The unofficial start of 2017 NFL free agency begins today, Tuesday, March 7 at 12:00 noon ET. For the fifth year in a row, in an attempt to curb all the illegal tampering that goes on before free agency, the NFL has decided to designate a window for legal tampering. Actual NFL free agency does not officially begin until Thursday, March 9 at 4:00 PM ET, but a "negotiating period" or "legal tampering period" as it's come to be known begins today at noon. Get hype!

Here are the important things to know regarding this 2-day negotiating window:

• Agents can negotiate numbers, but not actually ink a deal (See: Frank Gore)

• Teams can talk to agents, not the player directly

• Players can't visit other teams (except their own)

• Only applies to unrestricted free agents, not restricted free agents or exclusive-rights free agents

• Starts today at 12:00 PM ET and ends when the new league year officially starts on Thursday at 4:00 PM ET

The Philadelphia Eagles have six players scheduled to be unrestricted free agents. The biggest name on the list is starting defensive tackle Bennie Logan. It’ll be interesting to see if he generates interest on the market over the next few days.

As far as external free agents are concerned, we’ll probably see the Eagles connected to more wide receivers. We’ve already seen that the Eagles are interested in virtually receiver but now we might get some indications of actual contract negotiations.

It’ll also be interesting to see how the ongoing Brandin Cooks trade rumors develop during this tampering period.

Check out BGN's extremely informative NFL free agency primer to get you geared up for this week. Also make sure to bookmark BGN’s rumor tracker and check it often for tons of updates.

Use this open thread to discuss any rumors or reports you may see. BGN will have the biggest stories covered here at the site, as always.