Anyone else miss football already? Sundays just aren’t the same.
But the thing about the NFL is, it never really stops. We’ve got a busy off-season schedule coming our way, which is sure to be filled with plenty of intriguing story lines. Here’s a list of important dates and what they mean as we begin another off-season.
Feb. 13: First day for clubs to sign players out of CFL
As of noon ET, NFL teams are permitted to sign CFL free agents whose contracts have expired. Players still under contract for 2018 are not permitted to sign.
Feb. 20: First day for clubs to designate Franchise or Transition Players
The concept is simple enough: Every year, each team can tag one of its players, locking him up under club control for another season. It’s a big payday for the player, all of which is guaranteed money (and calculated based on the five-year average of other tags at the same position) but it means delaying free agency and offers zero job security on its own.
The goal here is often to give the team more time to exclusively attempt to sign the tagged player to a longer-term deal. Sometimes it works (see linebacker Melvin Ingram and the Los Angeles Chargers last year) and other times it doesn’t (Washington has tagged quarterback Kirk Cousins twice, and neither case resulted in a long-term deal).
There are three types of franchise tags: exclusive, non-exclusive, and transition. An exclusive tag means the player is locked up and not allowed to negotiate with anyone else. A non-exclusively tagged player can negotiate with other teams, but the original team has the right to match any offer or else be compensated with two first-round picks (think similarly to how the NHL’s RFA rules work). A transition tag allows the player to negotiate freely with other teams but no compensatory picks are involved.
The deadline to designate a franchise tag is March 6. Once tagged, the team and player have until July 16 to work out a longer deal.
A player can, however, disrupt the system by delaying the signing of his franchise tender, as was the case between running back Le’veon Bell and the Pittsburgh Steelers this past off-season.
Feb. 27 to March 5: NFL Scouting Combine | Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis
This year, 336 players got the invite to show off their skills, interview with teams and essentially audition for an NFL gig.
You can check out a full list of invitees here.
March 6: Deadline for clubs to designate Franchise or Transition Players
The deadline is 3:59 p.m. ET. Tweets and drama often follow.
March 12-14: Negotiating window for pending free agents
This is a really busy two days for NFL front offices, as many will be submitting qualifying tenders to pending restricted free agents and can officially enter into contract negotiations with agents of soon-to-be unrestricted free agents.
March 14 | 4 p.m. ET: Free agency officially opens
Happy New League Year! With all expiring 2017 player contracts freshly off the books as of 4 p.m. ET, free agents are free to sign anywhere they’d like and teams are allowed to make trades. Deals are often signed right away, thanks to the negotiating window opening a few days prior. Let the frenzy begin.
March 25-28: Annual League Meeting | Orlando, Florida
There’s usually plenty of news to come out of these meetings, often centred around rule changes and other league matters.
April 26-28: 2018 NFL Draft | AT&T Stadium, Arlington, TX
Time to meet your future, football fans.
May 4-7 or May 11-14: Rookie minicamp
Get better acquainted with all those draft picks and new kids. (Teams must pick one of the two weekend options.)
A mandatory minicamp will take place in mid-June.
July 16: Deadline for franchise tagged players to sign long-term contract with team
See our “franchise tag” section for details.
Late July: Training camp begins
Each team will release training camp dates closer to the dates.
September 1 | 4:00 p.m. ET: Deadline to cut roster to 53
So close to football season.
September 6: 2018 NFL season begins
All is right in the world again.
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