The 32 NFL teams will let go of over a thousand players when the 2026 preseason wraps up, as they’ll all get their 90-man offseason rosters down to 53 active players for the regular season. That deadline is 5:00 pm (CT) on Sunday, but teams aren’t waiting til them to notify their players. The Chicago Bears and Tennessee Titans were the last two teams playing this preseason, so some of the other clubs have already started making moves. We’ll certainly hear about some Bears being let go by the morning, and when they are, you can stay abreast of all the transactions in our tracker right here.
The Bears hope they get the right combination of players to help them repeat as division champs for the first time since the 2005 and 2006 seasons. Our partners at FanDuel Sportsbook have the Bears with the third-best odds to win the NFC North at +330.
Advertisement
But before they get there, they have a lot of transactions to make to get ready for Week 1, and that starts with cut-down day. Released players around the League become street free agents and can sign with any team, but waived players must go through waivers.
What’s the difference?
Vested veterans are players with four or more credited seasons of NFL experience, and when they are released, they are not subject to waivers. They can immediately negotiate with teams. The NFLPA defines a credited season as being on the active, inactive, injured reserve, or PUP list for three or more regular-season or post-season NFL games, or if a player is released injured and receives an injury settlement or grievance for the equivalent of 3 or more regular-season games.
Players with less than four credited seasons are waived and subject to waivers. If these players go unclaimed, they are free to negotiate with teams as free agents or for a practice squad job.
Advertisement
When is the waiver deadline?
After all 32 teams file their transactions with the NFL (by 5 pm (CT) on Sunday), they’ll have until Noon (CT) on August 31 to file their claims. The League will review those claims and then announce which claims were successful. A claimed player will need a corresponding roster move to make room on the roster. That player, if waived, will be on waivers the next day.
Once those transactions are announced, teams can officially start filling their 16-man practice squads with unclaimed players or street free agents.
What is the current waiver order?
It’s last year’s NFL Draft order before trades.
Advertisement
This waiver order will stay this way for the first three weeks of the season; after that, it’ll go from worst to first based on the teams’ current standings each subsequent week.
How many players can a team claim?
There’s no limit, really, as technically, the Raiders could put in a claim for 53 new players. That’ll never happen, but each team lists who they want, and the waivers process in order. So the Raiders will get all the players they claim. If there’s anyone left on the Jets list, they’ll be awarded them. If everyone the Cardinals listed is gone, the waivers move to the Titans, and this goes on through all 32 teams.
Every team that wins a claim must release a player; and if that player is vested, he’s an immediate free agent, but if not, he’s placed on waivers, and the whole process begins again the next day for the waived players.
Read the full article here