2025 NFL Waiver Order
Many of the players cut Tuesday were subject to waivers, giving teams a chance to pick them up (along with the rest of their contract). Teams can claim as many players as they want before the next team gets their remaining targets.
It’s also worth noting that relatively few players are claimed off waivers during final roster cuts each year. Waiver claims will be processed at 11am CT in the following order (via NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo). In reverse order of the 2024 NFL standings, here is how the waiver priority sits:
- Titans
- Browns
- Giants
- Patriots
- Jaguars
- Raiders
- Jets
- Panthers
- Saints
- Bears
- 49ers
- Cowboys
- Dolphins
- Colts
- Falcons
- Cardinals
- Bengals
- Seahawks
- Buccaneers
- Broncos
- Steelers
- Chargers
- Packers
- Vikings
- Texans
- Rams
- Ravens
- Lions
- Commanders
- Bills
- Chiefs
- Eagles
Saints Name Spencer Rattler Starting QB
The Saints used a first- or second-round pick on a quarterback for the first time in 54 years, but despite Derek Carr‘s retirement, Tyler Shough will begin his rookie season as a backup.
New Orleans has named Spencer Rattler as its Week 1 starter, the team announced Tuesday. The 2024 fifth-round pick battled Shough during a monthslong competition, this year’s last QB battle to wrap. This will now mean nearly a fourth of the league (seven teams) will be starting a 2024 draftee at quarterback to open the season. Rattler joins Michael Penix Jr., Drake Maye and J.J. McCarthy in being set to start in Week 1 for the first time.
Rattler finished the preseason 30 of 43 for 295 yards with a touchdown and an interception; Shough was 36 of 54 for 333 yards — also adding one TD and one INT. The Saints cut their third-stringer, Jake Haener, earlier today. Haener had initially been part of the competition, but it became a Rattler-Shough matchup as the process wore on.
This decision is unlikely to inspire too much confidence among Saints fans, especially with a highly drafted rookie not doing enough to unseat a player who did not impress as Carr’s primary fill-in last season. Rattler lost each of his six starts, with the Saints losing five of those games by double digits. Rattler completed 57% of his passes for 1,317 yards as a rookie, closing the part-time starter year with a 4:5 TD-INT ratio. That said, Rattler was working with a cast of backup wide receivers — due to the season-ending injuries sustained by Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed — during most of his time replacing Carr.
Olave and Shaheed are back at work ahead of Rattler’s first Week 1 opportunity, and the Saints reunited with Brandin Cooks this offseason. They also brought in Devaughn Vele via trade, sending fourth- and seventh-round picks to the Broncos for a 6-foot-5 pass catcher who saw the second-most snaps among Denver wide receivers last season. This gives the Saints a solid top four a year after they were trotting out backup-level cogs for much of the season.
Kellen Moore gave Rattler the first preseason start, and that proved telling. Still, the ex-Oklahoma and South Carolina starter’s grip on the job might be tenuous. It stands to reason the Saints will want to see what they have in Shough, so a quick hook would not be surprising. The Saints are not projected to be a playoff contender, even with a host of proven veterans still rostered, and the team will be connected to what looks like a better QB class (compared to 2025, at least) ahead of next year’s draft. With the prospect of a first-round investment in a passer looming in 2026, Shough’s place on the team is a bit more interesting after today’s news.
Connected to a few arms in April, the Saints were among the QB-needy teams to pass on Shedeur Sanders twice. They fortified their O-line with Kelvin Banks Jr. at No. 9 and then added Shough at 40. Shough gained steam during the pre-draft process, impressing despite spending seven years in college — Shough is a year older than Rattler — and carrying a notable injury history into the NFL. But the former Louisville, Texas Tech and Oregon option will begin the season as a backup. This will stall the Saints’ evaluation of a soon-to-be 26-year-old rookie.
Three years remain on Rattler’s rookie contract. The Saints have not drafted a first-round QB since Archie Manning in 1971; it will be interesting to see if anything Rattler or Shough do this season could prevent the Saints from a higher-profile QB investment next year. For now, Rattler has the keys and will work behind an O-line housing four first-round picks (and standout center Erik McCoy, a former second-rounder).
Saints Release Clyde Edwards-Helaire, Isaiah Foskey, Move Down To 53
The Saints have moved down to 53 players ahead of the 3pm CT deadline. Moving multiple players to the IR-return list, New Orleans also cut 19 players in addition to today’s Jake Haener move. Here is how the Saints trimmed their roster to 53:
Released:
Waived:
- WR Kevin Austin
- CB Dalys Beanum
- S Elliott Davison
- DE Fadil Diggs
- DE Isaiah Foskey
- LB D’Marco Jackson
- T Easton Kitty
- DT Jayden Peevy
- CB Jayden Price
- LB Nephi Sewell
- K Charlie Smyth
- TE Treyton Welch
- RB Marcus Yarns
Waived/injured:
- CB Rico Payton
Placed on IR (designated for return):
- DL John Ridgeway
- T Barry Wesley
Placed on IR:
Moved to reserve/PUP list:
- TE Taysom Hill
- TE Foster Moreau
Ridgeway and Wesley will count toward the Saints’ in-season injury-activation total, leaving six regular-season activations for the team to use. Kellen Moore confirmed those two received return designations while Young will head to season-ending IR due to ankle surgery, NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo tweets. Ridgeway, acquired via trade last year, will miss time due to a pectoral injury. It is not viewed as serious, Garafolo adds, noting the D-lineman should be back early in the season. Ridgeway and Wesley, a 2023 UDFA who has not seen any game action yet, must miss at least four games.
The same holds true for Hill and Moreau, who will be shifted from the active/PUP list to the reserve/PUP list. Hill suffered an ACL tear in Week 13 last season, while Moreau went down with a knee malady in Week 18.
Foskey could not hold onto a regular role under Moore, who will drop the 2023 second-round pick after his third NFL training camp. The Saints have used Foskey in 27 games, giving him no starts. In that time, the edge rusher has not recorded a sack. If Foskey goes unclaimed, the Saints will be hit with $3.16MM in dead money — spread over two years.
Edwards-Helaire follows Cam Akers off New Orleans’ roster. Both are vested veterans and do not need to clear waivers before joining another team’s active roster or practice squad. Teams cannot begin setting P-squads until waivers process at 11am CT Wednesday, but clubs are informing players they want to retain on their taxi squads already. Beanum is among the players the Saints want to retain on their P-squad, KPRC2’s Aaron Wilson tweets.
Cowboys To Trade T Asim Richards To Saints
Tuesday’s third NFL trade will also be the third to involve an offensive tackle changing teams. Asim Richards is on the move. 
Richards is being traded from the Cowboys to the Saints, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports. The move will end his run in Dallas, which began in 2023 when he joined the team as a fifth-round pick. Over his two years in the league, Richards totaled 21 appearances and made one start. Per Schefter, the Cowboys will receive a 2028 sixth-round pick in exchange for Richards and a seventh-rounder that same year.
Healthy depth along the offensive line has recently emerged as an issue for the Saints. As a result, it comes as little surprise they are among the teams using the period before this afternoon’s cutdown deadline to make a move up front. New Orleans is in need of backups behind Kelvin Banks Jr. and Taliese Fuaga, so a swing tackle role could be in store for Richards.
The 24-year-old saw time as a guard during the preseason, so playing time along the interior could be possible as well. In any case, Richards will now turn his attention to carving out a second-team gig with the Saints instead of quite possibly being waived by the Cowboys later today. Dallas will generate $1.03MM in cap savings with this move, while New Orleans will take on the final two years of his rookie contract.
Dallas will move forward with Tyler Guyton and Terence Steele as starters at the tackle spots. The team’s depth chart beyond those two will become clearer over the coming days as the Cowboys’ practice squad takes shape. Today’s move ensures, though, that Richards will not be in the team’s plans for 2025.
Saints To Waive QB Jake Haener
The Saints have still not named their starting quarterback, but they have elected to move on from their projected No. 3 option. Jake Haener is being waived, Mike Garafolo, Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero of NFL Network report.
Not part of the latter stages of the Saints’ quarterback battle, Haener will be cut with two years remaining on his rookie deal. The Saints drafted the Fresno State product in the 2023 fourth round. He is due a $1.03MM base salary in 2025.
Haener will be a candidate to pass through waivers to a practice squad. With New Orleans only having two QBs on its current roster (Spencer Rattler, Tyler Shough), it would make sense a player the team developed for two years would be a candidate for that emergency QB3 role. But the Saints did change coaching staffs this offseason, potentially pointing Haener elsewhere. A practice squad arrangement could indeed be in store, Mike Triplett of NewOrleans.Football notes.
The Saints gave Haener one start last season, doing so after initially turning to Rattler — a 2024 fifth-round pick — to fill in for an injured Derek Carr. Haener both relieved Rattler during Carr’s first bout of injury trouble and then received a Week 15 start amid Carr’s second 2024 hiatus. Interim HC Darren Rizzi benched Haener during that start, going back to Rattler for the rest of the season.
Completing 4 of 10 passes before being benched in December, Haener holds a 46.2% completion rate (compiled over 39 attempts last season). He is certainly a backup- or QB3-type arm at this point, seeing as the Saints’ ongoing QB battle moved on without him. Haener suffered an oblique strain during the team’s offseason program, hurting his chances of winning the 2025 job following Carr’s retirement. Kellen Moore will determine a starter soon, with the Saints being the last team with an unsettled QB situation.
Saints Waive 13 Players
The Saints have taken a step toward the 53-man roster limit. In addition to releasing running back Cam Akers, the team announced on Monday that the following 13 players have been waived:
- P James Burnip
- WR Roderick Daniels Jr.
- DE Jasheen Davis
- WR Moochie Dixon
- T Josiah Ezirim
- TE Seth Green
- G Kyle Hergel
- TE Michael Jacobson
- DE Jeremiah Martin
- T Jonathan Mendoza
- G Mike Panasiuk
- LB Tyreem Powell
- DE Omari Thomas
Each player listed will now hit the waiver wire. Claims can be made through Wednesday of this week, the first day in which practice squads can be put together. Several of the Saints’ cuts from today and tomorrow are likely to wind up on the team’s taxi squad in advance of Week 1.
Burnip was part of the Saints’ undrafted free agent class this spring. The Alabama product was brought in as competition at the position, but today’s news means he will not handle punting duties to begin the campaign. Fellow undrafted rookie Kai Kroeger is now the only punter on New Orleans’ roster.
Saints To Release RB Cam Akers
Cam Akers caught on with the Saints after a minicamp tryout, but he has not done enough to make New Orleans’ initial 53-man roster. The Saints are moving on a bit early, NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero notes.
A vested veteran, Akers can head straight into free agency. He would be able to sign elsewhere once the release is official, rather than joining waived players in needing to wait until Wednesday’s pivotal 11am CT claiming deadline.
The path to New Orleans’ active roster appeared rather slim for Akers. The team has Alvin Kamara entrenched as a starter, after a fall 2024 extension, and former third-round pick Kendre Miller will have another chance as a backup. The Saints also used a sixth-round pick on Devin Neal this year.
A former second-round pick who fell out of favor with the Rams after a promising start to his career, Akers became the historically rare player to be traded to the same team twice in two years. The Vikings acquired Akers from the Rams in 2023 and then obtained him from the Texans last year. Akers supplanted Ty Chandler as Minnesota’s backup but did not generate much free agency interest this offseason. The RB has two Achilles tears on his resume, the second coming in 2023.
Between his time in Houston and Minnesota last year, Akers combined for 104 carries for 444 yards and two touchdowns. He made two starts with the Texans, but Joe Mixon‘s return from an early-season injury prompted the team to move on. Akers, 26, would be practice squad-eligible as well — though, he has not needed to take that route yet in his career.
Kellen Moore: Saints’ QB Competition Too Close To Name Starter
AUGUST 23: When speaking to the media on Saturday, Moore said (via ESPN’s Katherine Terrell) a final decision on the team’s starting gig will be made “at some point in the next few days.” The evaluation process will include breaking down today’s preseason finale, which saw each of Rattler, Shough and Haener take part. 15 days remain until the Saints’ regular season opener.
AUGUST 21, 4:01pm: Moore announced on Thursday afternoon that Rattler would start against the Broncos on Saturday, suggesting he has a slight edge in the race to be the Saints’ Week 1 starter under center.
3:29pm: Although the Browns and Colts began the week by settling their Week 1 starting quarterbacks, the Saints are not there yet. New Orleans’ starting quarterback competition between Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough will go on for another week.
Head coach Kellen Moore declined to name a starter going into the team’s third preseason game and said (via ESPN’s Katherine Terrell) that Rattler and Shough have been “really really close…going all the way back to the start of training camp.”
“I think both these guys are putting in tremendous effort, tremendous work,” added Moore.
The two young passers have put up improbably similar statistics across two preseason games. On 44 dropbacks, Rattler has completed 25 of his 35 attempts for 252 yards, one touchdown, and one interception, per Pro Football Focus (subscription required). Shough dropped back 40 times and completed 24 of his 35 attempts for 231 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. Their efficiency markers are just as close, in terms of completion percentage (Rattler’s 71.4% to Shough’s 70.6%), yards per attempt (7.2 to 6.8), and passer rating (89.2 to 86.8).
Interestingly, PFF’s grades clearly favor Rattler (70.8 passing grade, 71.4 overall) to Shough (57.3, 56.8), though each was credited with two Big Time Throws and one Turnover Worthy play. Rattler did have a substantially higher average depth of target (8.3 to Shough’s 6.8) and a much lower pressure to sack rate (15.8% to Shough’s 30.8%).
The Saints, of course, will have their own method of choosing a starter. Saturday’s preseason finale against the Broncos will likely be a major factor.
Saints’ OL Depth Hurting
After a year in which two offensive line positions were essentially revolving doors for starters, the Saints entered their offseason program with a strong plan. Unfortunately, their emergency plan may have required an emergency plan of its own as New Orleans has watched injuries ravage their offensive line depth.
The Saints have a preliminary starting five that sees Erik McCoy and Cesar Ruiz return to their roles last year at center and right guard, respectively. Trevor Penning, last year’s starting right tackle, has bumped in to the left guard spot, allowing last year’s left tackle, Taliese Fuaga, to return to the position he played in college after starting his rookie year at left tackle. Finally, filling the vacated left tackle spot will likely be rookie first-round pick Kelvin Banks Jr.
However, as mentioned above, the Saints have been bitten before, so they made sure to stock up on depth for their offensive line. Those pieces included free agent addition Dillon Radunz, centers Will Clapp and Shane Lemieux, guard Nick Saldiveri, tackle Landon Young, and a few others. Despite the team’s efforts, a number of those players have already gotten injured in the preseason, leaving New Orleans extremely thin along their offensive line with just over two weeks until their regular season opener.
Clapp and Saldiveri are already done for the season, and Radunz has stepped in for Penning as he deals with turf toe, per Matthew Paras of The Times-Picayune. To make matters worse, Young was carted off the field during Saturday’s preseason game with an ankle injury, according to ESPN’s Katherine Terrell. Lemieux appeared to be making a push for the Saints’ backup center job until he, too, left Saturday’s game with an ankle injury (via Paras). That could give bolster the roster chances of depth interior linemen Torricelli Simpkins and Luke Fortner, the latter of whom was acquired in a trade last week.
New Orleans’ OL woes could have them scouring the waiver wire over the coming days to shore up their depth in the trenches. A quicker recovery from Penning would also allow Radunz to serve as a versatile backup after playing every position except center in Tennessee.
Nikhil Mehta contributed to this post.
NFC South Notes: Bucs, Tuttle, Falcons
Jason Licht managed to stick around to make the Tom Brady signing despite the Buccaneers missing six straight playoff brackets to start his GM tenure. Licht said (via The Athletic’s Dan Pompei) he feared he would be fired after starting 27-53 during his first five years. But the Bucs gave him a five-year extension in summer 2019. In his sixth draft as Bucs GM, Licht chose Devin White fifth overall. The high-end linebacker prospect flashed early and earned an All-Pro nod, but a penchant for freelancing led the Bucs to bench him — after a trade request amid a pursuit of a top-five ILB contract. Licht now admits White would have been “off my board” had he received a do-over, indicating the off-ball LB’s Tampa Bay stay was “too much about him.”
Licht also missed on first-rounders Vernon Hargreaves, O.J. Howard and Joe Tryon-Shoyinka from 2016-21, but the Bucs’ drafts during the late 2010s through the 2020 virtual event helped form their Super Bowl LV core. As for White, he washed out of Philly after signing a one-year deal worth $4MM. He did not play a down for the Super Bowl LIX champions last season; after a stop in Houston, White rejoined Brady in Las Vegas (on a one-year, $1.17MM deal with no guarantees) this offseason.
Here is the latest from the NFC South:
- Shy Tuttle started 32 Panthers games from 2023-24, but the team both added reinforcements via free agency and has seen Derrick Brown return from a season-altering injury. The Panthers signed Tershawn Wharton and Bobby Brown to play up front alongside Derrick Brown, leaving Tuttle without a defined role. Tuttle is on Carolina’s roster bubble, per The Athletic’s Joe Person, who has Cam Jackson and A’Shawn Robinson — one of many ex-Rams on Ejiro Evero‘s third Panthers defense — making the team as backups over Tuttle. The Panthers would take on $6.56MM (spread over two years) by releasing Tuttle, who has made 65 career starts.
- The Panthers should also be monitored for potential late-summer adds at inside linebacker and cornerback, Person notes. Carolina cut Josey Jewell after one season and has not found a home yet. Ex-Ram Christian Rozeboom is in place to start alongside 2024 third-rounder Trevin Wallace. At corner, the Panthers have Michael Jackson and Chau Smith-Wade set to play regular roles alongside Jaycee Horn. The Panthers used their No. 1 waiver priority to claim three CBs last August; even with a lesser priority spot, more moves to bolster their defense could be coming Wednesday.
- Falcons swing tackle Storm Norton is expected to miss at least six weeks after undergoing ankle surgery this week, ESPN’s Adam Schefter notes. Norton re-signed on a two-year, $3MM deal this offseason. More significantly, the Falcons are without starting RT Kaleb McGary due to a leg injury. McGary will miss time, per ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, but the nature of the injury (and the recently extended player’s expected absence length) are not yet known. McGary signed a two-year, $30MM extension ($28.48MM fully guaranteed) during training camp. Elijah Wilkinson has seen more time at guard in recent years, but the ex-Broncos swing tackle took over at RT after McGary was carted off, per Falcons.com’s Tori McElhaney. An outside addition should probably not be ruled out, but McGary’s timetable will be key on that end.
- The Saints hired former center LeCharles Bentley as a personnel and performance consultant. Bentley, who made the Pro Bowl at two positions (center, guard) during his Saints rookie-contract stay in the early 2000s, has been training O-linemen during offseasons for many years. The four-year Saints starter who suffered a career-ending injury shortly after signing with the Browns in 2006, Bentley has assisted with film study, at practice and in the weight room thus far, according to Saints.com’s John DeShazier. The 45-year-old staffer’s four Saints seasons doubled as Mickey Loomis‘ first four as GM.