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Originally Posted by TAFKAS
Can you have OTAs before the draft?
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From what I understand of the offseason workout rules, you can have any of the allotted 14 OTA sessions at any time (except weekends, and no more than 4 OTAs per week) within the allotted 14 weeks of offseason workouts. Each year, the NFL and NFLPA agree to a start date at which point teams are allowed to begin their workout programs. I'm not sure when that date was this year, but I believe it's generally six weeks after the Super Bowl, so it would have been around March 21st this year. That would have given teams about a month before the draft to get a sense of what their roster looks like in workouts.
I think teams tend to want to hold OTAs later in the workout program (ie, after the draft), because players will be further along in the workout program and ostensibly less prone to injury, injured players may have enough time to recover and participate, and most of the post-draft free agent signings will be complete. This allows them to see more of their potential roster in action on the field.
As for the Dyson signing and its significance, I think he will challenge McCants for the 5th receiver spot, but I don't see him displacing any of the other four receivers (Moss, Patten, Jacobs, Thrash). I think Gibbs is still pretty confident in that quartet.