Except for about a one-month period from mid-June to mid-July, there is no offseason in the NFL. There’s the actual football season, followed by the business season.
With an ever-so-brief lull following the Super Bowl, the business season is cranking up.
Last Wednesday marked the opening of a two-week period in which teams can designate franchise players. Salary cap cuts have started; they only will accelerate between now and the start of the free-agency and trading period March 9 — the start of the “league year.”
The NFL Scouting Combine has been moved back a few days this year, to Feb.