Questions on Waivers, Cuts etc.

seadnamac

Hey there, just following the sport a couple of years now but still have to fully understand some of the off field activity.

For instance, according to Adam Schefter, the Bucs have just 'claimed LaGarrette Blount off waivers from the Titans'. What does this mean exactly? The whole waivers and claiming process? Assume I know nothing about it.

Also the Jets cut Tony Rich and now have now resigned him already. Is this for a particular reason? Something to do with gauranteed money for the whole season or something?

What does it mean when a player is put in the practice squad? Or injured reserve? (besides that they're injured ofcourse).

That's all I can think of right now. The answers are all probably really simple things but if I don't ask I'll never know!

D3PO

OK so I will try and answer the questions you asked

Waivers - When a team cuts a guy he goes onto the waver wire. What that means is hes free for other teams to sign but if 2 or more teams want to sign him then the team higher on the waiver wire gets him.

So say in the instance of Blount. If say New Orleans and Tampa wanted him then the team higher on the waiver list would get him. The team that is worse will be higher just like the worst team gets the first draft pick.

When that team claims off the waivers they then go to the back of the list and so on and so on.

Cutting a guy and then resigning him is probably to do with financials but sometimes they cut from the 53 man roster to sign somebody and then resign to the practice squad

Practice squad is what is says. its a practice team used as a shadow team but essentially the players are contracted to the team so they can bring them into their roster if there are injuries etc. it prevents other teams signing the players

mikemac

Great explanation there D3PO, something I've seen often but not quite understood.

Edit: Gonna head off to learn some more about IR and see if I can get examples

D3PO

If hes on IR my understanding is he cannot practice.

mikemac

Maybe I got it completely wrong so.

I'm gonna edit my post until I learn some more, thanks

D3PO

lots of dodgy things going on in this uncapped year 4 rookie trades / cuts being investigated by the nfl players union.

so there could be something funny going on to be fair

tallaghtoutlaws

Some teams IR guys to keep them under contract. It frees up Roster space and allows them to keep the guy without cutting him. So if a young guy gets an "injury" IR is the place to be.

The drawbacks:

- He is done for the season
- He cannot practice or do any physical activity with the team

But he can hang out with team including sidelines.

My opinion of it anyways

D3PO

tallaghtoutlaws wrote: »

Some teams IR guys to keep them under contract. It frees up Roster space and allows them to keep the guy without cutting him. So if a young guy gets an "injury" IR is the place to be.

The drawbacks:

- He is done for the season
- He cannot practice or do any physical activity with the team

But he can hang out with team including sidelines.

My opinion of it anyways

i suspect thats whats happened aswell

eagle eye

D3PO wrote: »

If hes on IR my understanding is he cannot practice.

If a player is on IR he is out for the whole of the regular season. He cannot practice or play with the team. They have other things like the PUP list for injured players who are not going to be out for the full season. If you are on the PUP list at the start of the season you are out of 6 weeks minimum.

D3PO

eagle eye wrote: »

If a player is on IR he is out for the whole of the regular season. He cannot practice or play with the team. They have other things like the PUP list for injured players who are not going to be out for the full season. If you are on the PUP list at the start of the season you are out of 6 weeks minimum.

was 99% but questions myself when i read the post

tallaghtoutlaws

eagle eye wrote: »

If a player is on IR he is out for the whole of the regular season. He cannot practice or play with the team. They have other things like the PUP list for injured players who are not going to be out for the full season. If you are on the PUP list at the start of the season you are out of 6 weeks minimum.

Slightly more complicated than that and as I am lazy I am going to copy and past the rules to it

A player who begins the regular season on the PUP list must sit out his team's first six games. After that point, a team has three weeks to start having the player practice; once the player begins practicing, the team has another three weeks to put the player on the active roster. If the player is not activated by that time, or if he does not begin practicing within that three week window, he must remain on the PUP list for the remainder of the season.

eagle eye

tallaghtoutlaws wrote: »

Slightly more complicated than that and as I am lazy I am going to copy and past the rules to it

Yeah, I'm watching the Boise/Tech game so I just posted the 6 week thing. Was too lazy myself to go into that much detail.

Syferus

D3PO wrote: »

OK so I will try and answer the questions you asked

Waivers - When a team cuts a guy he goes onto the waver wire. What that means is hes free for other teams to sign but if 2 or more teams want to sign him then the team higher on the waiver wire gets him.

So say in the instance of Blount. If say New Orleans and Tampa wanted him then the team higher on the waiver list would get him. The team that is worse will be higher just like the worst team gets the first draft pick.

When that team claims off the waivers they then go to the back of the list and so on and so on.

Cutting a guy and then resigning him is probably to do with financials but sometimes they cut from the 53 man roster to sign somebody and then resign to the practice squad

Practice squad is what is says. its a practice team used as a shadow team but essentially the players are contracted to the team so they can bring them into their roster if there are injuries etc. it prevents other teams signing the players

Well, not really - if another team wants to sign a practice squad player they're free to do so as all practice squad players are de facto free agents and no compensation would be due to the team they leave. The team has some manner of 'hold' on players, but rarely if ever has a practice squad player been stopped from signing with another team, even if it's just because the player in question thinks he has a better chance of making the active roster from another team's practice squad.

D3PO

Syferus wrote: »

Well, not really - if another team wants to sign a practice squad player they're free to do so as all practice squad players are de facto free agents and no compensation would be due to the team they leave. The team has some manner of 'hold' on players, but rarely if ever has a practice squad player been stopped from signing with another team, even if it's just because the player in question thinks he has a better chance of making the active roster from another team's practice squad.

There free to do so but the team who the player is signed to has first option similar to an RFA. They would rarely invoke a matching offer though, but it does provide them a level of protection if they did want to keep a guy.

seadnamac

Cheers for the responses lads, good stuff.

Hazys

seadnamac wrote: »

Hey there, just following the sport a couple of years now but still have to fully understand some of the off field activity.

For instance, according to Adam Schefter, the Bucs have just 'claimed LaGarrette Blount off waivers from the Titans'. What does this mean exactly? The whole waivers and claiming process? Assume I know nothing about it.

Also the Jets cut Tony Rich and now have now resigned him already. Is this for a particular reason? Something to do with gauranteed money for the whole season or something?

What does it mean when a player is put in the practice squad? Or injured reserve? (besides that they're injured ofcourse).

That's all I can think of right now. The answers are all probably really simple things but if I don't ask I'll never know!

Waiver Process:

One part of the waiver process that was missing in the explaination, is it is only for young players i.e. players with 4 or less seasons, can be placed on the waiver wire. When on the waiver wire, teams have 24hrs to put in a claim for that player where they will pick up the rest of the players contract. If 2 or more teams claim a player, who gets him depends on how bad your record was last year (much like the draft). As the claiming team is picking up the player's full contract, the releasing team is completely free from the contract and doesnt result in dead cap being used up by any guaranteed money promised to the player. If no claims are made the player becomes an unrestricted free agent

If a player is a veteran (5 or more seasons) when they get released, they dont go through the waiver process, they become an unrestricted free agent and the releasing team eats any guaranteed money promised to the player into their cap.

Practice Squad:

Players are able to join a team's practice squad once they are an unrestricted free agent and "Players cannot have played more than nine regular season games or been on the active roster for an entire year, nor can players be allowed to spend more than two seasons on the same team's squad unless that team's active roster never dips below 53 players."

Teams can have upto 8 practice squad players and the minimum salary for a practise squad player is $5000 a week. Practice squad players usually spend their time mimicking opposition players in the week running upto games as part of the scout team. Practice squad players are considered free agents and can be offered contracts to join other team's full 53 man roster's during the season.