The St. Louis Rams reached their 80-man limit this afternoon. A pair of rookies and a second-year player were waived injured today. Teams had to trim from 90- to 80-man rosters by 3 p.m. local time today. The next round of roster cuts are due by the end of the day on Saturday, September 3, as teams cut down to a 53-man roster.
Rookie cornerbacks Dionte Dinkins and Mikail Baker were waived injured today. That means teams put the player on waivers, giving other teams the chance to pick them up, if they so desire. Teams usually reach a settlement of some sort with those players, or they have an injury guarantee in their contract. Baker was a seventh-round pick this year who never saw the practice field much due to injury. Dinkins was the most promising of this year's late-arriving undrafted free agent class. He showed real potential, until a high ankle sprain last week put him out of commission for a few weeks.
DT Jermelle Cudjo was also waived injured. There had been some talk about Cudjo going to IR; it was even reported that he was placed on the IR list. Undrafted in 2010, Cudjo played well in spot duty for the St. Louis Rams last year.
Why not injured reserve for these guys, particularly Cudjo? Players on IR count against a team's salary cap. Granted, none of these guys would have counted much - Cudjo was due $405,000 this year - but every dollar matters for a team like as close to the cap, and looking for space, as the Rams.