What is the NFL waiver wire order? Where your favorite team sits after roster cut day
By Matt Conner
Here's a look at the complete waiver wire order for teams making claims after NFL roster cuts were due.
It's all shaped in a pursuit of parity.
The National Football League does one thing really well that other major sports do not—or at least not nearly as well—and that's their belief in keeping things even. The NFL loves the fact that each fan base can feel hopeful in any given year that a particular thing might turn things around. And perhaps that's at least part of the explanation why the NFL is the most popular sport in America.
One aspect of this pursuit of parity can be found in the league's waiver wire order. When NFL teams are forced to make their final roster cuts—as they are on Tuesday afternoon, August 27—every player without four seasons of accrued service is forced through the same funnel of player acquisition. That funnel is called the waiver wire.
A player placed upon waivers is then available for any other team in the league to "claim", which means the previously employed player who was released must now play for the new team. It allows the league's most talent-deficient franchises to poach some of the "extra" talent acquired over time by the richer teams, thus evening the playing field. Parity.
How is the waiver wire order determined?
The waiver wire order is the same as the given order for the league's annual first-year player draft—commonly known as the NFL Draft. The team with the worst overall record has the first pick and so on, through to the most recent Super Bowl winner holding the last pick. For the draft, teams can trade their spots so the order of selection doesn't always follow suit in this way but it's the foundation from which the event begins.
The NFL keeps that same order of business through the first two weeks of a new regular season. That means the Carolina Panthers, who finished with the worst record in the NFL last season, will get first crack at any players who are released by other teams. That means they sit in the pole position of the NFL's waiver wire order.
When will teams know if their claims are processed?
The NFL's deadline for waiver claims is at 12:00 p.m. E.T. on the following day (Wednesday) after roster cuts are due. At that point, the league willl alert clubs as to which players, if any, they are awarded and they will be forced to make the corresponding roster moves in order to fit that player onto their active roster. ndsf
Where the Chiefs stand in waiver wire order?
The Chiefs are dead last overall, sorry to say, which means Brett Veach and company are going to have to hope any players they desire to claim are found undesirable by 31 other teams. If that sounds like a tall order, it is.
Perhaps that's why the Chiefs went ahead and traded away a seventh-round pick to the Arizona Cardinals in exchange for pass rusher Cam Thomas one day in advance of the roster cuts deadline. Even though he was a likely cut, what were the chances of him passing through 31 other teams to get to them? Veach didn't want to take the risk.
The official waiver wire order after NFL roster cuts
- Carolina Panthers
- Washington Commanders
- New England Patriots
- Arizona Cardinals
- Los Angeles Chargers
- New York Giants
- Tennessee Titans
- Atlanta Falcons
- Chicago Bears
- New York Jets
- Minnesota Vikings
- Denver Broncos
- Las Vegas Raiders
- New Orleans Saints
- Indianapolis Colts
- Seattle Seahawks
- Jacksonville Jaguars
- Cincinnati Bengals
- Los Angeles Rams
- Pittsburgh Steelers
- Miami Dolphins
- Philadelphia Eagles
- Cleveland Browns
- Dallas Cowboys
- Green Bay Packers
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Houston Texans
- Buffalo Bills
- Detroit Lions
- Baltimore Ravens
- San Francisco 49ers
- Kansas City Chiefs