Free-agent and trade negotiations may begin Tuesday and transactions can be filed with the league office Friday at 6 p.m. ET, according to an updated timeline for league business to begin.
A source at the highest-level had earlier told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter that those talks might begin as soon as Monday afternoon and the league year would have begun Aug. 2, if the NFL Players Association signed off on it.
The updated timeline from league sources:
• Monday: The NFL will announce that teams can go to 90-man rosters and the official free-agent list will be distributed to teams.
• Tuesday: Teams can reach agreements with rookies and undrafted free agents beginning at 10 a.m. ET. Teams can reach agreements with all free agents and signed players are allowed to enter team facilities.
• Wednesday: Players can begin reporting to training camps 15 days before their first preseason games. According to the proposed timeline, 10 teams would report on Wednesday, 10 more on Thursday and 10 additional teams on Friday. The New York Jets and Houston Texans would be the last two teams to report, on Sunday.
• Thursday: Teams can begin to cut players at 4 p.m. ET.
• Friday: Teams can begin filing transactions to the league office at 6 p.m. ET.
• Aug. 4: Deadline for recertification and ratification of the collective bargaining agreement by the players.
Nothing is final until the ink is dry, and different sources are reporting slightly different things here. However, Adam Schefter is the most reliable of sources, so this looks to be the most likely scenario. We'll find out soon enough with Players expected to vote in the next couple of hours.
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