NFL Reportedly Moves Up June 1 Free Agency Deadline to May 12

The NFL is always looking for ways to improve their game, and one such way that they have found just recently happens to involve a key free agency date.  According to Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio, the league is moving up the June 1 free agency deadline to May 12, starting this year.

The June 1 deadline basically has two factors that makes it a significant date.  First, it is often a date used by teams to help with some salary cap relief, as the NFL allows franchise to designate two cuts as "post-June 1" cuts for this reason.  Secondly (and more commonly), this is the cutoff date for free agents to count toward compensatory picks.  For example, safety Mike Adams didn't count against the Colts when it came to compensatory picks last year because they signed him after June 1.

This year, that date will be moved up from June 1 to May 12, making it an earlier date and therefore less time for players to count toward the compensatory picks.  This date will be ten days after the Draft, giving teams enough time to evaluate their roster after the Draft, but still less time than usual.

So what implication will this have for the Colts this year?  Well, that's currently unknown.  The biggest thing this does is change things up when it comes to compensatory picks, and therefor it could come in to play for the Colts there.  If they wait until after May 12, there's no way that the player they sign could count against them in that process regardless of how well he plays next season.  Similarly, if somehow a player like Hakeem Nicks or Reggie Wayne were to sign after this deadline and have a terrific season next year (not expected), the Colts wouldn't get draft pick compensation for that.

This new date is still a month away, but it's still significant that the NFL is moving up the free agent deadline by close to a month in the summer.  Just how much of an impact it will have is yet to be determined.