Over the next couple of days, you’ll hear about players getting both waived and released by their teams. There is a difference between the two transactions, and it affects where those players may, eventually, find themselves.
Any player with less than four accrued seasons of experience will be waived by their team. That means that they are subject to the league’s waiver process, where teams with worse records have the ability to get those players first.
Right now, and through the first three weeks of the 2025 regular season, the waiver priority order mirrors the selection order from the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft. That means the Tennessee Titans occupy the #1 spot on the waiver priority list. Basically, if a team waives a player and the Titans want him, they get him.
If a player has four or more seasons of accrued experience, on the other hand, they get released. That means that they immediately become a free agent and can sign with any other team that makes them an offer.
