The knee-jerk reaction from many when the Giants waived/injured cornerback Mykkele Thompson on Thursday is that the team is cutting ties with the 2015 fifth-round pick. That's not necessarily the case.
The common mistake is focusing on the "waived" part of the transaction and ignoring the "injured" part. Before explaining what waived/injured means, it's important to understand the difference between waiving a player and releasing a player.
When a non-vested player (someone with less than four years of experience) gets cut, he is subjected to waivers, which gives every team 24 hours to claim him.