“I already pretty much had my team cut before the final preseason game. Maybe one or two things could change on the roster after the last preseason game — based on somebody else’s cuts, an injury to one of my current players or some other unforeseen circumstance. Basically I would operate all during camp with trying to get the best 20 offensive players and the best 20 defensive players, which gave me 40 spots. I would think about that early in camp. Every time I determined that a player was one of those 40, I would put that name on the list; I would try to fill that 20 offense and 20 defense out as we went through the first two or three weeks of training camp. I also had to be concerned with my specialists. Who was going to be the punter, kicker and, if in fact I didn’t have someone who played a regular position that could be a long snapper, who was going to be the snapper? I was always looking for a guy who played a regular position who could be my first-team snapper. When I was coaching in New England, we had Mike Bartrum, who was also our third tight end. With the Giants, I had Steve DeOssie, who was also one of our linebackers. That gave me an extra roster spot. So I had my 20 and 20 plus 3, which was the punter, kicker and long snapper. With my roster at 43, I still had 10 spots to fill, but you could only take three more players to the game each week because you could dress 45 and a third quarterback. That nucleus of players was going to do most of the playing. The remaining 10 guys were comprised of players who I felt could make a significant contribution in the special-teams area or were young developing players that weren’t quite ready as training camp ended, but I felt could make a contribution by the time the season was in full swing. If we had a position on the team that was shaky because of inexperience or by virtue of the health of the players playing it, maybe I would keep someone at that position as insurance”.
