Yes, and it happens roughly 500 times every year. But there’s a sequence that has to play out first, and it’s the part most fans get wrong: a player cannot go straight from being cut to a practice squad. He has to clear waivers, and only then does he get to pick where he lands.
That last detail matters. A player who clears waivers becomes a free agent, which means he chooses his practice squad — teams cannot claim him onto one.
Why the Player Gets to Choose
This is the part that surprises people. During the waiver period, the player has no say at all — if a team claims him, his contract transfers and he reports. But once he clears, the mechanism flips completely. He is an unrestricted free agent, and a practice squad contract is a negotiation like any other.
In practice, cleared players often re-sign with the team that just cut them, because that club knows the system, has an open spot ready, and has usually told the player in advance that it wants him back. But he is under no obligation. A receiver buried on one depth chart can look at another team’s injury situation and sign there instead, and agents work that angle hard in the 24 hours after waivers clear.
The One Move He Can’t Make
A player already on a practice squad cannot simply jump to another team’s practice squad. If a rival club wants him, it has to sign him to its 53-man active roster — a real commitment, at active-roster money. That rule exists to give practice squad players some stability and to stop teams from raiding each other’s development pipelines for free.
It also creates a genuine promotion path: a strong practice squad performance can force another team to add you to its 53 outright. For how teams use squad players week to week without permanently signing them, see our guide to practice squad elevations, and for the claim mechanics themselves, how NFL waivers work after roster cuts. League roster rules are published by the NFL.
The Bottom Line
A waived player can absolutely land on a practice squad, but only after clearing waivers — and once he clears, the choice is his, not the teams’. Squads hold 16, plus a 17th international spot, with room for up to six unlimited-experience veterans. The one thing he can’t do is move directly from one practice squad to another.