate him from my roster. But he made the practice squad so there's a chance he will hold onto the NFL dream.

I watched Missouri's comeback last night, and today it made me think of their recent stars who are struggling at the NFL level. Chase Coffman was a third-round pick last year and the Bengals had to hand him a sizeable signing bonus. He didn't play as a rookie and was a roster cut this year. I thought he had the potential to be a Dallas Clark like guy but he may turn out to be like Garrett Mills, who was a receiving machine at Tulsa but hasn't been able to stick on an NFL roster. I really wonder about those guys. You're probably a star player throughout high school and college, but in the NFL you have to be more than a star. You have to fill a specific role and be dependable. It's tough for younger guys to stick. What does Chase Coffman do now? He probably earned his degree but now he's going from a potential mid six figures job to possibly not being able to find a job. As fans we don't think about the last guys to make the roster because they aren't going to be significant players in the league and we barely know who they are. You get a little more attached to guys who went to your alma mater or the couple of guys profiled on Hard Knocks who are in fact this close to living their dream. This weekend, a lot of dreams died. I'm glad that most of the guys I'm releasing from my dynasty teams still have jobs.