HOLY MOSES, ITS THE CUTS...

The round of cuts this week threw up a couple of surprises.Quentin Moses and Kevin Boothe being those couple of surprises.

Moses of course was a third round pick, and although his stock had fallen due to a lack of production in his senior year, he was widely considered a nice pick in the third.Indeed, during camp Captain Caveman Ryan had referred to Moses as a "superstar".This all pointed to what most would think a roster spot and a practise squad place at the very least, in fact we all thought a roster spot was a certainty right?wrong.

Since the Moses cut, the reaction of some of the RAIDER NATION has been nothing short of hysterical.Looking at some message boards you would think that we had cut Burgess or Sapp.The play of Tommy Kelly and Jay Richardson this pre-season, and presumably the ability of both Chris Clemons and Tyler Brayton being able to offer added value on special teams, sealed Moses' fate.The criticism that cutting such a high draft pick shows that someone was at fault in the drafting process, is one that can be tempered with the fact that a No.5 pick in Richardson has looked the real steal.

Boothe was probably, and I say probably as its the best reason that I can come up with, a victim of the new blocking system, and the entirely plausible scenario that has McQuistan, Carlisle, and the newly moved and hopefully invigorated Gallery being a better fit in that system.

The two cuts that had tinges of disappointment here were the ones involving Donivin Darius and Peter, sorry Eric Frampton.Both were hitters but due to injury coupled with age on Darius' part, and maybe a lack of NFL speed and smarts as a DB in the case of Frampton made them expendable.The play of B.J. Ward probably didn't help them either, having a great pre-season and showing a liking for the hit himself.

Zack Crockett wasn't too much of a surprise, when you consider Justin Griffith's abilty and familiarity with the system, not to mention his age, and Oren O'Neal looks like a powerful blocker and is younger still.But good luck to ZC and hopefully he can get picked up somewhere, as he was a popular RAIDER with fans and teamates.

The full list of waived and released players is as follows :

FB Zack Crockett, SS Donovin Darius, TE O.J. Santiago, DT Josh Shaw, OT Chad Slaughter, WR Alvis Whitted
TE James Adkisson, C Jesse Boone, OG Kevin Boothe, LB Kurt Campbell, DB Marquice Cole, S Eric Frampton, WR Carlos Francis, P/K Tyler Fredrickson, DT Anttaj Hawthorne, WR Chris McFoy, DE Quentin Moses, LB Kyle Shotwell, DE Dave Tollefson, OT Mark Wilson.

Practise Squad List :

LB Jon Alston and WR Jonathan Orr,WR Chris McFoy, C Jesse Boone, DT Josh Shaw, DE Dave Tollefson, and OT Mark Wilson.