Do waived players still get paid?

What Happens to a Player’s Pay When They’re Waived?

When an NFL team waives a player, it doesn’t mean they stop getting paid—far from it. In most cases, the player still receives the guaranteed money written into their contract, even after being cut.

Waiving someone is just the first step in the release process. Once placed on waivers, other teams have a chance to claim the player and take over his contract. If no one does—and the player “clears waivers”—he becomes a free agent. But here’s the catch: the original team usually still owes him the guaranteed portion of his salary.

That financial responsibility also affects the team’s salary cap. The remaining guaranteed money doesn’t vanish; it counts against the cap, often as “dead money.” This means franchises have to weigh the cost carefully. Cutting a high-salary player with years of guaranteed pay left can handcuff a team’s cap space for seasons.

For example, if a player has two years and $10 million guaranteed left on his deal, and he’s waived with no claims, his former team still pays that $10 million. The only difference? They no longer get on-field value in return.

Some contracts include mechanisms like post-June 1st designations to spread out cap hits, but those are strategic workarounds, not get-out-of-jail-free cards. At the end of the day, waiving a player is a financial decision as much as a football one.

So yes—waived players almost always still get paid. The team just has to decide whether that price is worth moving on.