NFL Free Agency legal tampering period 2017 begins on Tuesday

Welcome to the NFL’s soft opening to free agency officially begins at 12pm ET today, with the “legal tampering” period upon us. During the next three days, teams and agents can express interest and work out the structure of a contract with any player who is scheduled to become a free agent. They cannot formally agree to terms (read: announce a deal) or sign a contract until the new league year begins on Thursday at 4pm ET.

Of course, all of this assume teams and agents have not already been talking, which of course they have, but everything has been “hypothetical” talk up until today, in an effort to make sure no one breaks NFL rules.

Starting today, we should begin to see the landscape of what will happen when free agency’s grand opening arrives Thursday afternoon. While deals will not be “announced” over the next couple of days, reports about who is talking with whom and “potential” contract details will emerge. Thing back to 2015, when the NFL got involved in a look at the Miami Dolphins’ negotiations with Ndamukong Suh. The league ultimately decided nothing crossed the line from “legal” to “illegal” tampering, despite the basic structure of his contract was known before free agency even began.

We are official reached the unofficial start to free agency. Now it is time to wait for the rumors and speculation to begin.