The new league year begins on March 14, at 1 p.m. PT. At that point, teams can agree to contracts with free agents who were not released by their teams. But before that is the NFL’s “legal tampering” period, which as I described a few days back, is a dumb name for a dumb thing that doesn’t make sense.
Beginning at 9 a.m. PT today, the legal tampering period allows teams to meet with agents — not players — to enter into negotiations. Under the rules, an actual deal cannot be signed and agreed to between an impending free agent and a new team.