NFL’s 2023 league year, free agency signing period begin today
The Kansas City Chiefs and other NFL clubs have been allowed to engage in legal tampering since Monday at Noon ET. They’ll soon be able to officially consummate deals with outside free agents.
The 2023 league year officially arrives beginning at 4:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday, March 15. What exactly does that mean, though?
All 2022 NFL contracts will expire unless they’ve previously been extended by a team. Players who are set to become unrestricted free agents will officially be fair game for all NFL teams to court and sign in free agency. If teams have agreed to terms with pending free agents during the NFL’s legal tampering period, they can officially execute those deals without the risk of being punished under the NFL’s tampering policy. Players who are exclusive rights free agents and restricted free agents, who weren’t tendered contract offers will also become unrestricted free agents at this time.
The NFL’s 2023 trading period also officially opens at 4:00 p.m. ET. That means any trades reported in the past week (like Darren Waller’s trade to the New York Giants) can be made official by teams.
Another important factor of the new league year is that all NFL teams must be top 51 salary-cap compliant by 4:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday. That means that their 51 highest-paying contracts must come in under the $224.8 million salary cap total for the 2023 NFL season.
As things stand now for the Chiefs, they should be in the clear in terms of salary cap space at the onset of the new league year. That said, if they want to continue to be players in the free agent market, they’re likely to make some moves to create some salary cap space. They’ve already agreed to sin a handful of players during the legal tampering period, but they also haven’t lost many players either. Re-signing some of their own soon-to-be free agents could be the next order of business.
