The NFL Lockout is officially over, and the Chicago Bears are one of ten teams that will open up their training camp on Friday. Here is a full schedule of events for how the next few weeks will play out, via Chicago Now.
- 7/25 Beginning at 6 p.m. teams were allowed to negotiate, but not sign, drafted rookies and undrafted rookie free agents
- 7/26 Players may voluntarily return to Halas Hall
- Rosters are expanded to 90 players
- Beginning at 9 a.m. teams may: trade players; sign drafted rookies and rookie free agents; renegotiate contracts of current players; negotiate, but not sign, their own unrestricted free agents (UFA), restricted free agents (RFA), exclusive rights players and franchise players and other teams’ UFAs and RFAs.
- 7/28 Beginning at 3:01 p.m. teams can cut or waive players
- 7/29 Training camp opens at Olivet Nazarene University
- 7/30 First practices at Olivet at 3 p.m.; no pads
- 8/4 League year begins at 3:01 p.m.; veteran free agent signings become official.
- 8/5 Family Fest at Soldier Field; practice 7-9 p.m.
- 8/30 Possible roster reduction from 90 to 75
- 9/3 Reduce roster to 53 players
- 9/5 Back to Football Week begins
- 9/11 Regular season opener: Bears vs Atlanta, noon
The Bears will have a very busy few weeks as they prepare for the upcoming season (boy does it feel good to say "upcoming" and mean it), and we'll be covering training camp in this stream.