The annual NFL roster cuts deadline is coming up on Tuesday, and it’s an unpleasant process for all involved; not just the players losing their jobs, but team personnel like New Orleans Saints general manager Mickey Loomis, who has to be the bearer of bad news to dozens of young men.
Loomis recently appeared on Chris Long’s Green Light Podcast and fielded a number of questions, but the most difficult to answer concerned these roster cuts. Long asked Loomis which release had been the toughest in his Saints tenure, to which the league’s most-experienced GM responded carefully. From his point of view, there isn’t one specific player that was the hardest to part with so much as an archetype he’s run into more often than he’d like.
“Yeah, oof, boy. Good question,” Loomis exhaled, gathering his thoughts. “There’s a lot of them. And the toughest cuts are always the veteran player who’s been with you if not his whole career, a long time. You just — it’s tough emotionally to let someone go who’s contributed so much to your team, your community, the building.
“These guys, they’re great people. I think NFL players, they’re high achievers, they’re intelligent, they’re just great people with very few exceptions. And so they become part of your family. They’re appreciated by the secretaries, by every person in your building. So when you finally have to say, hey, you’re probably not good enough anymore, it’s time to go? That, that’s hard. That’s really hard.”
Loomis pointed out that these splits sometimes lead to discontent in the fanbase — as was the case with Jimmy Graham, who the Saints traded away years ago. He says he’s heard about it from fans everywhere, including his daughter, who continued to support Graham and wore his Seattle Seahawks, Green Bay Packers, and Chicago Bears jerseys as his NFL career continued away from New Orleans.
So while getting Graham back in black and gold was something that’s sparked a lot of positivity inside and outside the team facility, Loomis acknowledged how rare these reunions can be: “But those kinds of things are tough. Whether it’s a trade or letting someone go, it’s like losing a piece of your family sometimes.”
Moving on from franchise fixtures like Graham is something Loomis knows all too well. He’s had to break the bad news to fan-favorites like former Saints punter Thomas Morstead (190 games played for New Orleans), All-Pro guard Jahri Evans (169 games), franchise receiving leader Marques Colston (146 games), and a host of Super Bowl heroes like the late Will Smith, Jonathan Vilma, Roman Harper, Jabari Greer, Pierre Thomas, and Lance Moore, among many others.
It’s not an appealing part of the job. And it’s something Loomis and his staff — including recently-promoted assistant general manager Khai Harley will have to fulfill again in the days ahead. For all the personal connections and familial ties that football creates, it’s a stark reminder that, at the end of the day, it’s still a business.
