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Cutting Bene is surprising, but not unprecedented


TN05

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It's surprising we cut a young, starting corner, but it's not without precedent. Here's just a few of our big, mid-season cuts in the Rivera era:
November 2012 - Cut kicker Justin Medlock after going 0-3 in kicks over three games. Signed Gano as a replacement.
October 2013 - Traded Jon Beason, who was a starting linebacker, after only three games.
October 2014 - Cut nickel cornerback Charles Godfrey.
November 2014 - Cut receiver Jason Avant (credit to KSpan)
December 2014 - Cut starting cornerback Antoine Cason.

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4 minutes ago, KSpan said:

The abruptness reminds me of the Avant cut (not saying circumstances re the same, just the suddenness of it), which isn't in your list.

Good point. Added it. Wasn't his more of criticizing coaches or something? Maybe Bene did something similar.

We cut a lot of starters in 2014, now that I think about it.

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This reminds me of cutting Avant too. He was cut for criticizing the play calling. There's no doubt in my mind there is more to this than just cutting Bene for poor performance. He probably talked some poo to the coaching staff after having a bad game. They were pissed at him for lack of effort and poor performance, he said some stuff, they cut him to make an example out of him. They could have just benched him.

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56 minutes ago, TN05 said:

It's surprising we cut a young, starting corner, but it's not without precedent. Here's just a few of our big, mid-season cuts in the Rivera era:
November 2012 - Cut kicker Justin Medlock after going 0-3 in kicks over three games. Signed Gano as a replacement.
October 2013 - Traded Jon Beason, who was a starting linebacker, after only three games.
October 2014 - Cut nickel cornerback Charles Godfrey.
November 2014 - Cut receiver Jason Avant (credit to KSpan)
December 2014 - Cut starting cornerback Antoine Cason.

Those guys were all old and over the hill(maybe not the kicker but he was god awful)

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I remember hearing Bene's comments last week about his conditioning.  Personally, I wonder if he hasn't been giving the extra effort that really good players do.  I do feel there's more to the story that we may never know.  I hate seeing how this season has unfolded; however, I do believe this may be a good thing as well.  I think this team needs a fire lit under their butts.  I believe this may be the wake up call it needs.

On another note, I still fully believe in and trust Ron Rivera.  He just had to make a very difficult decision.  Hopefully it pans out.

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Just now, Untouchable said:

Still applies to the other players too.  If someone was willing to give us something for a player we cut we would have taken it.

Its a Gm's job to maximize a move or get the most you can out of a player. Lately the cuts have seen reactionary and emotional. These guys were starters on a super bowl team. You cant tell me no team in the league had no interest.

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