Countdown to the 105th NFL Season: A Look at the Offseason Calendar

Super Bowl LVIII (58) is in the books with the Kansas City Chiefs defending their title with the exciting 25:22 in overtime against the San Francisco 49ers. And now? From a purely sporting perspective, there will be a long lull until the 105th NFL season starts in September 2024. A long time, but a lot will still happen – keyword draft, keyword free agency. The kicker gives football fans an overview…

One thing is clear: the players of the 32 NFL teams are currently having a well-deserved break, can recover, recover from their injuries, have minor to major procedures carried out or simply refresh their energy levels after strenuous months and indulge in family life. But behind the facades of the franchise facilities spread across the United States, the phone doesn’t stand still. We are working hard, tinkering and refining to create the top squad of the future.

The most important key dates of the offseason are noted on the calendars, smartphones, tablets and computers of the bosses and makers. And these also offer the interested football fan something interesting apart from the crazy action that is now missing.

Franchise Tags

From February 20th and until March 5th, 2024, teams can use the so-called franchise tag to retain players who they consider to be strong and who can at the same time move to another team for another year.

It simply offers the 32 NFL teams the opportunity to prevent a player from the current roster whose contract is expiring from leaving, at least in the short term. Since 1993, the “tag” along with the “salary cap” (NFL teams’ salary cap) has been one of the measures to enable smaller teams to keep their stars and thus ensure more balance. The selected player receives a guaranteed salary equal to the average salary of the five highest-paid players from the previous season in the position in question – or 120 percent of his previous annual salary; depending on which salary is higher. Each team can only use one “tag” per year.

What is more common for many NFL teams is the “non-exclusive tag”, in which the respective player is allowed to negotiate with other clubs during free agency and even reach an agreement. However, the theoretically selling club then has the opportunity to make an identical offer in order to retain the NFL professional. Should the player still leave, the releasing club will receive two first-round draft picks in return.

Combine

In the run-up to the draft, the annual lottery, the combine takes place. Here, college players who have registered for the draft complete a number of tests that examine both the physical and psychological components (February 27 to March 4, 2024). But year after year it shouldn’t just be about the draft candidates and the college graduates: after all, the entire league comes together in Indianapolis. Deals can always be negotiated behind closed doors or in secret.

Free Agency

The so-called free agency begins on March 13th (10 p.m. German time), in which players can be analyzed, interviewed and signed by the teams. At this point, the contracts of athletes who are not tied to their franchises beyond the 2023 season will officially expire. From then on, these professionals become so-called free agents who can choose their next team themselves. This year the focus is, for example, on quarterback Kirk Cousins ​​(who was out with the Vikings in the middle of the regular season with a torn Achilles tendon), the reigning Super Bowl winner Chris Jones from the Chiefs and Josh Allen from the Jaguars. Mike Evans (wide receiver of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers), Baker Mayfield (quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and the two top running backs Saquon Barkley (New York Giants) and Derrick Henry (Tennessee Titans) are also candidates.

Aside from discussions with potential newcomers, the teams have some homework to do. They are obliged to meet the salary cap requirements by a specified time, New York time. That means: Up to this point, no team is allowed to use more money for its 53-man roster than the newly raised limit of around $240 million allows.

NFL-Draft

The annual lottery for the hottest college graduates, who will subsequently enter the league as rookies, will take place between April 25th and 27th, 2024 in Detroit – where they have been one of the top teams for some time belonging to Lions have their home. This year, the team coached by Dan Campbell around quarterback Jared Goff and German-American receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown narrowly failed in the NFC final against the San Francisco 49ers (31:34).

To ensure a certain balance between the individual teams, the teams that performed worst in the previous season – in this case 2013/24 – are allowed to vote first. The Chicago Bears are starting this year via a trade that has already been negotiated with the Carolina Panthers, the weakest team of the most recent regular season at 2-15, ahead of the Washington Commanders (4-13), the New England Patriots (4-13) and the Arizona Cardinals (4-13). According to the current order, Super Bowl winner Kansas City only comes in 32nd, last place.

Interesting background: The first draft in history took place at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Philadelphia on February 8, 1936. This came from the then commissioner Bert Bell, who saw the survival of the league in danger because the Chicago Bears, the Green Bay Packers, the New York Giants and the men from the US capital, still called the Washington Redskins, had a dominant position at the time and weaker teams saw little chance of signing big college talent.

Preseason

The 32 football teams from the National Football League prepare intensively for the new season in the so-called training camps. Among other things, the playbook is trained there and the fine-tuning is worked on. The camps start at the end of July and run through August. The Hall of Fame Game will take place on August 1st in Canton, Ohio, before there are four test games for each team in the following four weeks. In the end, the roster is also reduced to the required number of players of 53 men.

particularities

The NFL celebrated its 100th season years ago and is now in the middle of the new “century” with its 105th season. Related: While the Green Bay Packers, the record holders in American football based on their 13 titles, celebrated their 100th football season in 2018/19 (with moderate success), the Chicago Bears were last in line with 100 seasons. The oldest franchise, however, is the Cardinals (founded in 1898), currently based in Arizona. The Cards had completed their first NFL season in 1920.

Regular Season

Football fans will finally gather in front of the television sets and in the stadiums again from September 5, 2024 (local time), when the opening game of a total of 272 regular season games will take place. Each of the 32 teams will then play 17 games in the fight for the coveted twelve play-off tickets. The schedule extends over 18 consecutive weeks, with each team having a week off once.

The pairings are determined as follows: Each team duels with each opponent twice in their own division (e.g. AFC North), which makes six games. The NFL schedule also stipulates that each team plays once per season against all teams in another division in its own conference (e.g. AFC East) according to a three-year rotation principle, which makes four more games per regular season. In addition, each team must play once against all franchises from a division of the other conference (e.g. NFC West) according to a four-year rotation principle, which makes four more games every year. In addition, there is a rule in the NFL schedule that each team competes once against other franchises in their own conference that finished the previous season in the same place in their division – this does not affect the division that they are playing against anyway.

All of this ensures that all teams play against each other once every four years and every team has to play in each stadium once every eight years. Deviations from the “real” home or away games can occur in the course of the so-called London, Mexico, Germany and soon also Brazil games, with which the NFL shows itself worldwide. By the way, the Carolina Panthers will be presenting in Munich.

Highlights

While the exact times of the 272 regular-season games have not yet been determined, the opponents of all 32 teams have already been determined. Some of the hottest hits of the new season are already known, including:

Postseason

The playoffs for the 2024/25 season finally start in early January after Week 18 of the regular season (January 5, 2025). The Wild Card Weekend takes place between January 11th and 13th (local time). In the end, everything leads back to the Super Bowl, this time in its 59th edition (LIX). This time, the bombastic finale is scheduled for February 9, 2025 (local time) at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.

2024-02-14 19:00:00
#Free #agency #draft #start #season #NFL #doesnt #break