There is no limit to the number of trades or free agent pickups a team can make during the season.
After the draft, all players are Free Agents until the start of the season.
At the start of the season, the Waiver Priority and Claims Priority will be set in reverse order of the original draft order. (i.e. the team which won the Bacon Bowl will have the top priority, and the team which finished with the worst record will have the bottom priority. See Draft Rules)
When a player is dropped by a team, he goes on Waivers for 24 hours. Teams may request to pick up a team off Waivers. If more than one team puts in a Waiver request for a player before the waiver period ends, the team with the highest Waiver/Claim priority is awarded the player at the end of the Waiver period. If the player clears waivers, he becomes a Free Agent.
When a player’s game begins, the player is locked an unavailable for transactions until all of the games of the week are over. All players become available for Claims on Tuesday at 3pm ET. Players are awarded to the teams that claimed them at that time. If a player is not claimed, they become a Free Agent. An exception to this is if a player was on the waiver wire at the time his game began. If so, the player goes back on the Waiver wire for however much time was left in the 24 hour period when the player was locked.
When a team is awarded a player via Waivers or Claims, their Waiver/Claims priority drops to the bottom of the list. Waiver Priority and Claim Priority are kept in sync with each other.
Trades may involve any number of players (so long as no team’s roster limit is exceeded) at any position and any number of teams. Draft picks may also be used in trades. (See Trades Involving Keepers and/or Draft Picks, below.)
Once a trade is submitted, it will take effect in 48 hours, or when the commissioner approves the trade, whichever comes first. However, if the commissioner suspects collusion he may deny the trade. A trade should not be denied based solely on personal opinion that the trade is unbalanced. The commissioner shall consider the opinion of the other teams of the league but is not required to base the decision on their opinions.
If one of the teams involved in the trade is run by the commissioner, then the teams have the power to deny the trade, if greater than or equal to half of the teams in the league officially protest.
A trade submitted prior to or during the draft will not be automatically approved after 48 hours.
The offseason trading period begins on July 15 at 3 p.m. EST. (In 2006, the offseason trading period beings late, on July 31 at 5 p.m. EST.)
The deadline to submit a trade will be the Friday after Week 11 of the NFL season, at 3 p.m. EST. Normal Trade Approval Period rules apply (thus a trade could be approved after the trading deadline).
Only draft picks in the current or next calendar year can be traded. (i.e. a trade taking place in August of 2007 can involve picks in the 2007 or 2008 draft, but not the 2009 draft.)
Also see Keeper Rules.