Vikings Begin Off-Season Program Today

It's a very big week for pretty much everybody involved with the Minnesota Vikings organization. Not only will they be adding their newest players in this week's draft, but the off-season program begins today at Winter Park with the first voluntary workouts of the off-season.

Mike Wobschall, the official blogger for the team, has a nice outline right here of the new "three phase" off-season activities that teams go through now, in accordance with the latest Collective Bargaining Agreement.

Phase One: Limited to strength and conditioning, and physical rehab. No position coaches on field. No footballs, exception being quarterbacks may throw to uncovered receivers. No helmets permitted.

Phase Two: All coaches on field. "Perfect Play," individual player instruction drills, special teams drills on a "separates" basis. No live contact. No individual or team offense vs. defense. No helmets.

Phase Three: All coaches on field. Ten Organized Team Activities (OTAs) during four-week period. One mandatory minicamp during week three or four. No live contact. No individual offense vs. defense. Kicking team vs. return team permitted. Team offense vs. team defense permitted. Helmets permitted.

According to Tom Pelissero of 1500 ESPN (via the Twitter), Phase One will take place over the next two weeks, and Phase Two will happen in the three weeks after that. Phase Three will occur with the Organized Team Activities (OTAs) starting at the end of May.

The Vikings are one of three teams that are starting their workouts today, along with the Atlanta Falcons and the Tennessee Titans. According to the folks at the mothership, the Vikings will have voluntary OTAs from May 28-30, June 4-6, and June 10-13, with a "mandatory" mini-camp scheduled from June 18-20. I'm not sure if I've seen an official date for the start of Training Camp, but I'm guessing that players will report the weekend of July 26-28, with camp officially starting on July 29.

Football is well and truly in the air this week, folks. Not sure how many real developments are going to come out of these workout sessions, but if there is anything important, we'll have it here for you.