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when is free agency nfl

NFL free agency in 2026 officially starts on Wednesday, March 11, 2026 at 4 p.m. ET , which is when the new league year begins and teams can formally sign free agents.

Quick Scoop

  • Official start: March 11, 2026, 4:00 p.m. ET (start of the new NFL league year).
  • What happens then:
    • Contracts from the 2025 season expire.
    • Unrestricted free agents can officially sign with new teams.
    • Trades for the new league year can begin.

Legal Tampering Window

Before the “real” free agency hits, there’s the so‑called legal tampering period :

  • Starts Monday, March 9, 2026 at 12 p.m. ET.
  • Teams can negotiate with pending free agents and agree to terms, but they cannot make those deals official until March 11 at 4 p.m. ET.
  • You’ll see most of the big contract news leak during this window even though it’s technically before free agency “opens.”

How It Usually Plays Out

  • The big names tend to agree to deals in the first few days of the legal tampering period and are made official as soon as the window opens on March 11.
  • Other veterans may sign weeks or even months later , depending on market, injuries, and cap space shuffling.
  • Media and forums will be busy from March 9–13 with constant rumor and signing updates.

Mini Example Story

Imagine you’re following a top wide receiver hitting the market:

  1. Rumors spike right after the Super Bowl about which cap-strapped team might cut or trade him.
  2. On March 9 at noon , insiders report his agent is talking to three teams and a “framework” of a deal is in place.
  1. On March 11 at 4 p.m. , the team announces a multi‑year contract just as the new league year opens, and all the cap and roster dominos start falling right after.

Key Dates Table (HTML)

Here’s a quick table you can drop into a site:

html

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Date / Time (ET)</th>
      <th>Event</th>
      <th>What It Means</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>March 9, 2026 – 12:00 p.m.</td>
      <td>Legal tampering period opens</td>
      <td>Teams can begin negotiating with pending free agents and agree to terms, but cannot make deals official yet.[web:3][web:5][web:7]</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>March 11, 2026 – 4:00 p.m.</td>
      <td>Free agency officially begins / new league year starts</td>
      <td>2025 contracts expire; teams can officially sign free agents and execute trades for the 2026 season.[web:1][web:3][web:5][web:9]</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

TL;DR: If you’re just trying to know when is free agency NFL this year, circle March 11, 2026 at 4 p.m. ET on your calendar, and start watching rumors from March 9 at noon onward.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.