He was a vet min signing, so it's not the same as blowing it with a big signing bonus and cap hit, and he was obviously fighting for a spot, since he lost it. Right on two counts.
However, to say that they didn't "expect much from him other than what they got, competition" is to understate their error. If that was true, they would have played him late in games, just like Hobson and let Wheatley and LSanders, who both made the roster, get more of the starting snaps against the better competition. I'm saying that until late in the preseason they thought he would start. And that was a mistake.
My feeling is they cut two guys, Jackson and Bryant, who showed no guts and no hustle, and they kept guys like Ventrone, who are all heart. It sends a clear message that this team will finish. Finish means finishing tackles, finishing plays, something neither Bryant nor Jackson did.
Uh, is it out of the question that they had him starting the preseason games because they wanted to evaluate his tackling abilities against live competition?
This is an assumption, but that's what looked to be his downfall. I would have thought the front office knew his major weaknesses before they signed him (I think that was considered one of them) and wanted to evaluate how those weaknesses worked within their scheme (where strong tackling corners are at a premium).
In my opinion, he was signed to see if he'd work out, not because they expected him to start. The preseason was still a measure of how he was working out.