Cutdown weekend usually means a flood of quiet roster moves nobody outside the building notices. Darrell Luter's release from the 49ers was the exception. According to Field Yates, the Titans, Dolphins, Cowboys and Colts all filed waiver claims on the cornerback — and no other player cut across the entire league over the weekend drew more than 2 claims.
As it turns out, Darrell Luter had by far the most interested teams on the waiver wire yesterday: the Titans, Dolphins, Cowboys and Colts all attempted to claim him. The Raiders had priority. No other player waived over the weekend had more than 2 teams put a claim in.
The Raiders ended up with him anyway, because waiver claims aren't first-come-first-served — they're decided by priority order, and Las Vegas currently sits at the top of it. That's the tradeoff of a bad enough season: the Raiders finished with the league's worst record, which now doubles as the best waiver position in football. When 4 teams want the same guy, priority wins every time, no matter who filed first.
Luter was a fifth-round pick by San Francisco in 2023, the 155th overall selection out of South Alabama, where he'd been a first-team All-Sun Belt corner. He stuck around the 49ers for 3 seasons and played in all 17 games last year with 3 starts, so this wasn't a fringe camp body getting cut loose — it's a guy with real defensive snaps who just got squeezed off a crowded 49ers roster.
Report: Four other teams put in a claim for CB Darrell Luter. t.co/MYDbzkSUS9
That's exactly why 4 teams jumped on him within hours of the move becoming official. Cornerback depth is precious this time of year, and a former Day 3 pick with a full season of NFL tape is a much safer bet than whatever's left in undrafted free agency. To make room for him, the Raiders had to cut third-year corner Decamerion Richardson, a swap that says plenty about how much value Las Vegas placed on winning this particular claim.
For the Raiders, it's a low-cost, no-risk addition — worst case, Luter's a depth piece who never sniffs the field. But landing the most contested name on the entire waiver wire, over 4 other teams, is the kind of small win that at least suggests someone in the building is doing their homework on other rosters. Expect Luter to compete for a spot in the secondary rotation as Las Vegas gets its 53-man roster settled.