Dolphins offseason program begins on Monday

The Miami Dolphins officially get back to work on Monday, beginning the preparations for the 2017 regular season. Today marks the first day of the team’s “offseason training program,” a nine-week, voluntary program that starts with conditioning and ends with organized team activities and minicamp. The program will run through mid-June, before the team breaks for about six weeks before the start of training camp.

The offseason training program is broken into three phases over the nine weeks. Phase one, which begins today, features conditioning and strength workouts, with no positional work allowed. Players who need rehab work can receive treatment. This phase lasts for two weeks.

Week three of the offseason program begins the second phase of the period. This three-week section allows for on-field workouts, with individual player instruction and drills. Teams can also hold “separates” practices - basically, no live contact and no team offense versus defense drills.

Week six through nine of the offseason program will feature 7-on-7, 9-on-7, and 11-on-11 team practices, but without live contact. This period will include the 10 days of “organized team activities” (OTAs) as well as the one mandatory event for the offseason program - the veteran minicamp. The Dolphins will hold their first OTA from May 23-25, their second from May 30-June 1, and their final one from June 5-8. The mandatory minicamp will be June 13-15.

Miami will also hold a rookie minicamp, either on May 5-7 or May 12-14, though that event has not been finalized yet.