And tidbit for those playing at home:
Tate has more than 4 years service so technically he isn't waived, he is released (can sign as a FA immediately). However, there is an exception that states that since he is released after the trade deadline, he must pass through the waiver system, regardless.
I bring that up not as a trivia/trivial thing but to opine if, because of this subtlety, if it is possible that the 24 hour "waiver" period isn't an exact, firm 24 hours in this case.
Are we sure that he has been credited with 4 years of service?
He was on IR the entire 2010 season. I seem to remember with Michael Bush, that his 1st year didn't "count" because he never played; as a result he entered FA 1 year later than he would have otherwise.
Not that it matters though, because I tend to think that your 1st post is spot on, and the 24 hour "clock" starts with the end of the NFL's business day in NY, so we might know something around 5 pm.
I guess we could look at his original contract to get an idea but my knee-jerk guess on that is since he hit FA, it was accredited as a year of service (based on the thought that I THINK he signed a 4 year deal as a rookie). Seems like Bush was a PUP or special list guy since he came into the league already rehabbing and MAYBE (just guessing) that may be the difference.
And, yeah, the more I think about it, the timing makes more sense to what I said in the 1st post because when a player is waived, a 24 hour clock starts but when they are released, the player becomes an immediate FA "when the release paperwork is approved by the NFL office".
So maybe its a scenario where the news broke yesterday but it took 3-4 hours for the paperwork to get approved or something (speculation...just saying that would kind of make sense in this case).
