NFL
When Does The New NFL League Year Start In 2025?
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Get to know Dan Girolamo betterPublished12 Mar 2025
The 2025 NFL League Year is about to begin. Find out when it starts below.
When Does The 2025 NFL League Year Begin?
happy new league year 🎉
— NFL (@NFL) March 12, 2025
Welcome to a new year.
The 2025 NFL League Year begins Wednesday, March 12, at 4 p.m. ET.
Unrestricted free agents who tentatively agreed to deals during the NFL’s legal tampering period can be finalized.
Other transactions, such as trades and releases, can go through starting after 4 p.m. ET.
Because nothing was official before 4 p.m. ET, players and teams can walk away from the deals they set up. It’s unlikely to happen, but it is possible.
Teams must also be under the NFL salary cap at the start of the league year.
To help get under the cap, players can be released with post-June 1 designations.
For example, the New York Jets have officially released Aaron Rodgers. The quarterback will be designated as a post-June 1 release, meaning they’ll carry his cap hit until June 1 before it drops.
Now official: Jets are releasing Aaron Rodgers after 4 pm today. The Jets will take on $49M in dead money by releasing Rodgers. He’s being designated as a post-June 1 cut, meaning they’ll carry his $21M cap hit until June 1, when it drops to $14M—saving $7M. But they then will… pic.twitter.com/JQAGGXZW3K
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 12, 2025
2025 NFL League Year: Important Dates
The 2025 NFL league year has begun. Happy New Year to all. All trades can be official. All signings can be finalized.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 12, 2025
Now that the 2025 NFL League Year is underway, here are some important dates to remember.
March 30-April 2: NFL Owners Meetings
April 7: Teams that hired new head coaches can begin offseason spring workouts.
April 18: Restricted free agents must sign offer sheets with other respective teams or remain free agents.
April 21: Spring workouts for all 32 teams can begin.
April 24-26: 2025 NFL Draft
May 1: Deadline for teams to exercise fifth-year options for first-round picks from the 2022 Draft.
May 2 or May 9: Rookie three-day minicamps can begin on one of those two days.
May 20-21: Spring meeting for owners.
July 15: Deadline for franchise-tagged players to sign contract extensions. If nothing is agreed upon, the player can only sign the one-year fully guaranteed contract determined by the franchise tender. Players cannot be extended until after the last regular season game.
Mid-July: Training camps open.
