Collective Bargaining Agreement - Pro Football Rumors

Latest On NFL’s Push For 17-Game Season

November 18th, 2019 at 1:16pm CST by Sam Robinson

Over the past two months, the prospect of a 17-game season has gained steam. While the NFL has ditched the concept of an 18-game season, a longtime fringe talking point, the league is serious about adding one game to the schedule.

The NFL plans on presenting its revised CBA proposal to the NFLPA after this season, and Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports reports “momentum is growing” among owners to make this happen. Additionally, some within the NFLPA may be warming to it as well.

The most notable part of this push: a radical adjustment to the NFL’s calendar. The league’s new plan still features the season beginning after Labor Day, but the fall schedule would grow from 17 weeks to 19. The double-bye structure (used only once, in 1993) was not previously mentioned in these talks, but the 17-game plan now includes it. The playoffs would be pushed well into February, with La Canfora adding the new schedule would slide Super Bowl Sunday into the final weekend of February.

Each team’s extra game would be an out-of-market event, with the league wanting to push its United Kingdom schedule to eight games. The Jaguars would be featured in two of those London tilts, per La Canfora, who adds other international locales like Mexico, Germany and Brazil are on the table. Roger Goodell has indicated strong support for the eight-game London slate, JLC adds. This would seemingly represent an expanded trial balloon for a full-fledged London team. More domestic sites would also be included in a 17-game season. Support has surfaced for holding games at Notre Dame, in Alabama and potentially in Canada and Hawaii.

A 14-team playoff bracket has been rumored as well, though it is not included in this report. The NFLPA has voiced opposition to an expanded postseason field. The preseason would be condensed into a two-game slate, but La Canfora reports, though the notion of intersquad scrimmages held at stadiums has come up.

With the NFL having used a 16-game schedule for the past 42 seasons, featuring home sites almost exclusively, this proposal becoming reality would be one of the most significant changes in league history. It would also mean pushing the Combine back, with free agency’s start date presumably being slid further into March as well.

The NFL is willing to bend on some issues — like marijuana and Goodell’s power over investigations — to make this happen. The next window for the CBA to be finalized looks like the days around Super Bowl LIV, with La Canfora adding negotiations are scheduled to take place throughout January.

NFC East Notes: Williams, Gettleman, Hill

November 1st, 2019 at 6:45pm CST by Marc Delucchi

The NFL and NFLPA will conduct a joint investigation into claims made by Washington’s LT Trent Williams, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. Williams has been one of the best left tackles in football since entering the league in 2010. After solidifying the blindside in Washington for nearly a decade, Williams had been holding out for all of the 2019 season.

The team refused to move Williams before the trade deadline, but the tackle finally reported to the team on Tuesday. However, he has since failed his physical and publicly accused the team of failing to recognize the severity of a cancerous growth on his head this past summer. The team has since denied Williams’ claims of wrongdoing and called for a third-party evaluation. According to Rapoport, the collective bargaining agreement calls for a joint investigation amidst such accusations.

Here’s more from around the NFC East:

Giants general manager Dave Gettleman needs to answer for his trade deadline decisions, according to Darryl Slater of NJ.com. Since the second day of training camp in late July, Gettleman has not answered questions from any reporters. Even more concerning, a Giants spokesperson said he is not currently scheduled to address the media again this season, per Slater. Currently at 2-6, many were surprised to see the team give up draft assets for impending free agent Leonard Williams. Moreover, the team recouped no draft capital for any of their veteran players. Slater maintains it is “part of the job” for Gettleman to take questions from the media regardless of how popular his decisions are.
Cowboys rookie second-round pick Trysten Hill has become a problem, according to Calvin Watkins of The Dallas Morning News. Per Watkins report, the defensive tackle has recently been sent home after arriving late to practice and fell asleep in the middle of a speech by Hall of Fame basketball player Isiah Thomas. Dallas has not been publicly critical of Hill, but Watkins notes that even after losing starting defensive tackle Tyrone Crawford for the season, Hill remains outside the rotation.

Latest On NFL’s CBA Talks

October 18th, 2019 at 8:34pm CST by Zachary Links

The NFL’s owners want 17-game seasons and they’re willing to bend on at least some issues to get them. Among those points: many owners seem willing to make the league’s marijuana policy less punitive towards players, Mark Maske of The Washington Post tweets.

Many league owners are also in favor of potentially altering, or weakening, Roger Goodell‘s power structure (link). That would mean neutral arbitration for appeals of discipline imposed by the NFL for off-field misbehavior, though Goodell would retain his power for integrity-of-the-game issues.

The NFL is reportedly “very serious” about adding another game to the regular season schedule. Part of the tradeoff would involve the shortening of the preseason schedule, though it’s unclear if that means a larger portion of the pie for the league’s players.

Earlier this week, Goodell discussed the possibility of a 17-game slate with reporters and disclosed that his proposed plan would push the Super Bowl into mid-February, with the same September start time.l

Latest On CBA, 17-Game Season

October 17th, 2019 at 3:45pm CST by Sam Robinson

Roger Goodell confirmed these CBA talks feature the previously reported prospect of a 17-game season. The 13th-year commissioner said a 17-game season would start at the same time the league’s current 16-game model does — after Labor Day — but end a week later, pushing the season into mid-February.

The league is making a greater effort to make this happen as well, offering the NFLPA more financially in hopes of making the 17-game schedule a reality, Albert Breer of SI.com notes. It’s not certain if that means the players will see a greater revenue split — a point of contention when the CBA talks accelerated over the summer — but Breer believes the NFL is “very serious” about a 17-game season happening.

A reduction in the NFL’s preseason slate would commence as well, and the subject of a 14-team playoff bracket has been broached. The prospect of a second bye week, a setup the league tried only in 1993, has not surfaced yet. But after 42 seasons of the 16-game slate, the NFL has perhaps the most momentum yet to add a game. Owners have largely given up on the long-rumored 18-game season, at least in these CBA talks.

The sides hope to have a deal by season’s end, with the league and the union believing a deal before 2019 ends would be the best way to avoid a 2021 work stoppage, per Mike Jones of USA Today.

“The deal’s not done. I don’t have optimism; I don’t have pessimism,” NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith said, via Jones. “The reality is, we’re talking, but we’re far apart. … Either the deal is done and you could relax and not prepare for a work stoppage or the deal isn’t done and you can’t relax and you need to prepare for a work stoppage.”

Along with the pursuit of an even revenue split, the players’ side wants to increase the league-minimum salary and that of practice squad payouts, Jones adds. Negotiations are set to resume soon.

Owners Now Seeking 17-Game Schedule

September 26th, 2019 at 2:12pm CST by Sam Robinson

After years of this subject lingering, the NFL is no longer pushing an 18-game season. Instead, they’ve shifted focus to a 17-game proposal, Daniel Kaplan of The Athletic reports (subscription required).

Proposals for an outright 18-game schedule, and the convoluted idea about an 18-game slate with a 16-game cap for players, have not necessarily been shelved. But with ownership support for 18 games not as widespread as it appeared to be, and the NFLPA remained staunchly opposed to it, it’s been effectively moved to the back-burner, Mark Maske of the Washington Post reports (Twitter links).

Part of the 17-game proposal would be a one- or two-game reduction in the preseason schedule, per Kaplan. A three-game preseason schedule is the most likely course of action, per Maske (on Twitter).

Packers president Mark Murphy floated the 17-game idea over the summer. The concept included eight home games, eight road games and one neutral-site contest. The league has five neutral-site games scheduled this season — four in England, one in Mexico City — so ballooning that to 16 would be a notable change. It’s unclear if that component is still being discussed, but it would likely need to be in play to prevent some teams from having nine home games and others not.

Another item that remains in play: expanding the playoff field to seven teams per conference. The NFL has used six-team brackets since 1990 but has seen the league grow by four teams since that format was implemented. The NFLPA is also opposed to this idea, Kaplan adds, but Maske tweets a 14-team playoff field being thrown into the mix is a “strong” possibility. The 12-team setup has lasted longer than either the four- or five-team fields the NFL previously used since the 1970 merger.

No additional CBA talks have been scheduled; they are expected to resume later this year or at 2020’s outset. It’s a good bet the 17-game season and seven-team playoff prospects will be talking points when they resume. The current CBA expires after the 2020 season.

Extra Points: CBA, Clowney, Julio, Butt

August 30th, 2019 at 9:06pm CST by Sam Robinson

As expected based on the past several weeks of talks, there will be no new collective bargaining agreement before Week 1. The parties’ latest round of discussions ended this week without much movement, and Tom Pelissero of NFL.com notes no more meetings are currently scheduled. The owners continue to push for an 18-game season, while the players want a greater revenue share than their 47% figure without adding any additional regular-season contests. But the sides have made progress on issues like increased league-minimum salaries and health and safety components, Pelissero adds. With NFL-NFLPA meetings more difficult to arrange during the season, due to players’ focuses shifting to game preparation, there is now an increased possibility we will get to 2020 without a new CBA in place. That would mean final-year-of-a-CBA rules going into place. This CBA expires after the 2020 season.

Here is the latest from around the league, as rosters continue to take shape leading up to Saturday’s cutdown:

It continues to look less and less likely Jadeveon Clowney will wear a Texans uniform again. A bevy of teams are interested, even if a Clowney-to-Miami proposition has hit snags on multiple fronts. Bill O’Brien, who was reported to be against a Clowney extension before this year’s franchise tag deadline, said he will reconvene with Clowney if he signs his tag tender, per Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle (on Twitter). Clowney has now threatened to miss regular-season time.
We are now less than nine days away from the Falcons‘ opener, and it could put Julio Jones to a decision. The All-Pro wideout did not skip training camp but he would soon be set to play in games on the league’s 13th-highest-AAV receiver deal. Thomas Dimitroff said (via Vaughn McClure of ESPN.com) the team believes this process is “very close” to being completed. Jones’ current deal runs through the 2020 season.
Jake Butt has endured another setback. The Broncos tight end who has undergone three reconstructive ACL surgeries will have another knee procedure soon, James Palmer of NFL.com tweets. This will be a minor surgery on Butt’s left knee, that was operated on last year. At this point, it should be considered a safe bet Butt will land on the Broncos’ IR list. The Broncos have the former All-American under contract through 2020 and could give him another medical redshirt year of sorts by placing him on IR before finalizing their roster. Butt missed most of Denver’s preseason work.
The Texans may have their backup quarterback back soon. A.J. McCarron has resumed throwing, per Wilson, pointing to the longtime Bengals QB2 being available in Week 1. McCarron has been dealing with a thumb injury for most of August. Houston signed McCarron to a one-year, $3MM deal to be Deshaun Watson‘s backup.

NFL, NFLPA Schedule More CBA Talks

August 26th, 2019 at 6:09pm CST by Sam Robinson

Another round of collective bargaining agreement talks will transpire this week. The NFL and NFLPA will meet on Monday night and into Tuesday in Chicago for what will be the seventh round of discussions regarding the league’s next CBA, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets.

While the talks are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, it is not a guarantee this will be a two-day event. Earlier this summer, the parties ended a round of negotiations scheduled for three days after one.

These talks have all taken place over the past few months, and they are believed to be less contentious than those that led up to the 2011 CBA’s completion. Neither side anticipates a 2021 work stoppage, though the NFLPA has consistently attempted to prepare players for that reality.

The frequent meetings represent progress, but we have not heard much in the way of actual steps being taken toward a new agreement. The sides’ pre-Week 1 goal no longer appears to be in the picture, and while the league initially did not want CBA talks interfering with its 100th season, that looks almost certain to happen.

The current agreement expires after the 2020 season. However, if the NFL enters the 2020 offseason without a new CBA, uncapped rules — like teams being able to use both the franchise and transition tags — would be in place next year.

Progress Elusive In CBA Talks

August 17th, 2019 at 2:21pm CST by Sam Robinson

While the NFL and the NFLPA continue to set up meetings, the sides still look to have a long way to go toward finalizing the league’s next collective bargaining agreement.

The parties will reconvene on Monday, and ESPN.com’s Dan Graziano reports another session is scheduled for Tuesday (Twitter link). However, for a process both sides once set out to finish before Week 1, no immediate end is in sight. The talks throughout this offseason have yielded little in the way of progress, Graziano adds, with the revenue split being the main point of contention.

As of late July, the league and the union were far apart on the central component of these discussions. It does not appear that has changed, but Graziano notes both sides do not believe a 2021 work stoppage is likely. The players’ current share of league revenue cannot fall below 47%, and they would like that figure to rise under the next CBA. Discussing the raising of the league’s spending floor, or reformatting it, represents another way the union has attempted to increase salaries for the next NFL era.

The current CBA covers the 2019 and ’20 seasons, and the NFLPA has consistently warned its talent base about the prospect of another stoppage. The union again issued some pointers to prepare players in the event this happens again. Every scheduled regular-season game has unfolded since 1987, the last in-season stoppage. Fifteen games occurred that year, although only 12 involved the league’s full workforce. In 2011, the lockout ended in late July.

NFL, NFLPA Set To Meet Aug 19

August 12th, 2019 at 12:09pm CST by Zachary Links

The NFL and the players’ union will meet again on Monday, Aug 19 for another full bargaining session, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com (on Twitter) hears. In the interim, there will be staff meetings scheduled for this week to discuss some secondary issues.

Unsurprisingly, Pelissero hears that the No. 1 topic to be discussed will be the overall revenue split between the league and its players. Recently, we heard that the two sides are far apart on a revenue split. In light of that, a new deal is not expected to be in place by the owners’ unofficial pre-Week 1 target date. Meanwhile, the owners have backed off the goal of having the next collective bargaining agreement in place by then.

There are a myriad of issues to be discussed beyond that, including the owners’ hope that the players – in a roundabout way – will contribute money towards stadium projects and relocations.

As it stands, the current CBA expires after the 2020 season. Without a new CBA in place, we could be headed towards an eventual labor stoppage.

NFL, NFLPA Resume Talks

August 6th, 2019 at 12:28pm CST by Zachary Links

The NFL and NFL Players Association will meet on Tuesday to discuss the collective bargaining agreement, according to Mike Florio of PFT. It’s a promising sign – earlier this summer, the two sides were slated to talk for consecutive days, but pulled the plug before day one was finished.

Of course, this doesn’t necessarily mean that real progress is being made in talks. Eight years ago, the two sides wound up in a lockout, so the possibility of a labor stoppage still looms large. As it stands, the current CBA is set to expire until after next season.

Recently, we heard that the two sides are far apart on a revenue split. In light of that, a new deal is not expected to be in place by the owners’ unofficial pre-Week 1 target date. Meanwhile, the owners have backed off the goal of having the next collective bargaining agreement in place by then.

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