A quick primer on Tebow and the waiver system

If you are a Tim Tebow fan like me, you are scouring the internet for signs of his next destination. If you want to fully understand the process as it unfolds, you need to know how the NFL's rules for released players apply to him.
Because Tebow has less than 4 years in the NFL, he is not classified as a veteran under the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Therefore, he did not become a free agent immediately when released by the Jets. First, he must go through the waivers process. Here's how that works:

Tebow was officially listed on the NFL "waiver wire" at 4pm today. From that point, each NFL team has 48 hours ten days to file a claim for him. Once the 48 hour ten day period is up at 4pm on Wednesday, the claiming team with the worst standings last year gets him. They also pick up his current contract with his current salary. Tebow has no choice which team gets him.
CORRECTION: There are a lot of different sources on the NFL waiver claiming periods. Most of them are wrong. I finally went straight to the NFL bylaws. The relevant sections are posted below. As best I can tell, the claiming period lasts 24 hours from 4pm EST on the day of release.
The team who gets him is free to release him later. If that happens, he goes back on the waiver wire and the process repeats itself, with all teams having the opportunity to claim him again.
If no team claims him, he becomes a free agent. At that point, he can negotiate with any team, and any team can negotiate with him. If he does sign with a new team, they will sign a new contract with whatever new terms both parties agree upon.
This process has a couple of implications for what happens over the next few days:
First, it means that there will be no news of a new team for Tim Tebow until 4pm on Weds at the earliest. No team is going to express interest prior to the deadline, because they want to avoid tipping off teams higher than them on the claiming order. In Tebow's case, they also would probably not want to risk the media attention that would come with a failed claim.
Second, it means that teams with a potential interest have two options for how to obtain him. They can get him off waivers at his current salary, or they can hope he clears waivers and then try to negotiate a lower salary. If they wait for him to become a free agent, they risk having another team obtain him on waivers first. If they do claim him on waivers, they can essentially try him out for free and later drop him.
Third, it means that Tebow has considerably more control over his playing situation if he is NOT claimed on waivers. Since he has no say over which team gets his waiver claim, he could easily go to a team that intends to try and force him to change positions. On the other hand, once he becomes a free agent, he can accept a lower salary for a genuine opportunity to compete for starting QB, or a backup spot in an optimum learning environment.