Important dates for the Kansas City Chiefs in the 2014 NFL offseason

January 18: East-West Shrine Game

Romeo Crennel and Jerry Glanville are coaching in this game. It's not as talent-laden as the Senior Bowl but still a good place to find contributors.

January 25: Senior Bowl

Andy Reid and GM John Dorsey will both attend Senior Bowl week. This has some of the best talent of any postseason Bowl game.

January 26: Pro Bowl

Remember, they're doing that new fantasy type of game where teams are picked by captains rather than AFC and NFC. This could be very, very stupid. Or it could just be stupid. We'll see.

February 2: Super Bowl

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February 17-March 3: Franchise tag can be used

Here we go now, Chiefs fans. This is a notable date. The Chiefs do not appear to be franchise tag candidates at the moment but that can change. LT Branden Albert, WR Dexter McCluster or DE Tyson Jackson would be the Chiefs possibilities for the franchise tag.

February 19-25: NFL Combine

An over-hyped but still fun event.

March 8-11: Legal tampering window

Back in the day, agents would talk with teams about their free agents before they were technically allowed to. That was called tampering. Because everyone tampered, the league changed the rules to create a 3-day window before free agency starts where tampering is, essentially, legal. Sort of like Hamsterdam.

March 11: Free agency opens

One of the top three days of the year for me. The news is coming in fast and furious and teams can change drastically, for better or worse, in a matter of days.

Here are the Chiefs free agents.

April 21: Offseason program begins

This is when the Chiefs can start their offseason program, bringing the players to the facility for the scheduled practices and workouts. Players can't do any hitting during this period so it's about installing new things on offense and defense. The Chiefs were able to start this two weeks earlier than everyone else last year because Andy Reid was a new head coach. They do not get that luxury this year.

May 8-10: NFL Draft

Seems like an important thing.

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