Updated depth chart - Chase Young out for at least 4 regular season games as Commanders trim the roster to 81 players

Roster cut to 81 players

The Washington Commanders have made several roster moves designed to achieve the mandated roster limit ahead of the 4pm deadline today.

With these 5 moves, the roster is cut to 81 players. Most NFL teams have to reach an 80-man limit, but the Commanders get a roster exemption for DT David Bada, who came to the team through the International Player Pathway program.

The team faces the Ravens in Baltimore to close out the preseason on Saturday night.

PUP Reserve List

Both Tyler Larsen and Chase Young started training camp on the offseason PUP list. Under NFL rules, the only way they can move to the PUP Reserve list (which applies to the regular season) is if they have not played or practiced with the team at all during the offseason activities. Neither one has done so.

Starting the season on the PUP list in 2022 means that both players are out for a minimum of the first 4 weeks. The earliest either could come back to play would be the Week 5 game against the Titans; if either player is not physically recovered and cleared to play by that time, then he can stay on the PUP Reserve list even longer. The team can activate players from PUP/IR up to a total of 8 times during the regular season.

Injured Reserve

The situation is different for LB Nathan Gerry, who goes to IR. Under NFL rules, if Gerry is put on IR in the preseason, he cannot play for the Commanders in 2022, though if he is later released, he can sign with any of the 31 other teams. If he is not released, he will spend the entire ‘22 season on IR.

There is still an opportunity under the rules for him to return to play for Washington. The team has 7 days from today to reach an injury settlement with Gerry. If they do that and release him with an injury settlement within the week, then he is eligible to re-sign with the Commanders if he wishes to do so.

Losing Gerry will not bother many Commanders fans. He is a former Eagle who has never really played well in his NFL career. This is what I wrote when he was signed by the team on August 8th:

Honestly, this signing by the Commanders is a bit of a head-scratcher. They must be seeing something from Gerry that most NFL fans never have.

Tight End Sammis Reyes was released from injured reserve with an injury settlement. He could sign with the Commanders after 3 games and the amount of games covered by the settlement. Reyes reportedly isn’t in Washington’s plans later in the season, but that could obviously change due to injuries at the position.

Cuts

When OT Rashod Hill was signed on July 30th after 5 seasons with the Vikings, I thought he had a good shot at making the roster. This is what I wrote at the time:

Hill is likely to be looked at as the #4 OT on the roster at the moment, with two starting positions locked down by LT Charles Leno and RT Sam Cosmi. Hill is likely hoping to be able to unseat Cornelius Lucas, who has played two seasons in Washington, getting 15 starts in the 29 games that he has been active.

If you trust PFF to rank your offensive linemen, then Hill probably has a real uphill battle to beat out Lucas for the swing tackle position.

At that point, I hadn’t actually seen Hill play.

He was terrible in preseason. After the game against the Panthers, I actually listed him as one of the 5 players I expected to go on the first cutdown. The only surprise here is that the coaches let him stay for the Kansas City game.

WR Kelvin Harmon is more of a surprise; perhaps the only surprise on the list, though the team was going to have to make a cut at wide receiver sooner or later.

Harmon has had a difficult career since being drafted in the 6th round of the 2019 draft — the same draft in which the team selected Dwayne Haskins and Terry McLaurin. After a bit of a slow start, Harmon played well in the final several games of his rookie season, and seemed set to establish himself on the roster in 2020, but suffered an ACL tear injury while training in June. Since that time, he has struggled in his career as a sometimes-practice squad player.

This is only Harmon’s latest setback in trying to reestablish himself. It’s possible that the Commanders front office was trying to help him out by cutting him this week instead of next week, giving him a bit more visibility and time to get picked up by another team.

Updated depth chart

The numbers that appear beside some players’ names are 2022 cap hits per Over the Cap.

Please note that assigned positions and color coding are my own personal opinions. They do not necessarily represent the thinking of Washington’s coaches or front office, nor are they necessarily consistent with fan consensus. This chart represents my interpretation, and may not reflect the thoughts of other writers on Hogs Haven. Finally, when it comes to backup players, I don’t put much effort into making sure that they are on the right or left or behind the specific player that they backup. I mostly just try to fit everyone on the chart efficiently.