Bengals Release Five Players: Keiwan Ratliff Has Contract Terminated

Now that minicamp is over, the Bengals next step is to lower their roster to 80 players; considering that they have all of their draft picks to sign. On Friday, the Bengals made several cuts. Per Josh Katzowitz, the "Bengals waive S Bryan Evans, RB W. Mendenhall, P Jake Richardson, CB D. Willingham. Terminate contract of CB K. Ratliff."

Richardson made sense, considering he won't replace Kevin Huber. Outside of the starters of Johnathan Joseph and Leon Hall, Keiwan Ratliff still had to compete against Brandon Ghee, Adam Jones and Morgan Trent. Converting to a safety would have been his best shot, but even then the chances were remote. With Cedric Peerman and Cordera Eason likely fighting for a spot on the team's practice squad, Walter Mendenhall would have had to put on a show to stick with the squad into training camp.

In the end, none of the cuts were particularly surprising.