Pats Pulpit
The New England Patriots began their cutdown of the 90-man roster early, letting go of 14 players on Friday and another on Sunday to enter the NFL’s deadline day on Aug. 26 with 76 players on their active roster. This left them with 23 moves left to be made before Tuesday 4 p.m. ET, and a majority of those came by the most straight-forward of roster reduction methods: cutting players.
In total, the Patriots cut 36 players in the aftermath of their preseason finale. Not every one of those cuts was the same, however: the NFL differentiates between so called vested veterans and those with less experience on their respective résumés. Whereas the former group immediately entered the open market, all the players in the latter will pass through the waiver wire to either end up on another team or as free agents.
What exactly does all of this mean for the Patriots and the NFL’s other 31 teams, though? Let’s find out.
As the final preparations begin for the season, teams will make massive changes to their roster, either waiving or releasing players. But not all players instantly become free agents and free to sign with any team.
Well, when a player is “waived,” they are subject to the waiver wire, where any team can claim them and assume their current contract. Currently, the waiver wire order is dependent on the NFL Draft order from this past April, but without any trades.
Teams will file waiver claims at the same time, but only the team with the highest claim will successfully pick up the player and their current contract.
Whether or not a player enters the waiver wire of becomes a free agent depends on a player’s NFL service time. Players with at least four years of accrued NFL service time are outright released. If a player is released, their contract has ended, and they’re eligible to sign with any team.
However, if a player has less than four years of service time, they are waived and subject to waiver wire claims. Any player who is not claimed after being waived is eligible to sign wherever they’d like, including their former team’s practice squad.
Mainly, the group of players getting waived is those who are currently not eligible for unrestricted free agency status entering the year. They would be an exclusive rights free agent (less than three years of service) or a restricted free agent (three years of service).
In total, 32 Patriots players will first have to pass through the waiver wire, where they might get claimed by any NFL team, before entering the open market.
