The next phase of the offseason is coming. The Arizona Cardinals announced the schedule for their offseason program.
It will begin April 15 with Phase 1 of the offseason program and will end with the final day of a three-day mandatory minicamp on June 13, giving players about five or six weeks to break before reporting for training camp at the end of July.
April 15 is the earliest the Cardinals can begin the offseason program. Unlike last year when Jonathan Gannon was a new head coach, the team will only have one minicamp. Teams with new head coaches are allowed to begin the offseason April 1 and can have an extra three-day voluntary minicamp.
Here is the schedule of the offseason program, the team announced:
- April 15: Offseason program begins
- May 10-12: Rookie minicamp
- May 20-22: Voluntary organized team activities for veterans and rookies (OTAs)
- May 28-30: Voluntary OTAs for veterans and rookies
- June 3-6: Voluntary OTAs for veterans an rookies
- June 11-13: Mandatory minicamp for veterans and rookies
The first two weeks of the offseason program (April 15 until the NFL draft on April 25) is Phase 1 when it is only strength and conditioning work with the strength and conditioning staff only.
Starting the week after the draft, for three weeks, is Phase 2. That is when individual and positional football drills begin but there is no one-on-one, player-on-player work.
Phase 3 begins with OTAs, when teams can go offense vs. defense and player vs. player but without tackling or pads.
With the start of OTAs, there will be some media availability so there will be news an quotes of progress, although specifics about positions, rotations and who is working with which unit are not reportable.
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