The San Francisco 49ers cut their roster down to 53 players and one of the casualties of the cuts was linebacker Chazz Surratt. The Seattle Seahawks wasted no time by swooping in to scoop up Surratt after he became available.
While the Niners cutting Surratt was not the biggest surprise, it certainly was a bit unexpected since Surratt showed some positive signs in the team's preseason finale against the Los Angeles Chargers. Cutting Curtis Robinson was another mild shock among the roster cuts.
Surratt was drafted in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft out of the University of North Carolina by the Minnesota Vikings. The Tar Heel ended up being a bust for Minnesota as he only appeared on special teams his rookie year and did not record a single tackle. He got waived by the Vikings the following year.
The New York Jets had him on their practice squad for a bit, and he saw some action with New York last season as he had 28 combined tackles including two tackles for loss. It makes sense that San Francisco signed him earlier this year since defensive coordinator Robert Saleh must have seen promise last season when he was the head coach of the New York Jets.
Unfortunately, Surratt was not quite able to do enough to snag a spot on the team. Instead, the Niners are going with Fred Warner, Dee Winters, Nick Martin, Tatum Bethune and Luke Gifford at linebacker.
Linebacker is a notably interesting position group for San Francisco since it has one of the best players in the game with Warner, but there are a lot of question marks after him. Winters has yet to prove himself consistently in the NFL, and rookie Nick Martin, while he has received praise from a former 49ers great, is a rookie and will inevitably have some growing pains.
Maybe the team can skirt by with Warner as their leader, but it is fair to be a little nervous about the depth chart after him.
Surratt is gone, but the Niners will see him soon as they take on the Seahawks in Week 1 of the regular season. We will see how much playing time he gets, but he will have the chance to make the 49ers regret that they ever cut him.