They Cut Jack Jones. DeForest Buckner Needed the Spot.

Wednesday's roster math. Seven games, a benching in Atlanta, and a corner room that just got thinner on a 6 and 1 team.

I yelled "cut him" at the tablet on Sunday and nobody in the apartment argued with me.

Jack Jones is off the roster. They released him Wednesday so DeForest Buckner has a spot, and if you want me to act like that was a tough call, I watched the Falcons game. I won't.

The trade I already wrote. A 2027 fourth. Number 99 walking back into the building on a bye week, with time to learn the calls before anybody asks him to play. I went to bed Monday still wondering who comes off so the math works. I said, in that column, that I wouldn't invent a name just to sound informed. They picked one.

It's Jones.

The Sunday that did it

Seven games. Eleven tackles. Three passes knocked down. No picks. That's a depth corner's line if the depth corner is fine, and he wasn't fine. Atlanta had him in coverage for 17 snaps and completed four of five throws at him for 39 yards. Two penalties. One of them was pass interference on third and 8, early in the fourth, the flag that hands a drive back when you're trying to end the thing. We lost that game 29 to 20. It was the first loss. Shanahan pulled him two snaps later and sent Ephesians Prysock in for the kid's first real NFL snaps.

He said they hadn't planned on playing the rookie. They were frustrated with the penalties and wanted to give him a shot.

I stood up for that. My brother texted "finally" before I sat down. The group chat, which has one joke and it's six years old, didn't send the Kinlaw picture this time. They sent the penalty. That's how it looked from a couch in San Jose.

And it wasn't one Sunday. Week 3 against the Cardinals, at Levi's, he gave up 53 yards on five targets. Upton Stout's shoulder is the reason Jones was out there at all. Stout's been down, Ashtyn Davis didn't hold the slot, Raheem Morris moved Deommodore Lenoir inside, and Jones took the boundary when everybody in the building knew they were throwing. That's a fair ask for a veteran you signed in April. He didn't answer it.

So the cut was the easy part.

I'm thrilled Buckner's home and I'm not going to build a eulogy for a corner who got cooked and then got the bye to think about it. They made it official with no game to dress him for. The spot opens. 99 walks in. We don't have to wait until Sunday to find out whose locker got cleaned out.

What's left on the outside

The part sitting in my stomach is the corner room.

Three healthy outside corners. Renardo Green, Lenoir, and Prysock, whose whole NFL life so far is the snaps he got because the coach was sick of the flags. Stout's shoulder still doesn't have a date I trust. Nate Hobbs has been on injured reserve since August with the groin. He's the corner they signed in March after a year in Green Bay, the one who spent his first four seasons with the Raiders and can play inside or out. A few weeks back Shanahan said Hobbs was getting close, and that he could be an option in the slot if Stout stayed out.

Close is not dressed. I want him dressed before I relax.

Jones is 28. Long Beach Poly, then USC, a year at Moorpark, Arizona State. The Patriots took him in the fourth round in 2022, 121st overall. New England waived him midway through 2023 and the Raiders claimed him. Miami started him all 17 games last year: 77 tackles, a pick, six breakups. We signed him on April 13, one year, about $1.2 million, and there wasn't real guaranteed money left sitting on it. Cutting him doesn't punch a hole in the cap. A vested veteran can land back on the practice squad if the building still wants the body around.

I don't want him matched up with anybody who can throw when the lights are on. Scout team on a Wednesday is a different conversation. Sunday isn't.

The man the spot was for

Buckner is why the phone buzzed, and I don't want this column to forget him while I'm mad at a corner. Six foot seven. Seventh overall out of Oregon in 2016. Four years in our building, then Indianapolis, and a 2027 fourth brings him home. Seven starts this year. Thirty one tackles. Four sacks. Three passes defensed. A fumble recovery. The career line is 158 games and 75.5 sacks. He's 32. The neck that shut him down last year is still the sentence I won't dress up. None of that changed between Monday and Wednesday.

What changed is the roster is legal. The reunion isn't a rumor with an empty chair.

I was on the 101 when the alert hit, somewhere between the airport and the exit I miss whenever I'm reading. I laughed the same laugh as Monday. Then I did the corner math out loud and the car got quiet, which is a dumb thing to say about a car with one person in it.

Three healthy bodies on the outside. A rookie. A nickel whose shoulder we don't have. Hobbs whenever the groin says so. The deadline is November 10. If John Lynch is still on the phone, a boundary corner is the call I'd make before I make another one on the defensive line. We just spent the fourth on the line. I'm greedy. I also watched third and 8.

The Raiders come to Levi's on November 8 at 1:25. A week to install Buckner, and a week for Morris to decide if Prysock is an answer or a Sunday emergency. Green has to be the guy. Lenoir can play either spot, which is why they keep sliding him around, which is also how you end up thin. I don't have a bow to put on it. I've got a jersey I'm still not wearing until I see 99 in our colors, and a corner I won't miss.

The week by week is on the schedule hub. Who's actually standing is on the injury report and the depth chart. The long version of the line, before any of this, is the defensive line piece. Everything else lives on the 49ers hub.

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