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Two weeks from today, the Indianapolis Colts are back!
That is, if you count offseason workouts as being “back,” and the Colts have announced their schedule for their offseason workout program. Those workouts begin on Monday, April 17. Then the following week comes the NFL Draft, which begins with the first round on Thursday, April 27, then continues with the second and third rounds on Friday, April 28, and concludes with rounds four through seven on Saturday, April 29. Two weekends after the draft, the Colts will hold their rookie mini-camp for all draft picks, rookie free agents, and rookie tryouts, and that mini-camp will take place on May 12-14. Shortly after that, on Tuesday, May 23, OTAs begin. And then the offseason program will conclude with a mandatory mini-camp on June 13-15. After that, the team will break until training camp begins.
So here’s the basics of the schedule:
April 17 - Colts offseason program begins
April 27-29 - NFL Draft
May 12-14 - Rookie mini-camp
May 23 - OTAs begin
June 13-15 - Mandatory veteran mini-camp
It’s a nine-week offseason program that is broken up in three phases by the NFL CBA. The first phase is two weeks of conditioning and weight training. Then phase two is three weeks of on-field positional and individual drills, but no team drills (offense vs. defense). And then phase three is four weeks of OTAs, which allow teams to do team drills (like 7-on-7, 9-on-7, 11-on-11, etc.), albeit without contact.
Here are the dates on which the Colts will be having their OTAs: May 22-23, May 25, May 31, June 1-2, June 5-8, and then of course their mandatory mini-camp on June 13-15.
It’s not the most exciting time of the year in the NFL, but there will still be plenty of things to pay attention to and note from the Colts’ offseason program, and at the very least it’s a sign that football is slowly but surely getting closer.