BTSC Super Bowl Coverage:
Celebration Thread
Initial Post Game Thoughts
The Drive
An Early Salute To The Free Agents
One Play Helps Define A Season
We The Fans Of Steelers Nation
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Don't get me wrong here, I'm nowhere near done reveling in the greatness of the Pittsburgh Steelers winning the franchise's sixth Lombardi Trophy, the most in league's history. Not just yet at least. More picture breakdowns including a closer look at what happened to our defense are on the horizon. As our a number of posts devoted to recapping the 2008 season, Mike Tomlin's second year in the Burgh.
That said, let's put on the table for all those who were curious the important NFL offseason dates leading up to the April 2009 Draft and then ultimately training camp back in Latrobe.
February 15: NFL signing period for CFL players under contract ends
February 22: Deadline for NFL teams to designate franchise and transition players
February 18-24: NFL Scouting Combine
February 27: Free Agency begins
March 1: NFL teams must be under salary cap
March 3: NFL trading and veteran free agent signing periods begin
April 15: NFL restricted free agent signing period ends
April 25-26: NFL Draft, New York
June 1: Deadline for old clubs to send tender to unsigned unrestricted free agents to receive exclusive negotiating rights for rest of season if player is not signed by another club by July 22; Deadline for old clubs to send tender to unsigned restricted free agents or to extend qualifying offer to retain exclusive negotiating rights.
June 15: Deadline for old clubs to withdraw original qualifying offer to unsigned restricted free agents and still retain exclusive negotiating rights by substituting tender of 110 percent of previous year's salary.
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If all y'all great pretty people out there don't mind, work together identifying what some of the more bizarre and unknown terms and deadlines are. Even better still, some analysis on the implications for this particular Steelers roster (both in terms of current roster and potential needs) would be tremendous.
As you can see, winning Super Bowls means that key offseason dates aren't that far off once the final snap is taken of the previous season. That's not such a bad thing, I know. I'll be weighing in with extensive analysis and commentary over the course of the next weeks and months, but I'll throw it open to you all for now.
Unlike last offseason, when BTSC was fortunate enough to enjoy the amazing services of cgolden (who has done a fantastic job with the Arizona Cardinals blog), it sure would be swell if the site could get some contributions from readers like you (ha, just like a PBS ad!). I'm thinking perhaps the following for now:
A) List of available free agents around the league by position - or at least at the positions we all deem most important to this roster.
B) Draft materials - perhaps a bunch of scouting reports, videos, whatever we can get our hands on, over the course of the next few months. Not sure just yet how we'll organize this, but throw your name in the hat if you think you might be interested in participating. Hopefully we'll get a decent number of at least part-time help and I'll be sure to have a raffle or something as a token of my gratitude for any assistance.
Discuss.