The Jacksonville Jaguars may have been awarded former New Orleans Saints running back Devine Ozigbo off of waivers, but the weren’t the only team to submit a claim for the talented rookie. Per Field Yates of ESPN, the Jaguars were one of three teams that tried to add Ozigbo — along with the Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions. Had Ozigbo cleared waivers and not been claimed by a new team, he likely would have reverted to the Saints practice squad.
The Jaguars were successful because they had the highest priority in making waiver wire claims for this week; Jacksonville’s waiver claim priority was 7th-best, with Detroit slotted in just behind them at 8th overall. Cleveland was a long-shot to secure Ozigbo at seventeenth in waiver priority. New Orleans was a victim of its own success, ranking 30th out of 32 NFL teams. The waiver order will update depending on how the opening week’s games turn out.
Ozigbo’s departure leaves the Saints unusually thin at running back, but this may be the new normal for them. They’ve carried just three or four runners into the start of the regular season for each of the last three years, with Alvin Kamara, Latavius Murray, and Dwayne Washington on the active roster. Second-year wide receiver convert Taquan Mizzell is on their practice squad as an intriguing developmental prospect. Before 2017, their streak of four- or five-deep backfields ran all the way back to 2011.
