Green Bay Packers' offseason conditioning program begins

The boys are back in town.

The Green Bay Packers begin their offseason conditioning program for the 2015 season today, on April 20th. In short, this means that most of the players will be back in town to workout over the next few weeks, leading up to the start of OTAs in late May. However, the Packers (and every other NFL team) are limited on what they can do during this stage of the program, lasting for the first two weeks.

Here are the details of this phase, taken directly from the Collective Bargaining Agreement:

• Phase One activities shall be limited to strength and conditioning and physical rehabilitation only.
• During Phase One, only full-time or part-time strength and condi­tioning coaches, who have no other coaching responsibilities with the Club, shall be allowed on the field; no other coaches shall be allowed on the field or to otherwise par­ticipate in or observe activities.
• No footballs shall be permitted to be used (only "dead ball" activities), except that quarterbacks may elect to throw to receivers provided they are not covered by any other player.
• Players cannot wear helmets during Phase One.

If that sounds pretty limited, that's because it is. The league wants to ensure that there is no contact and no on-field coaching of the players in this time period. Because of the limitations on contact with the coaching staff, Mike McCarthy's "quarterback school" will not begin until Phase Two of the program, which starts on May 4th.

In addition to the players being in the building once again to train, general manager Ted Thompson will speak to the media on Wednesday, April 22nd, at 10 AM Central time. His press conference will be streamed live on Packers.com and we will have coverage of that presser.

Click here for full dates on the Packers' offseason program, including OTAs and minicamp.