What you need to know about today's important NFL time change

The NFL is about to kick into overdrives this afternoon when the clock strikes 12, 12 noon that is.

Free agency officially begins, unofficially, later today when the window for legal tampering opens across the league.

The fate of three Miami Dolphins players could be known by the end of today. Teams will not be able to finalize deals with players until the 4:00 p.m. start of the league new year on Wednesday, March 13th, two days from now.

The NFL began allowing a two-day "unofficial" start a few years ago to curb the illegal tampering that was rampant around the league. While it may have quieted the rumors that would lead to tampering, it is pretty clear that it did nothing to stop it. Shortly after 12 on Monday, We should start hearing of impending moves.

For the Dolphins, the future of Robert Hunt, Andrew Van Ginkel, and of course, Christian Wilkins could be decided in the next several hours following the clock hitting 12. Miami will then have to make a decision as to whether they will match or allow those players to leave the team.

As for incoming players, the Dolphins are still above the salary cap but a restructure of Terron Armstead's contract eliminated some of that over-the-cap money. Miami will need to clear more to operate by Wednesday at 4:00 or make additional cuts to get below the cap.

Miami could extend Tua Tagovailoa which will save a lot of cap money this year but the two sides reportedly are not as close as they need to be. Some speculate that the deal will not get done until closer to training camp.