Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs, left, blocks against Lions linebacker Jack Campbell during the second half of a game played Dec. 5 in Detroit. (AP file photo)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The NFL offseason won’t last long.

By the time the Philadelphia Eagles complete their Super Bowl victory parade on Friday, it will be less than two weeks until the scouting combine kicks off in Indianapolis.

Free agency follows on March 10 with the two-day negotiating period. The annual league meeting starts on March 30.

The seven teams with new head coaches may open offseason workout programs on April 7 and the remaining 25 teams can follow two weeks later.

Then, it’s time for the NFL draft on April 24 in Green Bay, where Miami quarterback Cam Ward is the bettors’ pick to be the No. 1 overall pick.

Las Vegas Raiders interim head coach Rich Bisaccia reacts during the second half of a game against the Browns on Dec. 20, 2021, in Cleveland. (AP file photo)

Eventually, it will be back to the Super Bowl, and BetMGM Sportsbook says the Eagles are favored to repeat as champions. They are followed by the Baltimore Ravens, Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Some of the league’s offseason priorities include player health and safety and conversations about potential new rules, including reviewing kickoffs following a one-year experiment with dynamic changes.

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Player safety

“We’re going to talk about moving players to better-performing helmets. That’s a big one,” NFL executive Jeff Miller told The Associated Press.

In 2024, players suffered the fewest concussions in a season since the league began tracking data nine years ago, according to the NFL. The total decline from 2023 was 17%, including all practices and games in both the preseason and regular season.

Miller, the league’s executive vice president overseeing player health and safety, and NFL chief medical officer Dr. Allen Sills have cited several reasons for the drop-off, including safer equipment, enforcement of safety rules and broader efforts to foster a culture of safety regarding concussions.

“It’s not the end of the story. There are still opportunities to decrease those,” Miller said, pointing out the desire to have more players choose position-specific helmets designed to reduce the impact of hits. “But also we need to enforce some of the rules around head contact, which our friends on the officiating side are doing a better and better job of, and eliminating more unnecessary or avoidable head contact is going to make players safer.”

Miller said the league will continue to work on ways to decrease lower-extremity injuries. They’re researching playing surfaces and working with Nike on cleat design to prevent injuries.

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Dynamic kickoff

The league and its competition committee also will review kickoffs and decide whether to tweak the rules.

“It’s really going to be the headline for us in the offseason, how’d we do and what changes need to be made?” Miller said. “The story in Year 1 was a good one, 332 more returns than a year ago and a lower injury rate. We hit the mark on that and we got as many touchdowns as we did since 2020 and some long kickoffs past the 40. Is there more that we can do to create more incentive for more of those returns and yet keep the injury rate more like a run or pass play? We were getting really close to that this year, which is the goal. I think it’s going to take up a lot of time and attention from special teams, coaches, the competition committee and those of us on the health and safety side.”

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Replay review

Replay assist will be a major topic, too. NFL executive Troy Vincent said in December that expanding replay assist to include facemask penalties and other plays is going to be considered.

Current rules only allowed replay assist to help officials pick up a flag incorrectly thrown on the field, or in assisting proper enforcement of a foul called on the field.

Hits on a defenseless player, tripping, the fair catch, an illegal batted ball, an illegal double-team block, illegal formations on kickoffs and taunting are other areas that warrant consideration for replay assist.

“I’d like to talk a little bit more about player-safety fouls there,” Miller said. “We talked about roughing the quarterback this year. We talked about hits on the boundary this year with replay assist. Are there others that we could add to it where players are at more substantial risk for injury? Maybe it’s sliding quarterbacks. Maybe there’s other dynamics at play where getting a little help from somebody upstairs would assist that. That all would be good. And some of what we would declare avoidable head contact. How do we get more of that out of the game to enhance our player safety.”

The competition committee would have to review potential recommendations for owners to vote on for expanding replay assist.

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl