NFL waiver order for teams after roster cuts

As fans know well, Tuesday was the day that teams across the NFL trimmed their rosters from the 90 man limit allowed during the offseason down to the 53 man roster of the regular season. With that, hundreds of players were waived, meaning that the rest of the league has an opportunity to put in a claim for the services of those players.

The waiver order during the offseason and through the first few weeks of the regular season is based on how teams finished in the season prior, and since the Seattle Seahawks made the playoffs, that puts them in the bottom half when it comes to waiver priority.

The order for the entire league is as follows:

This time of year always brings up the question of whether waiver order resets if a team puts in a claim and is subsequently awarded a player off waivers, and the answer to that is that the order does not change. The Chicago Bears, with highest priority in the list, will be awarded any and all players on which they place claims. Meanwhile teams further down the list can put in claims, but will miss out on the player if a team with a higher priority also puts in a claim.

Teams are able to put in waiver claims until noon New York time, 9 am Pacific on Wednesday, with players claimed awarded to their new team prior to 1 pm New York time. From there teams have two hours to make the necessary moves to accommodate the claimed player on the roster, meaning teams cannot make space on the active roster by moving a player to injured reserve that they want to designate for return later this season.

John Schneider and Pete Carroll have been active on the waiver wire during their tenure in Seattle, so don’t be surprised if there is shuffling of the bottom of the roster early Wednesday afternoon.