Bengals announce roster cuts: No surprises among Bengals’ 53-man roster cutdown

The Cincinnati Bengals have announced their 53-man roster entering Week 1 of the 2016 NFL season.

The team also announced every player that was either waived, cut, sent to I.R., or placed on the suspension list. The latter of which is linebacker Vontaze Burfict, who is suspended for the first three games of the 2016 season.

Heading to I.R. is defensive lineman Marcus Hardison, who suffered a shoulder injury in the preseason that will sideline him for all of 2016. This move was made prior to the 53-man roster being finalized, which means Hardison is not eligible to return later in the year via the I.R. designation to return.

That meant that only 19 players needed to be shaved from the roster to get down to 53 players on Saturday. The only vested veteran that got cut was Chykie Brown, who was released into free agency. He is not subject to waivers and could be re-signed later in the year.

That left 18 players to be put on waivers, and here is a list of all them:

--FB Andrew Bonnet (rookie, North Dakota State)

--DE Ryan Brown (rookie, Mississippi State)

--HB Tra Carson (rookie, Texas A&M)

--C Alex Cooper (rookie, Houston)

--DT David Dean (rookie, Virginia)

--OT Aaron Epps (rookie, Louisville)

--HB Bronson Hill (first-year player, Eastern Michigan)

--CB Darius Hillary (rookie, Wisconsin)

--G Trey Hopkins (second-year player, Texas)

--WR Jake Kumerow (first-year player, Wisconsin-Whitewater)

--TE Matt Lengel (first-year player, Eastern Kentucky)

--CB Tony McRae (rookie, North Carolina A&T)

--G Alex Redmond (rookie, UCLA)

--WR Alonzo Russell (rookie, Toledo)

--WR Rashaun Simonise (rookie, Calgary)

--G Trip Thurman (rookie, Florida)

--OT John Weidenaar (rookie, Montana State)

--QB Keith Wenning (first-year player, Ball State)

The only surprise there was offensive lineman Trey Hopkins, who seemed to have earned a roster spot as a backup lineman, but it looks like Cincinnati doesn't believe he's ready for it yet.

Defensive lineman Ryan Brown also made a strong push for the final roster, especially with Hardison now on I.R. The Bengals will almost certainly try and sign both Hopkins and Brown to the practice squad.

All players who were waived today are eligible for the practice squad, though, only four players with two years of experience can make the quad. The practice squad can be announced after 1:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, September 4.

Who do you think was the biggest surprise cut?