Reports have been swirling in the media (maybe swirling is a bit too much), but we now have some official clarity on the 49ers roster cuts. The 49ers tweeted out from their official account that they have released 12 players and reassigned two players to injury lists. This brings them down to the league mandated 75-man roster. The twelve cuts were:
FB Cameron Bell
LB Kourtnei Brown
DT Patrick Butrym
DB Ben Hannula
WR Joe Hastings
DE Matthew Masifilo
DB Cory Nelms
CB Deante Purvis
TE Joe Sawyer
OL Jason Slowey
K Giorgio Tavecchio
WR Brian Tyms
The two injury moves saw RB Jewel Hampton moved to the Reserve/Non-Football Injury List and LB Darius Fleming moved to the Reserve/Physically Unable To Perform (PUP) List.
The most surprising releases are probably Kourtnei Brown and Brian Tyms. I call them surprising because we were hearing mostly positive reports about the two of them throughout the early part of camp. Reports had quieted down, and neither would seem to have done enough in preseason action to justify a roster spot. However, I might have thought they would be able to stick around for one more game. Such is life.
As for draft pick Jason Slowey? Well, the 49ers entire draft class was going to have a tough time making the roster and Slowey had not done enough to stand out. It sucks to blow a draft pick, but as a team gets deeper and deeper, these things are going to happen on occasion. This isn't 2005 anymore.