Questions about Waivers and Waiver Processing

Q: I have an open slot on my team but am being asked to drop a player when placing a waiver claim. Why?

Q: Why did my Waiver claim disappear?

Q: Why are players moved to a "Waiver" status?

Q: When are Waivers processed?

Q: Our normal Waiver start date/time is Thursday at 7pm EST. There are Thursday afternoon games this week since it is Thanksgiving and I want to put all players on waivers Thursday at 10am for this week only. Can I do this?

Q: One of my league members dropped the wrong player. In our league, players are placed on Waivers for 48 hours after being dropped. Can I override this so he can pick him back up?

Q: We are using a Rolling Waiver Priority for our Waiver Claims. How does that work?

Q: We are using a Worst-to-First Priority for our Waiver Claims. How does that work?

Q: We are using "Bid Processing" for our waivers. What happens if two teams bid the same amount on the same player as the highest bidders?

Q: We are using a Waiver Processing time of At End of Week, which means after the Monday Night Football game is over. How soon after the game is over are waivers processed?

Q: WR Danny Amendola was on waivers until 11/12. His release date has been changed to 11/17. Why did it change?


Q: I have an open slot on my team but am being asked to drop a player when placing a waiver claim. Why?
A: You are being asked for a cautionary drop. This guarantees you will receive the requested player if awarded that player during waiver processing. What would happen if you picked up a free agent before waiver processing started and your roster was full when the waiver processing started? Well, you would have no one set up to drop and we would have to kill your waiver request to prevent you from going over the roster maximum (which is what other sites do). We want to grant your request but must keep your roster max intact. If you have an open slot when awarded the player during waiver processing, no player will be dropped.

Q: Why did my Waiver claim disappear?
A: Waiver claims are automatically deleted when they are processed. Also, Waiver claims can be automatically deleted if you trade or drop a player involved in a waiver claim.

Q: Why are players moved to a "Waiver" status?
A: You'll have to look at your League Settings to find out exactly how your league is using waivers. Players can be moved to "Waiver" status one of three ways, and sometimes, these processes run at different times for different players.

  • All undrafted players can be placed on waivers for XX hours following the completion of your draft.
  • When a player is Dropped from a team's roster, he can be placed on waivers for XX hours.
  • Each week, available players can be placed on waivers at a designated day/time or at the beginning of their game or the first game of the week and then released from waivers at a designated time interval or specific day/time.

Q: When are Waivers processed?
A: The Waiver Processing routine runs every 5 minutes and looks for players to run through the Claim process. Waiver processing is extremely configurable at MFS and each league can process their waivers at different times. You need to review your League Settings to find out when your waiver processing occurs.

Q: Our normal Waiver start date/time is Thursday at 7pm EST. There are Thursday afternoon games this week since it is Thanksgiving and I want to put all players on waivers Thursday at 10am for this week only. Can I do this?
A: As Commissioner, you can use the Commissioner Tool called "Change Waiver Process date/time" to override the default setting on any week that has not already put players on waivers for the week. The rule of thumb is to execute this function the week prior to the week you want to change. So, if you want to override waiver processing for week 7, then execute this Commission Tool during week 10 to override week 11.

Q: One of my league members dropped the wrong player. In our league, players are placed on Waivers for 48 hours after being dropped. Can I override this so he can pick him back up?
A: As Commissioner, you can use the Commissioner Tools called "Change player waiver date" and change the process date/time of that player, or multiple/all players, to current date/time and they will be released off of waivers during the next execution. Once he is a free agent, you can easily pick him up for that team or have the team pick him up themselves.

Q: We are using a Rolling Waiver Priority for our Waiver Claims. How does that work?
A: After the draft, teams are assigned their initial Waiver Priority. They are given the reverse value of their draft position. So, in a 12-team league, the team with the first draft pick is assigned a Waiver Priority of 12. When Waivers are processed on a weekly basis, we look to see if if the team with the number 1 Waiver Priority has placed a waiver claim. If so, they are awarded their top selection only (explained in a minute). At that point, all other claims for that player are deleted and the team who was awarded the player moves to Waiver Priority 12 and all other teams have 1 subtracted from their current priority. From there, the process is repeated. If the team with the number 1 priority has no claims, they retain their current priority and we process until there are no more waiver claims to process. Earlier, we mentioned that only a team's top claim is processed. Each team can submit multiple waiver claims and must prioritize them. They will receive other claims if no other teams with a better waiver priority claims that player.

Q: We are using a Worst-to-First Priority for our Waiver Claims. How does that work?
A: Each week, during our end-of-week processing, we rank the teams according to their current record. The worst record receives a value of 1 and the best team receives a 12 (assuming a 12-team league). If teams are tied with the same record, the tie-breaker is the Total Points scored, with the lower points receiving the better priority. Once processing for the week begins, the waiver processing occurs just like the Rolling Waiver Priority until it is reset again based on the standings after the week concludes. Before the season starts, teams have no record, so any waiver processing follows the Rolling Priority List with the initial order being the reverse of the draft order. Also, in the playoffs, these leagues will also assume the Rolling Priority method with the order being carried over from the end of the regular season.

Q: We are using "Bid Processing" for our waivers. What happens if two teams bid the same amount on the same player as the highest bidders?
A: If there is a tie for the highest bidder for the same player, the tie-breaker is the Rolling Waiver Priority.

Q: We are using a Waiver Processing time of At End of Week, which means after the Monday Night Football game is over. How soon after the game is over are waivers processed?
A: Since the end time of the game is unknown, we will process waivers during the next waiver processing cycle following the end of the game.

Q: WR Danny Amendola was on waivers until 11/12. His release date has been changed to 11/17. Why did it change?
A: Your league is set up such that Amendola fell into the waiver Catch 22. When he is dropped, he goes on waivers for a set time (48 hours in this case). When a new week starts, all unowned players will get placed on waivers when their game starts, even if they are currently on waivers to get all players a common release date/time for end-of-week processing of waivers. So, there is a potential for overlap which could affect Thursday night players depending on when they were dropped. Now, the other gotcha is teams on Bye. They don't have a game to trigger them to go on waivers so they could either remain free agents or, in your league, the setting to place all players on Bye is turned on. Bye week players go on waivers for the current week when the first game of the week starts. So, your league's configuration + the date/time Amendola was dropped put him into an overlap situation and his release from waiver date was extended so he will be processed with all other players after the week is over.