The NFL’s voluntary offseason workout schedule kicks off today for the 25 clubs with returning head coaches.
The Arizona Cardinals, Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills, Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys, Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, Jacksonville Jaguars, Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Rams, Miami Dolphins, Minnesota Vikings, New Orleans Saints, New York Giants, New York Jets, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers all start Phase One of the nine-week offseason program today.
Clubs with new coaches – Atlanta (Raheem Morris), Carolina (Dave Canales), New England (Jerod Mayo), Los Angeles Chargers (Jim Harbaugh), Seattle (Mike Macdonald), Tennessee (Brian Callahan)and Washington (Dan Quinn) — began their work over the previous two weeks.
The NFL’s offseason program is broken down into three different phases.
Phase One consists of two weeks with activities limited to meetings, strength and conditioning and physical rehab only.
Phase Two takes place the following three weeks and includes on-field workouts, which may be individual or group instruction with drills conducted at a walk-through pace. No live contact or team offense versus team defense drills are permitted.
Phase Three ramps up the workouts to include well-known organized team activities (OTAs). Phase three is the final four weeks of the offseason program.
Teams may conduct a total of 10 days of OTAs. No live contact is permitted, but 7-on-7, 9-on-7 and 11-on-11 drills are allowed.
The offseason program is voluntary outside of mandatory minicamps held in early June — during Phase Three.
