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After a couple weeks of speculation, the NFL officially announced important aspects of the 2014 offseason. According to the league, the 2014 NFL Draft will be held May 8-10 at Radio City Music Hall. Other events will not be affected next spring. The NFL Combine will be held February 18-25. The new league year (and free agency) will start on March 11. The annual league meeting (when we see a lot of votes on rule changes) will be held March 23-26.
According to the league, a scheduling conflict required this change. Albert Breer tweeted that internally the league is considering this as a trial for keeping the draft in May. There has been some speculation of moving up the start of the league year, giving us an earlier start to free agency, potentially before the Combine.
The league has said this May 8-10 draft will not impact when rookies may report to their clubs. Additionally, teams will still have the same number of practice days and the offseason workout program would not change. Of course, this means scouts potentially have to work a bit longer than before. It's only a few weeks, but given the grind, it could be a bit of a pain for them.
While I don't think it's the worst idea in the world, having to deal with a few extra weeks of mock drafts and speculation is not exactly high on my list of things I want to deal with next year. We'll keep covering all this stuff, but it's going to be interesting getting through a slightly longer grind.