The NFL and the Detroit Lions will close out their preseason on Saturday, and by 6 p.m. ET Sunday, teams must reduce their rosters to 53 players. For the Lions, that will mean removing 38 players from their 91-man offseason roster, a daunting task that will need to be accomplished in roughly 24 hours after they finish out the preseason.
This look at the waiver wire process and how it impacts the Lions roster was sponsored by FanDuel Sportsbook, which currently has the Lions listed at +1700 to win this year’s Super Bowl, +850 to win the NFC Championship, and +155 to win the NFC North as the current favorites.
Roster cuts: Waived vs. Released
As Jeremy Reisman explained in a roster cuts rules article, when a player is cut from the roster, they’ll fall into two categories: “waived” or “released.” The category a player falls into depends on how many “credited” seasons in the NFL they have. A player earns a credited season if they spent at least three games in a season on the active roster, or the season on IR, or PUP.
A player with four or more credited seasons is designated as “released,” meaning they immediately become a free agent. A player with fewer than four credited seasons is “waived” and therefore subject to the NFL’s waiver system, where another NFL team can claim them and keep their contract intact.
Which Lions are eligible for the waiver wire?
This offseason, the Lions got younger across the roster, and as a result, 57 of their 91 players have fewer than four credited seasons. Here’s a list of those players:
(Projected starters are bolded)
QB Luke Altmyer
RB Jahmyr Gibbs
RB Sione Vaki
RB Jacob Saylors
RB Jabari Small
RB Trayveon Williams
RB Roydell Williams
WR Isaac TeSlaa
WR Tay Martin
WR Dominic Lovett
WR Malik Cunningham
WR Lucky Jackson
WR Tarik Black
TE Sam LaPorta
TE Jackson Meeks
TE Thomas Gordon
TE Zach Horton
LG Christian Mahogany
RG Tate Ratledge
RT Blake Miller
C Juice Scruggs
OL Miles Frazier
C Seth McLaughlin
G Mason Miller
OT Devin Cochran
OT Giovanni Manu
OL Melvin Priestly
C/G Michael Niese
OT Colby Sorsdal
C Gus Hartwig
DT Tyleik Williams
DT Chris Smith
DT Skyler Gill-Howard
DT Mekhi Wingo
DL Tyre West
EDGE Tyler Lacy
EDGE Derrick Moore
EDGE Ahmed Hassanein
EDGE Anthony Lucas
EDGE Eric O’Neill
LB Jimmy Rolder
LB Trevor Nowaske
LB Erick Hunter
CB Ennis Rakestraw
CB Nick Whiteside
CB Keith Abney
CB Ryan Cooper
CB Ekow Boye-Doe
CB Eric Scott
DB Brian Branch
DB Christian Izien
S Thomas Harper
DB Aamaris Brown
S Dan Jackson
S Jason Taylor II
K Jake Bates
LS Hogan Hatten
Here’s an at-a-glance look at the Lions’ current depth chart, with the players eligible for the waiver wire colored by position and the vested veterans without color:
Waiver wire priority
From cutdowns through the first three weeks of the regular season, the waiver wire priority is determined by last year’s NFL Draft order, with teams in their original slots. That means the Lions will have 17th priority in the waiver wire process. Therefore, if they put in a claim for a “waived” player and the 16 teams ahead of them in the order do not put in a claim, Detroit will be awarded that player.
Here’s the complete priority order:
Las Vegas Raiders
New York Jets
Arizona Cardinals
Tennessee Titans
New York Giants
Cleveland Browns
Washington Commanders
New Orleans Saints
Kansas City Chiefs
Cincinnati Bengals
Miami Dolphins
Dallas Cowboys
Atlanta Falcons
Baltimore Ravens
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Indianapolis Colts
Detroit Lions
Minnesota Vikings
Carolina Panthers
Green Bay Packers
Pittsburgh Steelers
Los Angeles Chargers
Philadelphia Eagles
Jacksonville jaguars
Chicago Bears
Buffalo Bills
Houston Texans
San Francisco 49ers
Los Angeles Rams
Denver Broncos
New England Patriots
Seattle Seahawks
Waiver wire timeframe
Once a player is waived from any team, they become eligible for the waiver wire process, which begins immediately following cutdowns (Sunday at 6 p.m. ET) and ends on Monday at 1 p.m. ET. Once the deadline passes, the NFL will sort through the claims and award players based on waiver wire priority, with the highest priority getting first dibs.
What happens after a player is claimed?
Once a waived player is claimed by a team, that player is immediately placed on the team’s 53-man roster, and the team has until the end of the business day (typically only a few hours) to make a corresponding roster move. If the player cut to make room is eligible for the waiver wire, the process begins for them; they become eligible at 4 p.m. ET that day, and their waiver wire window closes the next day around noon.
What happens if a player is not claimed?
If a player is not claimed off waivers, they immediately become an unrestricted free agent and are eligible to sign with any team or to their practice squad.
When do teams start building their practice squad?
Once the initial waiver wire window expires (Monday at 1 p.m. ET), teams may begin building their 16-player practice squad—be on the lookout for our Practice Squad Tracker, which will publish on Sunday.