The NFL Free Agency Date and Other Offseason Events

The NFL’s new league year begins with the start of free agency, which kicks off at 4:00 p.m. ET on March 12. This is when teams can begin signing free agents and completing other transactions. It is a huge day for the league, and one of the biggest events during the offseason.

During the two days prior to free agency, teams can “legally tamper” with players who will become available after that date. This is known as the legal tampering window and lasts until 4:00 p.m. ET on March 12, when the new league year officially begins. This means that fans will begin to hear about reported trades and other deals as early as March 10 and 11, but the contracts won’t become official until the start of free agency on the 12th.

This is also the deadline for teams to apply a franchise or transition tag to a player. A player who receives a franchise tag cannot negotiate with other teams and is only eligible to sign a one-year contract with the club that applied the tag. The team that tags a player has exclusive negotiating rights to the player through the Tuesday following Week 10 of the regular season, November 11. If the player does not sign with the team by this time, he must sit out the season.

After the legal tampering period ends, teams can then sign any unrestricted free agents they desire. However, teams can still sign only up to the salary cap amount for each position, which is $272.5 million this year. This means that some teams may have to settle for less than they’d like.

In addition to the unrestricted free agent market, there is another major aspect of the league’s offseason that occurs on March 12 – the draft. This will occur in Green Bay, Wisconsin and is the second major event on the offseason calendar.

Teams can exercise their fifth-year options on first-round picks from the 2022 draft, which will keep those players under contract for two more seasons. This is a common practice for rookie quarterbacks to help ensure their success in the NFL and can make or break some of the top picks from that draft class. This is a crucial date for the front offices of the top teams in the league. They will be deciding whether or not to exercise the option on some of their best players. For some, this is the only chance they have to keep a star player on their roster. For others, it’s a matter of keeping their core together and ensuring that the team remains competitive for years to come.