NFL Teams With New Head Coaches Can Start Offseason Program

NFL teams with new head coaches are allowed to start their offseason program on Monday. Those with returning head coaches have to wait two more weeks.

by Joel Thorman

Apr 2, 2012, 2:22 PM UTC

TAMPA, FL - JANUARY 27: Coach Greg Schiano of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers speaks to the media at an introduction press conference at the team training facility January 27, 2012 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images)

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NFL Teams With New Head Coaches Can Start Offseason Program

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If an NFL team has hired a new head coach this year, it can start its offseason program on Monday. For teams that don’t have new head coaches, the offseason program begins two weeks from Monday. The offseason program is basically a series of workouts during which players can finally start talking football with the teams. Until the offseason program, players can’t talk about football with their coaches.

This means the teams who hired a new head coach this offseason have officially started their offseason program. Interim head coaches who were then hired to the fulltime job, like the Chiefs' Romeo Crennel, do not count as new head coaches, so their offseason program doesn't start for two weeks.

New head coaches include the Jaguars' Mike Mularkey, the Dolphins' Joe Philbin, the Colts' Chuck Pagano the , Raiders' Dennis Allen, the Bucs' Greg Schiano and the Rams' Jeff Fisher.

If your team has hired a new head coach, it’s usually (but not always) because the last one failed, so this is the NFL’s effort to smooth the transition for those new head coaches.