Buccaneers Officially Cut 22 Players, Get Down To 53-Man Limit

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers officially announce they have trimmed their roster down to 53 players.

1. TE Danny Vitale 
2. DT Cliff Matthews
3. S Kimario McFadden
4. CB Javien Elliott
5. RB Russell Hansbrough
6. WR Bernard Reedy (waived/injured)
7. LB Luke Rhodes 
8. LB Josh Keyes
9. LB Jeremiah George 
10. LB Micah Awe
11. RB Peyton Barber
12. WR Freddie Martino
13. WR Jonathan Krause
14. WR Kenny Bell (waived/injured)
15. OL Josh Allen
16. OL Ben Gottschalk
17. OL Kelvin Palmer
18. OL Kyler Kerbyson
19. DL Kourtnei Brown
20. DT A.J. Francis
21. DB Isaiah Johnson
22. TE Kivon Cartwright (waived/injured)

Vitale, 22, was taken in the sixth round of this year’s NFL Draft by the Buccaneers. He’s in the first year of his four-year, $2.47 million rookie contract and stands to make a base salary of $450,000 for the 2016 season.

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Matthews, 27, is a former seventh-round pick of the Falcons back in 2011. He had finished out his rookie contract last year when he signed a two-year extension with the Falcons.

However, Matthews was unfortunately among their final roster cuts coming out of the preseason. The Buccaneers elected to sign him to a future/reserve contract this past February.

In 2014, he appeared in seven games and totaled six tackles (four solo) on defense and adding three special teams tackles.

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McFadden, 25, signed on with the Falcons as an undrafted free agent out of South Carolina State back in May of last year. He’s had multiple stints with the Buccaneers and Falcons, and was briefly with the Panthers before being waived shortly after last year’s draft.

McFadden was on an off of the Buccaneers’ practice squad last year, but was waived a few days to get down to the 75-man roster limit. The Bucs brought him back on Wednesday for their preseason finale.

In 2015, McFadden has appeared in three games this season and recorded two tackles.