NFL waiver wire explained: Which Detroit Lions are impacted

Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell, left, and general manager Brad Holmes walk off the field after practice during training camp at Meijer Performance Center in Allen Park on Wednesday, July 29, 2026. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Co

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:

1. Las Vegas Raiders
2. New York Jets
3. Arizona Cardinals
4. Tennessee Titans
5. New York Giants
6. Cleveland Browns
7. Washington Commanders
8. New Orleans Saints
9. Kansas City Chiefs
10. Cincinnati Bengals
11. Miami Dolphins
12. Dallas Cowboys
13. Atlanta Falcons
14. Baltimore Ravens
15. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
16. Indianapolis Colts
17. Detroit Lions
18. Minnesota Vikings
19. Carolina Panthers
20. Green Bay Packers
21. Pittsburgh Steelers
22. Los Angeles Chargers
23. Philadelphia Eagles
24. Jacksonville jaguars
25. Chicago Bears
26. Buffalo Bills
27. Houston Texans
28. San Francisco 49ers
29. Los Angeles Rams
30. Denver Broncos
31. New England Patriots
32. 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.