Tag: Calendar

Important 2024 NFL offseason dates for Saints fans to know

Important 2024 NFL offseason dates for New Orleans Saints fans to know concerning free agency, the NFL draft, and more:

It’s shaping up for another busy New Orleans Saints offseason — along with the usual salary cap gymnastics, the Saints must navigate free agency, make moves in the 2024 NFL draft, and install an updated offense with Klint Kubiak calling plays and new position coaches being introduced in almost every meeting room.

To help fans keep track of everything, we’ve put together a calendar of important dates to remember in the months ahead. Some key milestones are unclear, like when the NFL will confirm the 2024 salary cap and compensatory draft picks (it’ll be done before free agency in March) as well as this year’s games schedule (rolling out at some point in May).

But here’s what we do know:

NFL announces key dates for New Orleans Saints’ 2023, 2024 seasons

The NFL announced key dates for the New Orleans Saints’ 2023 and 2024 seasons. Here’s everything you need to know, and every date to circle on your calendar:

We’re set to turn another page in the New Orleans Saints’ offseason calendar, with the NFL announcing a number of important dates for both the 2023 and 2024 seasons on Tuesday.

Here are the dates to mark on your calendar (you know, in addition to this year’s Saints games) for every month from Saints training camp in July to Super Bowl LVIII and the 2024 NFL draft:

Saints among teams that voted against Thursday night flex scheduling

The Saints are among the teams that voted against Thursday night flex scheduling at spring NFL owners meetings:

The New Orleans Saints are among the teams that voted against Thursday night flex scheduling at spring NFL owners meetings, as first reported by NBC Sports’ Peter King. Notably, Saints owner Gayle Benson was not in attendance, having instead made the trip to New York City for NBA Board of Governors meetings to fulfill her responsibilities as owner of the New Orleans Pelicans.

Maybe Benson will vote differently than team president Dennis Lauscha did (as her representative) when NFL owners regroup for another roundtable in May, but it’s more likely they are both on the same page here. The Saints could have chosen to abstain altogether, as the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos did, but they decided to vote against the proposal outright. NFL bylaws needed 24 votes for the Thursday night flex scheduling rules change to pass, but it came up short.

It’s been a divisive topic. Thursday night games haven’t done as well with ratings as traditional Sunday and Monday night prime-time games, so from that perspective moving better matchups into that time slot makes sense. But it asks a lot of the players and coaches to switch up their preparation schedule even on two weeks’ notice — to say nothing of the tens of thousands of fans who have to make expensive travel arrangements in the event of a flex. We’ll see if this passes eventually or if there’s enough opposition to shelve it altogether.

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Upcoming NFL offseason dates Saints fans should know in 2023

There’s a lot of ground to cover between the 2023 NFL draft, free agency, and more events for the offseason calendar. Upcoming dates Saints fans should know:

Super Bowl LVII is in the books, so all our attention is focusing on the New Orleans Saints offseason. And there’s a lot of ground to cover between the 2023 NFL draft, a busy free agency signing period, and more events for the offseason calendar. Saints fans will have their hands full keeping up with all the goings-on with their team as it searches for a new quarterback and a return to the playoffs amid a two-year postseason drought.

Here’s a quick reference for all of the dates to circle on your calendar as New Orleans gears up for another exciting season of football:

Important NFL dates to keep your eye on in February

The Seattle Seahawks 2022 season might be over, but NFL operations are in full swing. Here’s a look at a few important NFL dates in February.

The Seattle Seahawks 2022 season might be over, but NFL operations are in full swing. Besides the Super Bowl, there are a few important NFL dates to keep your eye on in February.

Here’s a look a next month’s calendar per NFL Football Operations:

February 3 Deadline  for  non-playoff  clubs  to  submit  their  individual  lists  of  Physician-Certified  2023  Basic  Injury Protection Benefit Candidates to the Management Council.
February 5 Pro Bowl
February 12 Super Bowl LVII (State Farm Stadium, Glendale, AZ)
February 13 Waiver system begins for 2023.  A 24-hour claiming period will be in effect through the Friday prior to the last regular season game (waiver requests made on Friday and Saturday of each week will expire at 4:00 p.m.,  New  York  time,  on  the  following  Monday.)   Players  with  at  least  four  previous  pension-credited seasons  whom  a  club  desires  to  terminate  are  not  subject  to  the  waiver  system  until  after  the  trading deadline.
February 13 Beginning the first business day after the Super Bowl through the opening of the first training camp for Rookies in 2023, clubs must report all tryouts and visits to the League office; however, such transactions will not be reported to other clubs.
February 16 Deadline for playoff clubs to submit their individual lists of Physician-Certified 2023 Basic Injury Protection Benefit Candidates to the Management Council.
February 21 Beginning  this  date  through  4:00  p.m.,  New  York  time  on  March  7  clubs  may  designate  Franchise  or Transition Players.
February 28 –
March 6		 NFL Scouting Combine (Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, IN)

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NFL announces intent to decide about scheduling Week 15 Saints-Falcons game

The NFL announced its intent to set a deadline for planning to eventually decide about scheduling Week 15’s Saints-Falcons game in the not-so-immediate future:

Come on, man. It doesn’t need to be this difficult. The New Orleans Saints relayed a message from an NFL spokesman on Tuesday that the league isn’t much closer to scheduling Week 15’s game with the Atlanta Falcons at the Caesars Superdome than it was before making this statement — saying that kickoff will be announced after their Week 13 road game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Dec. 5.

And that game, of course, will be played on a Monday night. So Saints fans will have 11 or 12 days to make travel arrangements between that prime-time matchup and the decision to play on either a Saturday (Dec. 17) or a Sunday (Dec. 18), including New Orleans’ late-season bye week. That’s hardly ideal, but it’s what the league has decided.

Talk about a convoluted process. But the NFL schedule-makers are probably looking for more of a spark from the Saints before putting them in a more-prominent Saturday timeslot. If New Orleans rallies to better compete in the NFC South title race and improve on their 4-7 record (Atlanta is ahead of them at 5-6, with the Buccaneers on top at 5-5 coming out of their own bye), it makes sense to put this always-heated rivalry game in front of a larger audience.

If the Saints regress again after knocking off the L.A. Rams and put more games in the loss column, this isn’t quite as appealing, in which case coverage gets punted to an early-morning broadcast on Sunday against three or four other matchups. Still, it’s disappointing to see the NFL giving fans who are spending their time and money to travel and catch games live (in teh middle of the peak holiday travel season no less) so little wriggle-room. We’ll put out something more concrete on the situation as soon as the league itself does.

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Saints kick off the Dennis Allen era, begin Phase 1 of offseason workouts

The Saints are kicking off the Dennis Allen era, beginning Phase 1 of their offseason workouts alongside three other teams with first-year head coaches:

And we’re off: the New Orleans Saints officially started the Dennis Allen era on Monday, April 4, as one of four teams with first-year head coaches starting their offseason workout program. The Chicago Bears (under Matt Eberflus), Miami Dolphins (under Mike McDaniel), and New York Giants (under Brian Daboll) were each given a two-week head start on the rest of the NFL. Players who choose to participate in the first phase of the offseason will have an opportunity to work out in the team facility and spend time on the practice field with their new training staff, though it’ll be a while before helmets come on and any full-speed drills start being run.

But what do these workouts entail? The NFL Players Association describes Phase 1 as a two-week period of four-hour sessions at the team facility, with two hours of work with strength and conditioning coaches and another two hours of independent training in the weight room. Of those two hours with the strength coach, only ninety minutes can be spent on the field. It’s a strictly-regulated part of the league calendar with player safety in mind. No one is wearing helmets, and all contact drills are prohibited.

For the Saints specifically, this will be their first opportunity to meet the team’s new director of sports science, Matt Rhea, who was hired away from Alabama. Rhea brought New Orleans’  new strength coach Matt Clapp along with him from the Crimson Tide, so this is a good opportunity for players to get to work and familiarize themselves with some new faces and new processes around the facility. Assistant strength and conditioning coaches Charles Byrd and Rob Wenning were each retained, so there is some continuity.

Participation is strictly voluntary at this early stage in the offseason, and the Saints haven’t really taken pains to incentivize it through contractual workout bonuses. Only three players have workout bonuses written into their contracts, per Over The Cap: wide receiver Michael Thomas ($200,000), defensive end Cameron Jordan ($100,000), and kicker Wil Lutz ($50,000).

Thomas has been rehabbing his surgically-repaired ankle in Southern California in recent months, so it’s unclear if he’ll make it out to join the team in New Orleans just yet. It’s worth noting that his $200,000 bonus is the highest on the team and one of the largest figures around the league, though. Lutz was cleared from core muscle surgery earlier this offseason and should be readying to reassert himself as one of the NFL’s best kickers.

Football activities will ramp up in the weeks ahead. Phase 2 allows all position coaches to get on the field for individual drills ahead of a three-day voluntary minicamp starting April 25, and Phase 3 introduces large-scale organized team activities (OTAs) over the summer, some of which will be open to fans. That coincides with the arrival of rookies following the 2022 NFL draft, and should be an exciting time in New Orleans. The first full-team mandatory three-day minicamp starts June 14. Here’s the full offseason workouts calendar:

  • Phase 1: April 4 to April 17
  • Phase 2: April 18 to May 8
  • Voluntary minicamps: April 25 to April 27
  • Phase 3: May 9 to June 6
  • OTA workouts: May 24 to 26, May 31 to June 2, June 7 to 10
  • Mandatory minicamp: June 14 to 16

This all leads up to training camp beginning at the end of July, so keep an eye out for updates on when fans can be allowed to observe practice and when camp begins. Before we know it we’ll be sweating at practice in Metairie and getting ready to watch preseason games. It feels like kickoff at the Caesars Superdome will be here before we know it.

The exciting NBA trade deadline provides a useful example for the NFL

The exciting NBA trade deadline provides a useful example for the NFL, whose own trade deadline is mostly, well, boring:

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Anyone who keeps up with pro sports on social media has seen the buzz surrounding the NBA trade deadline this week. Players and teams and well-positioned reporters have been trending online for days, with a flurry of moves finalized in the hours leading up to the official cutoff. It’s an exciting time for fans and those covering the league to see how different teams are approaching the deadline, with some going all-in and others waving white flags in surrender.

And it stands in stark contrast to the, well, boring NFL trade deadline. Pro football’s counterpart falls well short of the NBA, with most teams standing pat and trusting that the rosters they’ve built are good enough to see them through the season. It’s really rare to see anything that’ll raise your eyebrows or turn your head at that point, which is a shame. It’s a big missed opportunity for the NFL to carve out an even greater share of our collective attention.

So why not reschedule the NFL trade deadline? We’ve seen the league address negative space in its yearly calendar before, moving the annual schedule release from mid-April — slotted in between free agency and the draft, during a time full of college pro day workouts — to mid-May, once the draft buzz has worn down and teams let off the gas in free agency to wait until more money frees up in June. That’s good for television networks looking to fill their morning shows and humble digital platforms like ours here at Saints Wire aiming to keep up the pace as spring turns to summer. And it’s been good for the NFL, too, in keeping all eyes on it.

Let’s examine the differences here. The NBA trade deadline falls after teams have played roughly 54 games, or almost two-thirds of the way through their season. Compare that to the NFL’s trade deadline, slotted in after just eight weeks, and there’s a clear difference. A similarly-timed NFL trade deadline would fall between Weeks 11 and 12, and that illustrates quite a different status for much of the league. Let’s explore how.

Right now, 16 of the NBA’s 30 teams (53%) have records at or over .500. 11 franchises (37%) are under .400. A couple (10%) are even under .300. A number of teams are already shuttering for this season and looking to sell off assets so they can prepare for the future. And then you’ve got frisky squads like the New Orleans Saints, just a couple of games out of the playoff picture, pushing in their chips to try and go the distance by acquiring C.J. McCollum. Star talents like James Harden and Ben Simmons are on the move, too. It’s great fun.

So when you compare that to what the NFL has going on around the trade deadline, well, it looks a bit lackluster. The Saints are one of the few teams who have been active buyers at the trade deadline — they’ve acquired Mark Ingram II, Kwon Alexander, and Eli Apple there in recent years, and their interest in picking up Odell Beckham Jr. kickstarted his departure with the Cleveland Browns. But that’s just one team out of 32 embracing the opportunity to get better.

The biggest problem for the NFL is scheduling. Their trade deadline falls before Week 9, with some teams having only played seven games if they had an early bye week. Here’s what that meant for the league as a whole:

  • 17 of 32 teams had a record at or over .500 (53%)
  • 15 of 32 teams had a record below .500 (47%)
  • 7 of 32 teams had a record below .300 (22%)
  • 12 of 32 teams were 1 or 2 games back from a winning record (38%)

But a dozen teams were within a game or two — striking distance — of getting back to a winning record. They told themselves they were still in the hunt and held onto their assets. Of those dozen teams only four reached the playoffs — the New England Patriots, Kansas City Chiefs, San Francisco 49ers, and Philadelphia Eagles. Seven of the teams finished the year with losing records, and three of them introduced regime changes in the offseason (the Denver Broncos, Minnesota Vikings, and Chicago Bears).

How different would things have looked had the NFL pushed its trade deadline back, say, three weeks? Let’s look at the standings going into Week 12:

  • 20 of 32 teams had a record at or over .500 (63%)
  • 12 of 32 teams had a record below .500 (38%)
  • 7 of 32 teams had a record below .300 (22%)
  • 9 of 32 teams were 1 or 2 games back from a winning record (28%)

And let’s compare those shifts over just three weeks:

  • 10% increase in teams with records at or over .500
  • 9% decrease in teams with records below .500
  • No change in teams with records below .300
  • 10% decrease in teams 1 or 2 games back from a winning record

So this shows a greater disparity between the haves and have-nots of the NFL. As it becomes increasingly clear which teams won’t be competitive this season, their front offices can start planning for the future and try to move players when they have the highest value. Pushing the trade deadline back three weeks, from the first Tuesday of November to the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, might spur teams whose seasons are circling the drain into cutting deals at the deadline. The jump in teams who are suddenly back in the playoff picture would be incentivized to pursue trades and add upgrades just in time to get over the hump. There’s such a logjam for the wild-card spots that some enterprising coaches would be pounding the table to bring in game-changing additions.

But this is all hypothetical. The NFL has enjoyed another highly lucrative season, and even the social media-dominating NBA trade news can’t dethrone Super Bowl week coverage for long. If they’re feeling any pressure at the league offices in New York to tweak the calendar, we wouldn’t know it. At the same time, though, wouldn’t it be fun to have more trades and more news going on, right down to the wire?

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Lining up the 7 biggest dominoes of the 2022 Saints offseason

Once the Saints begin to make moves, expect a chain reaction to develop as their 2022 roster takes shape. Here’s where it starts:

It almost goes without saying at this point that the New Orleans Saints have a lot of challenges to navigate in 2022. We know they’re starting out well over the salary cap. And we’ve already discussed their long list of pending free agents and their top salary cap hits (plus how New Orleans can reach cap compliance without cutting a single player).

They’re set up for a big offseason and plenty of changes, which is immediately more fun to look to than last year’s long summer of departures, cap cuts, and retirements. But there’s a domino effect at play here, with various situations lined up one after the next. Once the Saints begin to make moves, expect a chain reaction to develop as their 2022 roster takes shape. Here’s where it starts: