That was mostly an uneventful legal tampering period for the Denver Broncos who geared their focus towards retaining their starting roster from last season that ended a game away from the Super Bowl. That legal tampering period closes today at 2pm mountain time, which officially rings in the new league year in the NFL. Here is what the new league year brings and why it matters.
Opening of free agency
At that 2pm MT deadline, the first wave of free agent spending begins when all of those deals we heard about over the last
two days become official when the league year begins. We’ll have a flurry of “its officially official” news and then the real fun for the Broncos begin as they seem poised to make some deals during the second wave of signings.
Salary cap requirements
All 32 teams must be under the $301.2 million salary cap by the time the league year opens. Teams that are still over the number heading into Wednesday will need to finalize cuts, restructures, or post-June 1 designations before the deadline. The post-June designation is significant for a lot of teams, because it allows them to save a little extra cap and dead money costs. The Broncos plan to release Dre Greenlaw with that designation which will free up over $8M in cap space at the cost of just a few million in dead money.
Trades become official
Any trade agreed upon by two teams becomes official at this time too. Though teams can back out leading up to the new year. As the Baltimore Ravens did with their blockbuster trade for Maxx Crosby, which left the Las Vegas Raiders holding a very large bag with a plethora of high cost free agent signings and now no two first round picks and $30 million in extra cap space.
Insert: LUL. Sorry not sorry, Raiduh Nation.
Most of us been here and done that many times over, so just a quick refresher here. Plus, I saw an opportunity to poke fun at the AFC West dunce. We’ll cover each signing as it happens and we’ll see you in the comments section!
