Soul make final roster cuts

Following the scrimmage, where the players were given one final chance to impress the coaches, the Soul made a bevy of roster moves and shakeups in an effort to meet the league deadline.

The Soul placed five players on recallable reassignment, which means that they have waived them, but they have 48 hours to re-sign them to the team before losing their rights.

Among those placed on recallable reassignment were wide receiver Jackie Chambers, defensive back Darius Pettigrew, defensive linemen Lawon Scott and Jason Townson and fullback Tombe Kose.

The most surprising of the bunch is Jackie Chambers, who had a productive season in 2012 for the Kansas City Command.

Chambers was working on the second unit of receivers in camp this week and was seemingly beat out of a roster spot by AFL rookie Ryan McDaniel.

McDaniel has better size and seemingly better hands than Chambers, which was probably the reasoning behind the decision.

The least surprising is Tombe Kose, who had virtually no chance of supplanting the league’s leading rusher in Derrick Ross and was probably not going to take up a roster spot unless he could do multiple things.

The Soul found no need for a backup fullback who does nothing else, but carry the ball, so they’ll likely convert another player into a fullback. As noted in a previous story, that looks as if it will be the team’s sack leader in 2012, defensive lineman Bryan Robinson.

The Soul also placed two players on injured reserve Saturday as quarterback Ryan Porter and linebacker/defensive lineman Andre Mathis were both placed on the list.

In the AFL, being placed on the IR means being inactive for only four weeks.

Porter has been in a hotly contested battle with Steven Gachette for the backup quarterback job and it is kind of surprising that he wasn’t outright released. More is sure to develop from this.

Linebacker Chris Frank was placed on league suspension. This could be a legitimate suspension or a way to shuffle around some players until the team figures out what exactly they want to do. Nothing is certain just yet.

The Soul activated two players to their active roster as well Saturday. Offensive lineman Brennen Carvalho was activated from the physically unable to perform list and kicker Carlos Martinez was activated from the refused to report list.

Martinez never really refused to report to the Soul, but didn’t have to report training camp, thus he didn’t. The Soul simply placed him on the list to keep on him on the team without counting against roster restrictions.