The flurry of roster moves that are generated on the day each NFL team has to cut down to 53 players are often called "final cuts." In practical matters, those maneuvers – which took place around the league on Friday – are just the beginning of a very busy weekend for the league's personnel decision-makers. On Saturday, Tampa Bay Buccaneers Head Coach Greg Schiano referred to his own roster as a "very fluid situation" until next Tuesday.
Indeed, on Saturday afternoon, less than 24 hours after those "final cuts," the Buccaneers made another round of roster moves. Tampa Bay claimed the following three players off waivers from other teams: defensive tackle Corvey Irvin, guard Julian Vandervelde and center/guard Cody Wallace. To make room on the active roster, the Buccaneers also released defensive lineman Wallace Gilberry and waived guard Bradley Sowell.
The Bucs' maneuvers on Friday had actually left the roster at 52 men, so the above round of moves puts the team back at the regular-season limit.
Obviously, that trio of signings is intended to address a relative lack of depth along the two lines after the recent cuts.
"There are some offensive lineman and some defensive lineman, which we certainly have a need with the departure of Okoye and … Gilberry," said Schiano after his team's practice on Saturday afternoon, shortly before the most recent moves had been finalized. "That will all sort itself out this week and as we get closer to game time and we start locking into the 46, it's going to have to be real crystallized how it's going to work."
Irvin joins the Buccaneers from the Jacksonville Jaguars, where he played in four games during the 2011 season. Prior to his time in Jacksonville, he spent two seasons with the Carolina Panthers, who selected him in the third round of the 2009 NFL Draft. Irvin spent his rookie year on injured reserve and has since appeared in six regular-season games, contributing four tackles.
Vandervelde was a fifth-round (161st overall) draft pick by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2011. He played in one regular season game as rookie and all four preseason games, including one start, this summer. Vandervelde started 37 games at guard for Iowa, where he was a three-year Academic All-American and a second-team All-Big Ten choice as a senior.
Wallace, a 2008 fourth-round pick for San Francisco, spent his first two seasons with the 49ers, appearing in one game in 2009. He has spent time on the practice squads of the Lions (2010), Jets (2010) and Texans (2011). Wallace stayed with Houston throughout the 2012 offseason and played in all four preseason games before being released on Friday. He was a three-year starter at center for Texas A&M, where was named first-team All-Big XII as a senior.
Sowell, a rookie tackle out of Mississippi, was one of 14 undrafted free agents the Buccaneers signed on April 30. Gilberry joined the club as an unrestricted free agent in June after four years with the Kansas City Chiefs.
