The Las Vegas Raiders are expected to claim Darrell Luter Jr. off waivers on Monday, giving them the No. 1 waiver priority after the San Francisco 49ers let him go over the weekend. It is a fast roster move, and it points to a cornerback who may not have carved out a full-time defensive job in San Francisco but still drew enough value to land at the front of the waiver line.
Luter spent all three of his NFL seasons with the 49ers after arriving as a fifth-round pick out of South Alabama in 2023, and he appeared in 27 total games with just three starts. His role grew mostly on special teams, where he played 63% of San Francisco's special-teams snaps in 2025 while taking only 25% of the defensive snaps.
That split explains why the move makes sense now. The Raiders are not chasing a proven starter so much as a young defensive back who has already logged meaningful game-day work, and the numbers from 2025 show he was trusted more as a coverage and kicking-game piece than as a regular in the secondary. He finished that season with 28 combined tackles, one forced fumble and a fumble recovery, but he left San Francisco without an interception.
There is still a wrinkle in the story. Luter was a fifth-round pick who stayed in the system for three seasons, yet he was waived before the season and never expanded into an everyday defensive role. At the same time, the 49ers were clearing out secondary depth by waiving Eli Apple, Ashtyn Davis, Patrick McMorris, Jakob Robinson and Jalen Stroman, so his exit was part of a broader reset rather than a single isolated cut.
The key next step is simple: the waiver claim has been reported as expected, so Monday is the day it should either become official or fall through. Given the Raiders' top priority, the move looks like the kind of claim that usually gets done, and if it does, Luter will be headed to Las Vegas after three seasons in San Francisco.
