'Can't Keep Everyone': DeMeco Ryans Doesn't 'Burn Any Bridges' In Roster Cuts
Remember the scene in "Moneyball" where Brad Pitt is teaching Jonah Hill how to cut a player?
It's one of the worst parts about a head coach or front office personnel's job, but it's a part of the business side of the NFL. The Houston Texans currently have 89 players listed on their active roster, but by next Tuesday that number will be shrunk to 53.
Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said roster construction is "on the forefront" of his mind "every day." Ryans, being a former player, understands the sensitivity of the nature of roster cuts as well.
"You spent so much time with these guys and built relationships with them, so it's a sensitive side of it," Ryans said on the Texans' radio show Tuesday. "For me, the goal for all of our guys is we can't keep everyone, but I want everyone to make the NFL. If it's not our team, if it's not our practice squad, hopefully you can make another team or another practice squad, at least you can continue right on the path of your dream of being an NFL player."
In that scene from "Moneyball," Pitt's character, Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane, asks Hill's character, A's analytics staff member Peter Brand, if he'd "rather get a bullet to the head or five to the chest and bleed to death?" That's to say, when cutting a player, be quick, direct and to the point without sugar-coating anything because it won't soften the sting.
How would Ryans go about cutting a player?
"You always end on good terms," Ryans said. "It's never a goodbye; it's a maybe see you later. So don't burn any bridges always. You treat everyone with respect because you never know when the opportunity comes back again."
After each roster trims its approximately 90 players down to 53, there are a little over 1,100 players available to choose from. Like after a fantasy football draft, maybe there's a player that went undrafted that you feel has more upside than a player on your initial team.
Ryans said it's "very important" that the scouting department has up-to-date reports on other teams' players in case one of those players gets cut. If that player is more valuable than a player that makes the Texans' initial 53-man roster, then they might try and add the other team's released player as a replacement.
"While we're focused on our team and trying to make sure we get our better guys better, they're still focused on the other side of that like, 'Well, is there someone else that we can add from the outside that can help our team and can get us better?'" Ryans said. "It's a collective effort with the coaching staff, with our scouting department, all of us are working as a team to make sure we have the best 53 guys for the Houston Texans."
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