What should you circle on your calendar?
The offseason is officially upon us, which means there isn’t going to be as much news as we’re used to about our Minnesota Vikings. Don’t worry, we’ll still be coming out with things for your reading pleasure and covering the NFL Draft and free agency and all that, but it’s going to be a long seven months until the 2025 season kicks off.
What are some of the important dates that we need to be cognizant of this offseason? Here’s a full list of what we’ll be keeping an eye out for.
17 February – This is an important date because it’s the “void date” for several key Vikings contracts, including Sam Darnold, Aaron Jones, Stephon Gilmore, and Byron Murphy. As you can see in this Twitter/X thread from Vikings fan Nick Miller, that means that if new deals aren’t worked out by those players by that date, they will automatically put dead cap charges onto the Vikings’ 2025 salary cap whether the team re-signs them or not. If the team works out extensions with those players, they can spread that dead cap hit out and/or push it into the future.
18 February – Starting at 3:00 PM Central time, teams can designate their franchise or transition players. In the case of the Vikings, the one to keep an eye on here is Darnold, although at this point I’d be pretty stunned if the Vikings would tag him unless they work some sort of trade out beforehand.
24 February – 3 March – The 2025 NFL Scouting Combine will take place at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis. Also, teams will absolutely not be talking with other teams about potentially working out deals or contracts or anything like that because, by golly, that would be illegal.
4 March – At 3:00 PM, the window for franchise and transition player designation closes.
10-12 March – This is the “legal tampering” period for NFL free agency. Starting at 11:00 AM Central time on 10 March, teams can begin contacting player representatives for the purpose of negotiating deals with free agents. The teams can’t contact the players directly or anything, just their agents. And, again, they almost certainly have not been making any sort of contact with agents or players prior to now because that’s against the rules. Just ask them.
The legal tampering period ends at 2:59 PM Central time on 12 March, because. . .
12 March – The 2025 NFL league year officially begins at 3:00 PM Central time. This means that new free agent contract can officially be signed, with NFL teams often working out highly complex and detailed contracts within minutes of the league year starting. It’s especially impressive when you consider that nobody had been making contact with players or agents prior to the start of the legal tampering period.
Also, this is when trades are able to be consummated, and all teams have to be in compliance with the salary cap by this time.
30 March – 2 April – The 2025 NFL league meetings will take place in Palm Beach, Florida.
21 April – The Vikings will start their offseason workout program.
24-26 April – The 2025 NFL Draft will take place in Green Bay, Wisconsin, which will mean that every NFC North city will have hosted the NFL Draft. . .except Minneapolis. It makes sense if you don’t think about it.
1 May – Deadline for teams to exercise fifth-year options on players drafted in the first round of the 2022 NFL Draft. The Vikings don’t have to worry about this because Lewis Cine.
Either 2-5 May or 9-12 May – Teams will host their rookie mini-camps.
Those are all of the relevant dates for the Vikings’ offseason, folks. Again, we’ll be keeping an eye on these things as well as any other purple news as the slow trudge to next season gets underway.
