Two years ago, Elbert Mack flew to Houston wondering if it would be his last journey with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
A rookie at the time, and an undrafted free agent fighting the odds and a crowded depth chart, Mack had made it through the team's first round of roster cuts but knew another one was looming just two days after the game. He had performed well during the Bucs' three previous preseason games – he was in the top five on the team in tackles and had one of its three interceptions plus a pair of passes defensed – but he had no way of knowing what the coaching staff really thought of him.
But Mack did know this: He had one more chance to impress.
Just as they will do this Wednesday, the Buccaneers traveled to Houston in the final week of the preseason for a Thursday night closer. And just as they are sure to do this year, the 2008 Buccaneers essentially rested their entire starting lineup. Ronde Barber, after all, had nothing to prove, and Phillip Buchanon was definitely going to make the team. The Bucs started Aqib Talib and Eugene Wilson in their places at cornerback, but Mack still got plenty of playing time.
And he made the most of it. Mack finished the game with three solo tackles and he was instrumental in helping the Bucs limit Houston to a pair of field goals in a 16-6 win. The outcome of the game wasn't really that important, but what Mack did was. Despite a somewhat slight frame by NFL standards (5-10, 175), Mack delivered several hard hits that looked more like the work of a 240-pound linebacker.
Two days later, Mack sat by his phone back in Tampa for most of the day. It didn't ring until six o'clock, after all the cuts had been made. When it did ring, it was Raheem Morris, at the time Tampa Bay's defensive backs coach, letting Mack know he had made the team. Said Mack at the time: "That was probably one of the happiest moments in my life. A lot of people got into camp that got drafted and a lot of people didn't make it out of camp. I look at it like that."
Morris is now in his second year as the Buccaneers' head coach, and Mack is trying to solidify a spot on the 53-man roster for a third straight year. Like all 75 players still on the roster – or, more accurately, all of the non-starters who are fighting for slots elsewhere on the depth chart – Mack will get a very real and very important opportunity to state his case on Thursday night in Houston. Most NFL teams severely limit the exposure of their starters in the final preseason game in order to take a healthy crew into the games that count, but they also want to devote most of the snaps to those still in the fight. The 22 decisions that have to be made to get the roster from 75 to 53 on Saturday have not been made yet.
"You've got to let those guys go out and play," said Morris. "All the guys that are on the roster right now, we'll give them a chance. They're going to have a chance to make the football team when they go out there in Houston. We'll just have to go out there and see, let these guys play, and when we get back we'll make our decisions."
During his first two seasons, Mack has held the nickel back position for several stints and he has also been a productive special teams player. Second-year man E.J. Biggers is now leading the pack for that nickel back job, but he will only hold it if he remains the best man for the job. Mack can still battle for that job, and he can still prove himself useful in other ways. Obviously, there are other players remaining on the depth chart that have a steeper hill to climb than Mack – players in the position Mack was two years ago – but nobody takes their jobs for granted in the NFL. At least not for long.
Morris said the usual target number for cornerbacks on the depth chart is five, but in some seasons the team has kept four or six, and adjusted their numbers at safety accordingly. In the end, it comes down to the best 53 men for the team, not a set-in-stone number at each position. Thus players like Mack, Biggers, Myron Lewis, Derrick Roberson and Brandon Anderson just have to prove their own worth rather than trying to beat each other out.
As for Mack, the Bucs definitely have an idea of what he can do for the team.
"Elbert Mack is one of the guys who's been around here and has played for awhile," said Morris. "He's tough, he's physical even though he's a smaller guy. He still brings a lot to the table as far as knowledge of the game. He's a guy that absolutely sells what we believe in around here – we talk about program, we talk about hustle, we talk about hitting, we talk about practice habits, we talk about being driven from the bottom up. He's one of those clear-cut examples of what I mean by that. You're talking about a walk-on guy who came in here and was able to fight his way all the way to that starting nickel job.
"Right now, Biggers has dethroned him for it but he's still in the mix, he's still in the fight and he's still playing very well. He's just increasing his role by learning different positions. Last week you got a chance to see him inside, playing behind Ronde. You got a chance to see him outside a little bit, and he knows some things and some different tactics that can help him fight for a spot on this football team, as far as special teams and everything."
Two years ago, Mack made himself impossible to cut. Of course, somewhere down the line, that meant another player had to go. That's the harsh reality of the days that will follow Thursday night's game in Houston. Somewhere from 75 to 53, the Buccaneers will be cutting a player they would like to keep, and that's true for all 32 NFL teams.
"Every cut here is going to be based on skill," said Morris. "It's all based on skill and how we see the skill set. That's what I told these guys in my team meeting – 'Hopefully you go out there and make us wrong, and the decisions we make when we cut down to 53.' Because you do care about all these guys and you have a compassion for all these guys. You form relationships with everybody on your football team, and not just the last 53 that you keep. All 80. You want those guys to go out and have success and play in this league for a long time."
