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The Cincinnati Bengals have made their first major wave of roster cuts.
On Monday, the team announced they are waiving wide receiver Michael Bennett, fullback Jeff Luc, defensive lineman Jack Gangwish, cornerback Corey Tindal, safety Floyd Raven, linebacker Darien Harris, quarterback Joe Licata, wide receiver Antwane Grant, kicker Zach Hocker, tight end John Peters, and linebacker Jayson DiManche.
This puts the roster at 79 players ahead of Tuesday’s deadline to trim the roster down to 75 players. Even though most of these moves were expected, there still ended up being more surprises than anticipated.
The biggest surprise was DiManche, who was vying for one of the final linebacker spots. After going undrafted out of Southern Illinois in 2013, DiManche signed as an undrafted free agent with the Bengals and played in all 16 games as a rookie.
But after being cut by the Bengals in 2015, DiManche bounced around between Kansas City, Cleveland and then ended up in Cincinnati on a futures contract. He’s been decent to this point in the preseason, but apparently not good enough to even make it through the first wave of cuts.
Luc was also a surprise after he was showing promise at fullback. However, with Ryan Hewitt already locked in as the fullback/h-back, Luc had no chance of making the team outside of an injury to Hewitt.
Hocker was a bit of a surprise after Mike Nugent’s preseason struggles seemingly put the veteran kicker on the hot seat. But, it seems Nugent will last another year in Cincinnati.
Everyone else waived was expected to be cut by the time the 53-man roster was made. Raven was making some progress at safety, but that position is just too deep, so he’s better off being waived now.
Tindal was also showing some flashes at corner, but not enough to make it past the first wave of cuts. Outside of DiManche, all of these players still have practice squad eligibility. It’s possible one or more of the guys waived today ends up with the Bengals via the practice squad this year.
All of these players will go on waivers and have the opportunity to be picked up by another NFL team.