Buffalo Bills 2024 NFL offseason: Workout program dates announced

The Bills are set to begin on April 15

On Friday, the NFL announced the 2024 calendar for teams to use when scheduling offseason workouts, which can include up to nine weeks of voluntary workouts spread across three phases.

• Phase One takes place during a team’s first two weeks of their offseason program and limits allowable activities to meetings, strength and conditioning workouts, and physical rehabilitation for injured players.
• Phase Two takes place over the following three weeks and allows for more skill-specific training. Workouts can take place on the football field but absolutely no live contact or offense vs. defense drills are allowed. Instead, drills are restricted to individual or group instruction and “perfect play drills.” Phase Two also allows for offensive players to line up across from offensive players in drills that are conducted as a walk-through. Similarly, defensive players can line up across from other defensive players for the same type of drills.
• Phase Three is the final four weeks of a team’s offseason workout program. During this phase, there is still no live contact permitted. However, 7-on-7, 9-on-7, and 11-on-11 drills are allowed. During this phase, teams are allowed 10 days of organized team practice activities – commonly known as OTA’s.

Also during Phase Three, teams are allowed to host one mandatory minicamp for veteran players. Mandatory minicamps are restricted to a three-day maximum.

Rookie development football programs also have a set of very specific guidelines. During this program, which can begin on May 13 and last up to seven weeks, team’s are forbidden from holding activities on weekends. The only exception to the “no weekends” rule is a single post-draft minicamp. The rookie minicamp is required to be held one of the first two weekends following the draft.

One other type of minicamp is allowed for select teams. Teams that have hired a new head coach for the 2024 season are permitted to have one voluntary veteran minicamp. This voluntary camp cannot take place before the third week of a team’s offseason workout program, but, also, must be held before the NFL Draft.

The rules for the NFL’s offseason workouts are detailed under Articles 21 and 22 in the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which expires at the end of the 2030 league year and is available on the NFL Communications website.

The Buffalo Bills plan to begin their offseason training program on Monday, April 15 and host their veteran mandatory minicamp June 11 through 13. In between, they will have OTAs on May 20-21, May 23, May 28-29, May 31, June 3-4, and June 6.

For a full schedule of all NFL teams’ scheduled offseason training workouts, can be found here.