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What Does Waived Mean in NFL and How Is It Different From Released?
With all 32 NFL teams ‘cutting’ players on August 27 deadline, here is what the key difference between ‘waiving’ and ‘releasing’ a player means.
On 27 August, NFL ‘cuts’ made headlines as all 32 teams in the league ‘cut down’ on their 90 players' roster and trimmed it down to the required 53-man roster for the regular season. This ‘cutting down’ players means letting the players go. Now, when diving into the specifics of an NFL ‘cut’, we get ‘waived’ and released’. While the essence of both remains the same, the nuanced meaning is what makes them different.
What does Waived mean in the NFL?
When the teams ‘cuts’ a player, who has amassed NFL experience of four years or fewer, it is called ‘waived’. For example, when any team would not include a rookie NFL player in their 53-man roster, it means that the team ‘waived’ them.
But the whole process of letting a player go after making them play a preseason is quite complex. Here’s a detailed explanation of it.
NFL Waiver Wire: Rules explained
When a player is waived, it means that his contract is yet to be terminated. This puts the particular player on the ‘waiver wire’ from where other teams can ‘claim’ them. The ‘waiver wire’ enables other teams to get young players on their team, which is beneficial for the teams who are looking for younger talent on their roster. Additionally, this system is based on their previous season’s standings and hence, the teams only get an ordered chance to ‘claim’ a player.
Per NFL, “the waiver period lasts 24 hours and all waivers are categorized as “no recall” and “no withdrawal,” which means once a club waives a player, it cannot take the player back or change the player’s status.”
Here, two scenarios can unfold for the player: If he gets claimed by another team, he joins the roster with an exactly identical contract, with the same years remaining and the same pay as with his previous team. If he is not claimed by any team in a certain time, usually in a day or two, then their contract is officially terminated, and they become unrestricted free agents.
Another situation where the team might waive a player is when they’re injured. In this scenario, the team doesn’t exactly cut the player off straight away, rather they just inform the league about his injury. Once that is done, the whole ‘waiver wire’ process repeats itself, where the player ends up being a part of another team.
The only catch here, where the player is injured, is that if no team claims him, then he is reverted back to his original team and is put on the ‘injury reserved’ list. The decision then resides with the franchise to either ‘maintain’ him or ‘release’ him directly with an injury settlement.
Waived vs Released in the NFL
On the other hand, when a team ‘cuts’ a veteran player, which means a player with an NFL experience of four years or more, then it is referred as ‘released’. But the whole process of letting a player go after making them play a preseason is quite complex. Here’s a detailed explanation of it.
The veterans players have it less complicated than the rookies. Since the veterans’ contracts get terminated as soon as they are ‘released’, they are free to sign contracts with other teams. Here, they can negotiate terms and might even land a higher-paying contract than their previous team.
As every other step, cutting, or ‘waiving’ or ‘releasing’ a player is as crucial step for the team as selecting new players from the NFL draft.
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