The NFL season has come to a close, which means that our Best Bets will have to wait until the season kicks off in September. However, this year, I will be posting more during the offseason to keep you all informed of any major moves that you might have missed. There may not be any on the field action taking place for a while but there will be plenty of major moves made off the field over the next couple of months to keep us busy. Some are just important deadlines for teams to hold onto their key players while others are major and will ultimately impact the betting lines for the 2026-2027 NFL season. Here is a brief rundown of the key events and dates to keep in mind:

February 17 – Franchise/Transition Player Designations

The window for NFL teams to tag a player that is a pending free agent will begin on February 17th and run to March 3rd. The franchise tag is typically used as a stop gap to keep an important player while not committing to a long-term contract. However, a tag can be removed if the player and team later agree to a longer contract. There are two main types of franchise tags. The exclusive tag excludes the player from negotiating with other teams. The non-exclusive allows the players to test the market. Should a different team offer that player a contract, the original team then has five days to match the offer. If it does not, the original team may be entitled to two first round draft picks.

Each position carries its own value for what is essentially a 1-year contract. The salary is based on the average of the top five salaries at his specific position over the last five years. A player can still seek free agency if he is tagged.

The transition tag is different. It is a less expensive option that can only be used once on a player (franchise tags can be applied twice). It takes the top 10 salaries at the position over the last five years.

Some key players to keep track of for this year will be Daniel Jones, Breece Hall, George Pickens, and Kyle Pitts. Their contract situations will impact free agency and have a small ripple effect on the construction of teams moving forward, which might affect the betting lines.

February 23 – The NFL Scouting Combine

The Combine takes place each year in Indianapolis, Indiana. this year, it will run from February 23rd to March 2nd. This allows NFL teams to get measurables on college players that are hoping to be drafted in April. This event itself will not have much effect on how lines are set for team futures, but it is a fun week to talk about the potential prospects and where they might end up in the NFL.

March 9 – Legal Tampering Period Begins

This is going to be the first big needle mover of the offseason. Beginning at 12:00 noon ET on March 9th and ending at 3:59 on March 11th, teams will be allowed to contact and enter in contract negotiations with unrestricted free agents. This has historically been the Super Bowl for the NFL insiders. They are hounding the phones day and night to get details on which players are going where and which teams are making moves.

The big splash signings will undoubtedly change the expectations of each NFL fanbase. However, it is rare that the initial reaction to a signing will prove to be prophetic. The best example from 2025 was when Sam Darnold signed with the Seahawks and traded away Geno Smith. NFL fans were unimpressed with the signing and now, he is a Super Bowl champion.

I will be posting “Top 5” lists of free agents over the next couple of weeks to set the stage for March 9th.

March 11 – Official Start of The 2026 NFL Year

The legal tampering period ends, and the league year begins at 4:00 PM ET. This means that all players that had agreed to deals in principle can be made official. This will also open the trading period for 2026. This is when we might see some fireworks with unhappy players.

The key player to watch this year will be Maxx Crosby of the Las Vegas Raiders. Crosby is a needle mover and has reportedly not been happy with the situation inside the building. Should he request a trade, and the Raiders grant him that wish, he would be a needle mover for any franchise. We also may get a few unexpected trades that would change the outlook for several teams.

March 29 – Annual League Meeting

The annual owners meeting will take place between March 29th and April 1st in Phoenix. I cannot see much news affecting the betting world coming out of this meeting. There might be some rule changes that are introduced but this will just be another couple of days that gives us an excuse to talk about football in the offseason.

April 23 – The NFL Draft

After a long period of non-football related days, the NFL Draft will be a blessing. The NFL Draft will be hosted in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It will begin on April 23rd and run through the 25th. This will be the end of my absolute least favorite part the NFL offseason, which is mock draft season. The debates leading up to the draft amongst fans are some of the worst types of discussions to partake in.

That being said, the draft itself is a great couple of days where optimism for the newly drafted players and the teams that they were drafted by are at an all-time high. The top caliber picks will be added to the newly signed free agents, and the projected final roster starts to take shape for the first time.

Post Draft

The excitement is usually short lived (for fans) as it is the last big event (schedule reveals have yet to be given a date) of the offseason until Mid-July, which is when teams can start reporting to training camp. We start seeing all of our new players in uniform and start seeing training camp highlights to overreact to. At that point, I will already be working on season previews for each team and evaluating their rosters and schedules.

Until then, we have to get through the long football-less days of the summer. There will be College basketball/ March Madness, MLB baseball, the Baseball World Classic, and golf to entertain us but nothing quite hits like football season.

For more information on all the important NFL offseason dates, feel free to read here: 2026 Important NFL Dates | NFL Football Operations