The NFL’s roster cutdown clock is ticking, and with it comes one of the quieter but more important parts of the preseason: the waiver wire.
Teams have until Sunday, August 30 at 6:00 PM Eastern to trim their rosters to 53 players. That means 37 players from each team will be waived or released, unless they’ve been traded or are injury designated.
Once those moves are made, clubs get a window to place claims on any player subject to waivers, and they have until Monday, August 31 at 1:00 to do it. Anyone claimed is headed to a new team.
Anyone who clears becomes an unrestricted free agent, and then teams can turn to building their 16-man practice squads and getting everything set for Week 1.
There’s an important wrinkle, though: not every cut player goes through waivers. Vested veterans, defined here as players with four years of accrued NFL service time, are released outright and hit free agency immediately.
That can create a little roster chess. If a team is worried about losing a younger player on waivers, it may choose to release a vested veteran instead, then bring that player back right away on the practice squad or activate him later after shifting someone else to the scout team.
For the Eagles, the current spot is No. 23 on the waiver wire, which lines up with the 2026 NFL Draft order. Last year, Howie Roseman used that position to claim center Willie Lampkin after the Los Angeles Rams waived him. Lampkin has since been one of the training camp standouts this summer.
The full waiver order is fixed right now, with the Las Vegas Raiders holding the top spot and getting first rights to every player on waivers, whether they make a claim or not. That order will stay in place through the preseason and the first three weeks of the regular season before resetting after four games based on the current standings.
Here’s how the order breaks down:
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
San Francisco 49ers
Houston Texans
Los Angeles Rams
Denver Broncos
New England Patriots
Seattle Seahawks
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Toure now goes through the waiver process and could become a free agent if no team claims him. For a player who has already bounced through the Packers, Bears, Broncos and Saints, this is the kind of late-August limbo that can still turn quickly, especially with teams around the league making their own last-minute decisions on depth at wide receiver. [Read more 🡒]