The dates are trickling in, illustrating specific changes to the offseason schedule that would happen if the NFL and NFLPA strike a deal to tweak the things that happen from February through May.
According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, next year’s draft would start on May 15, three weeks after this year’s draft. The timetable for the Scouting Combine and the league year would not change in 2014.
In 2015, the draft would happen a little bit earlier in May, the league year would begin in early March, and the Scouting Combine would slide to the middle of March.
We can’t overstate the impact of moving the Combine after the start of the league year. (But we’ll try.) With 10-14 days of free agency in the books before the teams flock to Indy, there will be a much better sense of what teams need, and don’t need, in the draft before checking out the prospects up close at the Combine.