Raiders begin cutdowns with several wide receivers

Sunday at 3pm Pacific time the Raiders will need to have their roster trimmed to 53 players. The team looks to have started those cuts at the wide receiver position.

The first was Noah Brown who the team released this past week just eight days after he had been signed. The veteran appeared in the team's second preseason game, catching one pass for 11 yards and that was it for him in a Raiders uniform. And with the cutdown deadline less than a week away, the team didn't bother to fill his roster spot, treating it as basically their first move to get to 53.

Saturday, with still 24 hours until the team must make their final decisions, they continued to trim the wide receiver position. According to sources, the Raiders have released rookie EJ Williams and waived veteran Phillip Dorsett.

Williams was signed as an undrafted free agent out of Indiana and for a time looked like he would make a push to fill the team's need at the X receiver spot, including catching a 41-yard pass in the preseason opener. But he didn't show up consistently enough to claim that spot.

Dorsett spent last season on the Raiders' practice squad and was re-signed to a reserve/future contract in January. He and Aidan O'Connell had trouble getting on the same page in their preseason appearances together which no doubt led to the 33-year-old not making the cut again this year.

There will likely be at least five more wide receivers among the intitial 53-man roster cuts. You can keep track of all the Raiders roster cuts as they come out right here.