Sep 05, 2009 - Elbert Mack and Clifton Smith were two of the 52 players the Tampa Bay Buccaneers kept after Saturday's final round of cuts. The Buccaneers' coaching staff hopes there are a few more Macks and Smiths among the other 50.

One day after concluding their 2009 preseason with a 27-20 loss to the Houston Texans, the Buccaneers trimmed their roster from 75 players to 52, one below the NFL-mandated limit of 53. That's an indication that the team has its sights set on a player or several players who may soon become available as the league's other 31 teams make similar cuts.

One spot on the roster was cleared in an unfortunate manner, as rookie tackle Xavier Fulton was placed on injured reserve. Fulton suffered an ACL tear in his left knee during Friday night's game. Also, safety Tanard Jackson will revert to the reserve/suspended list and will not count against the 53-man roster for the first four weeks of the season. Scroll down for a complete list of Saturday's roster moves.

As always, there were difficult decisions; likely among them this year were the releases of veterans Matt Bryant, Jameel Cook and Cortez Hankton, and the exact makeup of the depth along the offensive line. Of course, tough choices are a function of good and productive depth, something Tampa Bay's management is striving to create.

"It's never easy to cut a guy," said Head Coach Raheem Morris in the week leading up to Saturday's deadline. "That's probably the worst part of my job. But when we start making the tough cuts, that's when we become a good team, that's when we become a really great team."

Last year, then-rookie Mack was one of the surprising choices for the season-opening 53-man roster, especially considering his roots as an undrafted free agent out of Troy. He proved to be one of the team's 53 best players and, a year later, he is the obvious front-runner for the team's nickel back job.

Mack had a very good game in the team's 2008 preseason finale, sealing his spot. On Friday, second-year quarterback Josh Johnson showed off his athletic potential and wound up as one of four quarterbacks kept by the Buccaneers. Johnson completed 12 of 21 passes for 182 yards, one touchdown and one interception and also ran five times for 43 yards.

"We want to keep the best 53 and Josh went out again and proved he could move the football and when he’s out there he can be productive and he can learn and he can go without a whole bunch of reps," said Morris after Friday's game. "That’s big-time quality in this league when you have a guy like that. That’s a special quality, I believe, a Jason Garrett-type of quality. A guy [like Garrett] can back up Troy Aikman for 12 years, or whatever it was, and go in a game and when they need him he wins football games. When he gets his opportunity to go play, he plays well and then he fights his way to the top. That’s what I want this team to be built on.”

Other young players who simply proved too valuable to let go included tackle Demar Dotson, cornerback E.J. Biggers and linebacker Rod Wilson. Dotson might be this year's most surprising success story. He played just one year of college football at Southern Miss after previously playing on the school's basketball team, and that was at defensive tackle. Agile and big (6-9, 315 pounds), Dotson represents a major find for the Buccaneers' scouting department.

"Last year it was Mack," said Morris. "Last year, E-Mack went up there and got a pick, hit the quarterback, got the crowd fired up. The next thing you know, he's on our team and we didn't know his name. We just called him 'Nook.' We're going to look for those types of players to step up and go out there and play this year and do the same things."

Here's a rundown of all the roster moves the team made on Saturday in order to get to 52 players.

Waived:

T Anthony Alabi

CB Kyle Arrington

DT Chris Bradwell

C Rob Bruggeman

DE Jarriett Buie

S Steve Cargile

WR Patrick Carter

DT Rashaad Duncan

DE Louis Holmes

RB Kareem Huggins

CB Darrell Hunter

T James Lee

TE Jason Pociask

TE Ryan Purvis

LB Bo Ruud

WR Mario Urrutia

Waived/Injured:

S Donte Nicholson

Terminated Vested Veterans:

K Matt Bryant

FB Jameel Cook

WR Cortez Hankton

WR Marcus Maxwell

Placed on Injured Reserve

T Xavier Fulton

Moved to Reserve/Suspended List

S Tanard Jackson

Despite the common term of "final cuts," Saturday's moves are far from the last ones the team will make in 2009, and they do not necessarily represent the end of the road for the players above, either in the NFL or specifically in Tampa. That lesson is represented by Smith, who earned a spot on the offseason roster in 2008 with a fine tryout performance in the May rookie mini-camp. Smith had a fine training camp but did not initially make the 53-man roster; however, he landed on the practice squad and was later signed to the active roster in October. All Smith did from there was make the Pro Bowl as the NFC's return man.

The Buccaneers will be able to form their practice squad on Sunday, after all of the men cut on Saturday around the NFL have cleared waivers. The first iteration of the practice squad every September is usually a combination of some of the players listed above and a few others snagged off the waiver wire.

Though Fulton will spend his rookie season on injured reserve, the rest of the Buccaneers' 2009 draft class made the regular-season roster. That includes a pair of seventh-round picks, cornerback E.J. Biggers and wide receiver Sammie Stroughter. Here are some additional notes about Saturday's roster moves and the resulting 52-man roster:

The Bucs' 52-man squad includes eight rookies. In addition to the five 2009 draft choices listed above, the team also kept undrafted free agents Dotson, offensive lineman Marc Dile and center Jonathan Compas.

Obviously, Tampa Bay's offensive line group will feature quite a bit of youth. The nine linemen kept by the Buccaneers combine for an average opening-day age of exactly 25 years old, including the starters. The Bucs' oldest offensive lineman, Marcus Johnson, is 28, and four of the nine are 24 years old or younger. Of the four reserves – Johnson, Compas, Dotson and Dile – only Johnson is not a rookie.

Compas and Johnson were able to make a good impression in a very short period of time. Both were former Oakland Raiders who joined the Buccaneers in the week leading up to Friday's game. Compas provides the Buccaneers with depth at center and Johnson has started in the NFL at both tackle and guard.

Mike Nugent obviously won the competition at kicker for the Buccaneers, though Matt Bryant's preseason struggle with a hamstring injury essentially made the point moot. Bryant had four very good seasons in Tampa Bay – his .831 field goal percentage from 2005-08 is the best in team history and his 62-yarder against Philadelphia in 2006 is a franchise record – but the intended battle between him and Nugent never materialized. Nugent made six of his nine field goal attempts during the preseason and also knocked 10 of his 16 kickoffs into the end zone.

The Buccaneers kept four quarterbacks at the beginning of the season for the third year in a row. In 2007, the Buccaneers had starter Jeff Garcia backed up by Luke McCown and Bruce Gradkowski, and they also retained Chris Simms, who was returning from a severe 2006 injury. Simms was later moved to injured reserve. Last fall, the Buccaneers had McCown and Brian Griese backing up Garcia but wanted to hold on to Johnson, the rookie.

Smith wasn't the only player cut at this time a year ago who was able to reestablish a foothold on the Buccaneers' roster. Defensive tackle Dre Moore didn't make the regular-season squad in 2008 despite being a fourth-round draft pick. However, Moore stayed around on the practice squad and then showed significant improvement during the 2009 offseason. Moore is one of four defensive tackles the team kept, joining rookie Roy Miller as backups to Chris Hovan and Ryan Sims. Also, wide receiver Brian Clark started last year on the practice squad but later got a promotion to the active roster and has once again won a spot on the 53-man crew.

Clark is battling Stroughter and Maurice Stovall to be the third receiver behind starters Antonio Bryant and Michael Clayton. The Buccaneers kept just five receivers and will probably address that position on the practice squad. Tampa Bay expects to have its tight ends and running backs heavily involved in the passing game.

With the release of Jameel Cook, the Buccaneers will go with just one fullback to start the 2009 season. That allows the team to keep four tailbacks – Smith, Earnest Graham, Derrick Ward and Cadillac Williams – and is not surprising given that the team's new offense doesn't make heavy use of the fullback position.

The Buccaneers' 52-man roster includes 15 players who were not with the team at any point in 2008. In addition to the eight rookies, the newcomers are P Dirk Johnson, G Marcus Johnson, LB Niko Koutouvides, QB Byron Leftwich, K Mike Nugent, RB Derrick Ward and tight end Kellen Winslow.

Dirk Johnson has the punting job after Josh Bidwell landed on injured reserve in the preseason due to the aggravation of an existing hip injury. With Nugent replacing Bryant, the Buccaneers have new players at both kicking spots in the same season for the first time since 1999. That season, kicker Martin Gramatica and punter Mark Royals replaced Michael Husted and Tommy Barnhardt, respectively.