Michael Sam waived from practice squad

Michael Sam put up some nice sacks back in the preseason for the St. Louis Rams, but he simply had no chance of cutting the mustard on the team’s 53-man roster despite his solid preseason. First of all, fellow rookie Ethan Westbrooks was playing at an even higher level, and, secondly, the Rams had too much depth at defensive end and needed to keep players at positions with less talent. Sam was released, but it didn’t take too long for the pass rusher-needy Dallas Cowboys to sign him to their practice squad, and it looked like a nice investment at the time. While Sam is a “tweener” who doesn’t have a set position and benefited from his supporting cast at Missouri, he was productive in college, had a nice preseason in St. Louis, and isn’t exactly bereft of talent either.

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Per sources close to ESPN Dallas’s Todd Archer, the Cowboys have decided to cut ties with Sam, and the have added linebacker Troy Davis in his place. Any practice squad move isn’t surprising, and it won’t be long before Sam finds another team willing to take another look at him. It will be interesting to see if this move was more for strategic reasons, or if it was because the Cowboys didn’t see sufficient development from him. Either way, Sam was just a practice squad player, and the Cowboys first-team pass rushers have looked better than expected (obviously, the defense as a whole has looked better than expected).

It’s telling that Sam didn’t even cause a smidgen of a distraction despite playing for one of the NFL’s most heavily scrutinized teams, so any BS distraction concerns have been quelled. At this stage, it will be interesting to see if he gets a chance to make a team’s 53-man roster, but I have a feeling that won’t happen this season; he’ll have to have another impressive offseason with a team thin with pass rushers in order to get a shot. I do wonder, however, if the Atlanta Falcons could take a flier on him.

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