Here's amazing stat that Adam Schefter mentioned. Teams have an average of 40 players under contract and rosters will be expanded to 90 players this year. So that means on average teams will be bringing in 50 players over the next week. Multiply that by the number of teams and you have around 1,600 contracts set be done in the next week. That's staggering and it's going to be nuts.
According to John Clayton, here's the tentative timeline for once the players officially agree to the deal late today.
• Today: The NFL will announce that teams can go to 90-man rosters and the official free-agent list will be distributed to teams.
• Tuesday: Teams can reach agreements with rookies and undrafted free agents beginning at 10 a.m. ET. Teams can reach agreements with all free agents and signed players are allowed to enter team facilities.
• Wednesday: Players can begin reporting to training camps 15 days before their first preseason games. The Eagles will reportedly open camp that day.
• Thursday: Teams can begin to cut players at 4 p.m. ET. in an attempt to get under the cap.
• Friday: Teams can begin filing transactions to the league office at 6 p.m. ET.
• Aug. 4: Deadline for recertification and ratification of the collective bargaining agreement by the players.
[Note by JasonB, 07/25/11 1:13 PM EDT ] An important point to clarify. There will be no window re-sign your own free agents as was previously discussed. At 10am tomorrow, the floodgates open and everyone is fair game. That means free agents, undrafted rookies, drafted rookies, trades... everything. Obviously veteran free agency and trades will be the first order of business.