As the smoke clears from the final cuts on NFL rosters, it turns out three former Nebraska football players will be spending their rookie years in the NFL. Two players didn’t manage to make the final cut for their respective teams, but did get signed onto their franchises’ practice squads. The third former Husker might be the surprise of the class as he did indeed make the final 53 man roster.
Nate Gerry was the only Nebraska Cornhusker who was selected in the 2017 NFL draft. Despite being the only former Husker who was not a non-roster invitee, it turns out he couldn’t stick with the Philadelphia Eagles main roster.
His release was a bit of a surprise considering most reports had been saying he was playing quite well and picking up the linebacker spot. It’s a relatively safe bet that an injury late in the preseason might have led the Eagles to decide to stick him on the practice squad, rather than include him on the final roster.
The Brandon Reilly saga
Brandon Reilly’s story was even more twisty-turny than Gerry’s. The former Nebraska football wide receiver had been signed by the Buffalo Bills shortly after the draft. Unlike his counterpart, Jordan Westerkamp, he made it through most of the camps with the first team he signed with. He then had an excellent training camp.
That training camp performance even went so far as to have his teammates talking about how much they admired Reilly and were hoping he would make it on the team.
In the end, the undrafted free agent found out on Saturday morning that he too, had been cut.
The former Nebraska football star appeared to take it in stride, considering he tweeted out that he just wasn’t going to let the news keep him down. It appears the Bills didn’t have room for the receiver, but wanted to hang onto him as best they could.
On Sunday, it was announced Reilly had signed with Buffalo’s practice squad. Considering how thin at receiver the team is, there is a better than average chance he’ll make the roster at some point.
Former Nebraska football tight end surprises
The biggest surprise from this summer has to be yet another undrafted free agent who is the only rookie from the Huskers to make the final 53-man roster.
Cethan Carter certainly showed enough at Nebraska to convince onlookers he might be quite the weapon at tight end if he had a quarterback who could get him the ball. Now that he has officially made an NFL roster, we’ll have to wait and see just how often he plays, but he’s certainly got his foot in the door with the Cincinnati Bengals.
