2014 NFL season
National Football League games played August 2014 through February 2015

The 2014 NFL season was the 95th season in the history of the National Football League (NFL) and the 49th of the Super Bowl era. The season began on Thursday, September 4, 2014, with the annual kickoff game featuring the defending Super Bowl XLVIII champion Seattle Seahawks hosting the Green Bay Packers, which resulted with the Seahawks winning. The season concluded with Super Bowl XLIX, the league's championship game, on Sunday, February 1, 2015, at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, with the New England Patriots defeating the Seahawks 28–24, in one of the closest games in Super Bowl history.
Some notable events of the season include every team losing at least 4 games, the Carolina Panthers going to the playoffs despite having a losing record, the NFC Championship Game where the Seahawks would make a comeback against the Packers, and Super Bowl XLIX where the Patriots would intercept the ball at the one yard line and win the game.
Player movement
The 2014 league year began at 4 pm EST on March 11, which marked the start of the league's free agency period. The per-team salary cap was set at US$133 million, a $10 million increase from the previous year. The so-called "legal tampering" period during which time agents representing prospective unrestricted free agent players (though not the players themselves) were allowed to have contact with team representatives with the purpose of determining a player's market value and to begin contract negotiations, began at noon (EST) on March 8.
Free agency
A total of 471 players were eligible for some form of free agency at the beginning of the free agency period. In addition, a number of highly paid players were released after the start of the league year to allow their teams to regain space under the salary cap. Among the high-profile players who changed teams via free agency were:
Quarterbacks Josh McCown (Chicago to Tampa Bay), Mark Sanchez (New York Jets to Philadelphia) and Michael Vick (Philadelphia to New York Jets)
Running backs LeGarrette Blount (New England to Pittsburgh), Donald Brown (Indianapolis to San Diego), Toby Gerhart (Minnesota to Jacksonville), Chris Johnson (Tennessee to New York Jets), Maurice Jones-Drew (Jacksonville to Oakland) and Ben Tate (Houston to Cleveland)
Wide receivers Kenny Britt (Tennessee to St.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “2014 NFL season” as national Football League games played August 2014 through February 2015. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as national Football League games played August 2014 through February 2015. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4630246. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2014 and 2015.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “2014 NFL season”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow 2014 NFL season primary sources, 2014 NFL season archive and season research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “2014 NFL season”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “2014 NFL season” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.