Section 215
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Eagles Cutdown Deadline Tracker: Rumors, Reports, and Roster Decisions

By Somers Price

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With preseason having officially wrapped on Thursday, the next task at hand for Chip Kelly and the Eagles coaching staff is getting their roster down to the NFL-mandated 53-player limit. Teams must reach this number by Saturday afternoon, and Friday has already seen a flurry of activity in terms of players having already been reportedly handed their walking papers and several others as part of rumored trades. Here’s a recap of the action up to this point. We’ll try to keep things as up-to-date as possible throughout the afternoon and into the evening.

Matt Lombardo of 97.5 The Fanatic had a step on most of these reports from early on.

7th round draft pick Brian Mihalik, definitely a practice squad candidate.

John Moffitt, the former Seahawk, was unable to make enough of an impression to land on the roster.

No knuckleball extra points anymore from Kip Smith.

A little after noon, Lombardo provided a list of the reported cuts up to that point.

"OL Julian VanderveldeWR Quron PrattLB Deotae SkinnerTE Andrew GleichertWR Rasheed BaileyOL Brett Boyko"

Local product Rasheed Bailey, also a likely practice squad candidate, was a bit of a surprise to some.

Malcolm Bunche, also known as the offensive lineman Kiko Alonso was concussed upon, also came off as a bit of surprise on the cut list. He may not make it through waivers, despite being a practice squad candidate. Martin Frank first on that story.

Eliot Shorr-Parks also broke a release that may provide some clarity to the team’s safety position depth chart.

Chris Prosinski was an excellent special teams player for the Eagles. Ed Reynolds and Jerome Couplin appear to be finalists for the 4th safety role.

Aaron Wilson, who covers the NFL and Texans, was the first on a story regarding one of the team’s 2015 draft picks.

 Randall Evans is another player likely to land on the team’s practice squad.  In addition to all of these reported moves, a couple of players currently still on the roster have been part of trade rumors over the course of the afternoon.  Mark Eckel of NJ.com reported that the Eagles are shopping around running back / punt returner Kenjon Barner. 

"So the impressive preseason has some of the other 31 teams interested and the Eagles, according to someone with knowledge of the situation, are more than willing to listen to offers for the talented running back/returnman. The likely return would be a late-round pick, but maybe in a rare player for player trade the Eagles could get an offensive lineman or a safety."

At the other position the Eagles are relatively deep at, inside linebacker, Najee Goode also emerged as a reported trade chip for the Eagles.   

Jeff McLane of the Inquirer was first on this rumor.

3:50 PM — EST

Jay Glazer of Fox Sports reporting that the Eagles and Cardinals are discussing a trade involving Matt Barkley.

UPDATE

The Eagles and Cardinals completed a trade for quarterback Matt Barkley Friday afternoon.

It was later reported that the pick coming back to Philadelphia would become a seventh round pick if Barkley remained on the Cardinals roster for six games.

The Eagles did go on to confirm the trade.

5:19 PM — EST Zach Berman of the Philadelphia Inquirer is reporting that the Eagles have decided to cut running back Raheem Mostert, another possible candidate for the practice squad.   

His agent,BrettTessler, says that his client would be happy to return to the Eagles (presumably on the practice squad) if he clears waivers.

6:10 PM — EST

Eric Tomlinson, who had some nice pre-season moments and certainly isn’t done in the NFL, will be cut according to Caplin.

8:00 PM — EST

Eliot Shorr-Parks of NJ.com says that the Eagles are shopping Jaylen Watkins.

"The Eagles are attempting to trade cornerback Jaylen Watkins, multiple league sources have confirmed to NJ Advance Media."

Shorr-Parks also suggested that the team would release Watkins if they could not find a trade partner.

9:38 PM — EST

Adam Caplan of ESPN.com is reporting that the Eagles will release Ed Reynolds.

With Reynolds and Chris Prosinski reportedly having been sent packing, Jerome Couplin could find his way on the final 53- man roster.

September 5th, 10:33 a.m. 

Take this one for what it’s worth, but Howard Eskin is reporting that Tim Tebow may actually still be cut by the Eagles. Matt Lombardo of 97.5 the Fanatic has since followed up on this and said something similar.

From here, we’ll do our best to maintain a chronological order as these reports come down. The deadline to finalize roster decisions is Saturday at 4PM.

Next: Five Big-Picture Takeaways from Eagles Preseason Finale

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