NFL Cuts 2015: Predicting Biggest Names to Be Axed Before Final Deadline

Plenty of NFL veterans are sweating bullets as they await their fate on Thursday afternoon when head coaches trim their rosters to 53 players.

NFL.com has a list of the players cut so far through the preseason, and included on that list are guys like Trent Richardson, Tim Jennings, Fred Jackson and Phil Taylor. The next round of cuts is bound to include a few surprises as teams finalize their squads for the regular season.

Among the players on the chopping block, the three below are strong candidates to be out of a job later in the week.

Matt Barkley, QB, Philadelphia Eagles

Matt Ludtke/Associated Press

The Philadelphia Eagles have four quarterbacks on the roster, which won't be the case when head coach Chip Kelly trims it down. The question is whether Matt Barkley or Tim Tebow will be the odd man out. Or maybe they'll both get cut.

Neither QB has looked all that great this preseason. Barkley has had more time on the field but hasn't outplayed Tebow by leaps and bounds. You can see their numbers from the last three weeks below:

	Comp./Att.	Yards	TD	INT	Rush Yards	Rush TD
Matt Barkley	23/43	306	0	1	7	0
Tim Tebow	10/19	97	0	0	46	1

Barkley is the better passer, but he isn't so much better that the Eagles would feel safe with him under center in the event that Sam Bradford and Mark Sanchez get hurt.

In that regard, Tebow and Barkley are in the same boat.

If you operate from that viewpoint, at least Tebow could provide value in certain situations—namely two-point conversions, which can't be said of Barkley.

Kelly and head coaches across the league could view two-pointers in a different light with the league moving back extra-point attempts. Therefore, having somebody like Tebow might actually prove smart.

Admittedly, the fact that Tebow couldn't see a wide-open receiver in a short-yardage situation is a bit concerning:

Independent of Kelly's evaluation of Tebow is the fact that Barkley simply isn't an NFL quarterback right now.

Perhaps everything will click at some point, but based on the evidence we've seen so far, the former USC Trojan doesn't have a role to play on the Eagles in 2015.

Christine Michael, RB, Seattle Seahawks

Elaine Thompson/Associated Press

Let's assume Fred Jackson will be a member of the Seattle Seahawks in the very near future. He had a physical with the team, per ESPN.com, and the relationship between him and Marshawn Lynch leads you to believe Jackson's arrival in the Pacific Northwest is imminent.

Would that make Christine Michael the odd man out in the Seahawks' backfield?

Yahoo Sports' Charles Robinson believes there's enough room to accommodate Jackson and Michael:

However, NFL Network's Ian Rapoport cast some doubt on whether the Seahawks remain enamored with the former second-round pick:

Michael has received a fair amount of hype but run for just 254 yards on 52 carries in two years. Robert Turbin eclipsed that total (310 yards) in 2014 alone. At what point should we start expecting Michael's breakthrough?

And are the Seahawks going to wait another year for Michael to put it all together, especially if they're adding Jackson to the fold?

There's no question the 24-year-old still has a lot of potential, but he likely won't reach that in Seattle while stuck behind Lynch, Turbin and possibly Jackson on the depth chart. The team would be better off offloading Michael and then looking to next year's draft to find a long-term replacement for Lynch.

Riley Cooper, WR, Philadelphia Eagles

Matt Slocum/Associated Press

While preseason games are meaningless in the grand scheme of things, isn't it kind of weird that Riley Cooper hasn't even caught a single pass over the last three weeks?

Not only that, but Cooper has received just a single target from an Eagles quarterback, which was offset by a penalty on the same play.

For his part, Cooper isn't concerned.

"Honestly, I never even thought about this until you all brought it to my attention," he said this past Monday, per Andrew Kulp of the 700 Level. "I mean, it's preseason, dude. We're 3-0, we're killing people. I've played like two quarters this whole time."

It would be one thing if Cooper were an elite wideout with nothing left to prove. But he's coming off a year in which he had 55 receptions for 577 yards and three touchdowns. And the Eagles drafted a wide receiver—Nelson Agholor—in the first round of the 2015 draft.

Did I mention that Pro Football Focus (h/t Bleeding Green Nation) also rated him as the worst receiver in the league in 2014 among those who saw 25 percent or more of their team's offensive snaps?

If Cooper wasn't in the second year of a five-year, $22.5 million deal, Philadelphia would have a much easier decision. Instead, Kelly must determine whether it's worth it to cut his losses now and let the 27-year-old go.

Releasing Cooper would also be an admission that re-signing him to that extension was a mistake, which some coaches struggle to do.

Still, it would be more cost-effective in the long run to release Cooper now and focus on the development of Agholor, Josh Huff and Jordan Matthews.