What use is the two nops in this routine

Hi,

I am reading a C55 code, see below please. On instruction manual, both BTST and ROL are size 3 and 1 cycle. I do not understand what use is the two nops.

Could you tell me that?

Thanks,

........

;AC0 = #0 ;Init STATE to zero (final state=0 due to tail bits)
;||localrepeat { ;Do i=11,0
             MOV #0, AC0
          ||RPTBLOCAL outer_loop

               ;localrepeat { ; Do j=15,0
                RPTBLOCAL inner_loop
                           nop
                           nop
                           ;TC2 = bit (*AR2-, AC0) ; Test bit in state variable.
                              BTST AC0, *AR2-, TC2

inner_loop:          ;AC0 = Carry \\ AC0 \\ TC2 ; Store bit in LSB and rotate.
                              ROL CARRY, AC0, TC2, AC0

                  ;}

                                 ; EnDo
                          ; *AR3- = AC0 ; Store packed output.
                          ;||BRC1 = #15 ; Init bit counter for next word.
outer_loop:
                           MOV AC0, *AR3-
                        || MOV #15, BRC1
             ;} ;Endo