Important offseason dates for the Vikings

As the offseason rolls on for our favorite football team, there are going to be several important dates that come up over the course of the next few months. We wanted to take a minute to list all of those dates so we know what we have to look forward to for the Minnesota Vikings. Obviously, these are league-wide things, but there are a couple of specific dates that Vikings fans will need to be aware of.

With that, here we go.

• 2 February: Super Bowl LIV, Kansas City Chiefs vs San Francisco 49ers, Miami, FL
• 3 February: Waiver system officially begins for 2020 NFL season
• 24 February - 2 March: NFL Scouting Combine, Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, IN
• 25 February: Teams can begin designating both franchise and transition players

This one might be important for the Vikings, as safety Anthony Harris could be someone that the Vikings seriously consider putting the franchise tag on if they can’t get him re-signed. We’ll get more into that going forward.

• 10 March: Period for designating franchise and transition players ends
• 16 March: Free agency “legal tampering” period begins
• 18 March: Last day for teams to pick up player options, last day to submit Restricted Free Agent or Exclusive Rights Free Agent offers to qualifying players, teams must be under the salary cap by 3:00 PM Central time
• 18 March, 3:00 PM Central time: 2020 League Year starts/NFL Free Agency officially begins
• 18 March, 3:05 PM Central time: Vikings fans gather on social media to express anger and dismay that the Vikings haven’t signed any free agents yet
• 29 March - 1 April: NFL League Meetings, Palm Beach, FL
• 6 April: Teams with new head coaches can begin offseason workout programs
• 17 April: Deadline for Restricted Free Agents to sign offer sheets
• 20 April: Teams with returning head coaches can begin offseason workout programs
• 23 - 25 April: 2020 NFL Draft, Las Vegas, NV
• 27 April: NFL teams may request permission to visit with/work out/sign any player that was under contract to the XFL at the end of their season

The XFL Championship Game. . .should the league actually get that far (and I think they will). . .will take place on 26 April. So it doesn’t conflict with Day 3 of the NFL Draft, which is nice.

After the draft is finished, we hit the dreaded “dead time” until we finally get into Training Camp and things of that nature.

But, if you wanted to track all of the important dates on the NFL calendar for the next couple of months, that’s the list of pretty much all of them right there.