Eagles officially cut their roster down to 75 players

The Philadelphia Eagles beat today’s 4:00 PM EST deadline to officially get their roster down to 75 players. Although they made cuts this past weekend to get down to 78 players, they announced the final three moves just minutes ago. While there are no real surprises on the list, there is some intrigue regarding the names the Eagles elected to hold onto.

Here is what Alex Smith of PhiladelphiaEagles.com had to say regarding the Eagles’ latest moves to bring their roster to the league-mandated maximum of 75 players:

"The Eagles made a trio of roster moves on Tuesday to trim the roster to 75 players ahead of the 4:00PM deadline. Running back Kevin Monangai was waived, linebacker Emmanuel Acho was waived/injured (thumb) and cornerback JaCorey Shepherd was placed on injured reserve (knee).Monangai, a rookie free-agent signing out of Villanova, showed some promise in the Eagles offense this preseason, but increased depth at the running back position was ultimately too much to overcome.Acho had provided solid depth at inside linebacker for parts of the last two seasons. He appeared in six games with the Eagles in 2013, but that number jumped up to 14 games (including two starts) in 2014.In his first season in Philadelphia, the rookie Shepherd showed tremendous potential in the Eagles defensive scheme. After Brandon Boykin was traded to Pittsburgh, it appeared that Shepherd was on track to be the team’s number one nickel. Unfortunately for Shepherd, a torn ACL injury during an Open Practice has sidelined him for his rookie season."

Monangai was just in an unfortunate situation as he was stuck in one of the most talented running back groups in the NFL. DeMarco Murray, Ryan Mathews and Darren Sproles form the best running back unit in the NFL, by far. Then the Eagles have Kenjon Barner and Raheem Mostert behind them, who both have shown a ton of promise during the preseason thus far. Monangai may end up landing on another team’s practice squad following final cuts next week.

It sucks to see Acho go down with an injury as he was having quite a strong preseason. Many thought he was competing with veteran Brad Jones for a final linebacker spot on the Eagles roster. But he suffered a thumb injury that will keep him out of action this season. Acho will likely be back in camp with the Eagles next season unless another team stashes him for a season just to have him when he’s back at full health.

Lastly, there’s Shepherd who was finally placed on injured reserve with a torn ACL that he suffered weeks ago. Some may be wondering why it took the Eagles so long to place Shepherd on the IR though. If the Eagles wanted to put Shepherd on the IR earlier, he would have had to pass through waivers unclaimed, which likely wouldn’t have happened. Instead, the Eagles held onto him until the first round of cuts, this way they could directly place him on IR instead of putting him at risk to be claimed by another team.

While many believed punter/kicker Kip Smith would be gone by now, it appears that he’ll live to kick another day in Philadelphia. Starting kicker Cody Parkey is battling an injury that will likely hold him out of the team’s final preseason game. Therefore the Eagles have elected to hold onto Smith for another week, giving him a chance to possibly showcase his talent for other teams. Maybe Smith will see triple duty against the Jets this week, as the team’s kicker, punter and kickoff specialist.

Saturday, September 5th by 4:00 PM EST, all NFL teams must have their rosters cut down to 53 players. Make sure to check back here for all of the latest Eagles news, analysis and more!

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