Everything is geared towards the pursuit of equality.
The National Football League does something really well that other major sports don’t do, or at least not nearly as well: it believes in keeping things in balance. The NFL loves the fact that every fan base can hold out hope in any given year that one particular thing could change things for the better. And maybe that’s at least part of the explanation why the NFL is the most popular sport in America.
One aspect of this quest for equality can be found in the league’s waiver wire order. When NFL teams are forced to make their final roster cuts — as they did on Tuesday afternoon, August 27 — every player who does not have four seasons of eligibility is forced through the same funnel of player acquisition. That funnel is called the waiver wire.
A player placed on the waivers list can then be “claimed” by any other team in the league, meaning that the previously hired player who was released must now play for the new team. This allows the league’s least talented franchises to poach some of the “extra” talent acquired over time by the richer teams, thus creating an even playing field. Parity.
The order of waiver wire entries is the same as the order in the league’s annual draft of freshmen players – commonly known as the NFL Draft. The team with the worst overall record has the first pick, and so on until the most recent Super Bowl winner has the last pick. In the draft, teams can swap places, so the order of selection is not always the same, but it is the basis from which the event operates.
The NFL maintains this order for the first two weeks of a new regular season. This means that the Carolina Panthers, who had the worst record in the NFL last season, are the first to be released by other teams, putting them at the top of the NFL’s waiver order.
The NFL’s deadline for waivers is 12:00 p.m. ET the day after roster cuts are due (Wednesday). At that time, the league will notify clubs which players are awarded to them and they will be required to make the appropriate roster changes to add that player to their active roster. ndsf
Unfortunately, the Chiefs are dead last in the overall team standings, meaning Brett Veach and Co. will have to hope that the players they want to sign are deemed undesirable by 31 other teams. If that sounds like a tall order, it is.
Maybe that’s why the Chiefs traded a seventh-round pick to the Arizona Cardinals in exchange for pass rusher Cam Thomas a day before the deadline for roster cuts. Even though he was likely to be traded, what were the odds he would pass 31 other teams to get to them? Veach didn’t want to take the risk.
- 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
- The Seattle Seahawks
- Jacksonville Jaguars
- Cincinnati Bengals
- Los Angeles Lakers
- Pittsburgh Steelers
- Miami Dolphins
- Philadelphia Eagles
- The Cleveland Browns
- Dallas Cowboys
- Green Bay Packers
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Houston Texans
- Buffalo Bills
- Detroit Lions
- Baltimore Ravens
- San Francisco 49ers
- Kansas City Chiefs
