Important Dates To Know For The NFL Off-Season

The off-season is basically here with the 2020 season wrapping up. There are quite a few key dates that should be known to shape up the following season.

The 2020 NFL season wrapped up last night with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeating the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl. Now, it is on to the fun part for every NFL team, the off-season.

Many decisions are to be made, some teams will continue their rebuild. Others will look to start a rebuild, some are looking to make cap space. Some teams have big decisions to be made so they can further compete and hope to be in the same position that the Buccaneers and Chiefs were in last night.

We could potentially be looking at one of the craziest off-season’s to date. The quarterback carousel is surely going to be shaken up a bit. Also, there is uncertainty in what exactly that salary cap will be. This will be a deciding factor in just about every move a team makes.

Below are the important dates that you need to know for the off-season prior to the NFL’s 2021 campaign.

February 7th - Franchise tag players

Teams are able to franchise would be free agents for an extra year at this point for a steep price. Currently, it doesn’t look like the Browns will be franchise tagging anyone.

March 9th - franchise tag deadline

The last day that players can be franchise tag by their team. Players who aren’t will hurt free agency on time.

March 15th through 17th - free agency talks begin 4 p.m.

At this point teams can start reaching out to player agents and begin working on deals. Deals can be put in place and everything can be done besides that signature that makes it official.

March 17th - new league year begins, free agency starts 4:00 p.m.

Teams can officially sign free agents, including the ones they worked deals out with the previous two days.

April 19th - offseason workouts begin

April 23rd - deadline for RFA to sign

April 29th through May 1st - NFL Draft in Cleveland, Ohio.

Cleveland will host the 2021 NFL Draft. Currently it is unknown what this will look like and how much of it could be virtual. Perhaps a certain number of in person football fans will be aloud to attend.