Collective Bargaining Agreement News & Rumors

Although Friday’s events dealt a blow to this CBA passing by March 18, NFL ownership has agreed to meet with the union at the Combine next week, Dan Graziano of ESPN.com reports (on Twitter). The meeting will take place Tuesday night in Indianapolis.

After the union’s executive committee voted 6-5 against the owners’ CBA proposal, the NFLPA board revealed it would not hold its vote on the measure Friday. However, the board will vote Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, Graziano adds. If two-thirds of the player representatives vote yes, the owners’ proposal goes to the entire union body. If a simple majority vote in favor of it at that point, the NFL will have a new CBA.

An interesting wrinkle to these negotiations: the NFL potentially pushing the 2020 league year back from March 18 to a later date in order to wrap up this process, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com reports (video link). Delaying the league year would postpone free agency. The legal tampering period begins March 16; free agents are able to sign deals with other teams on the 18th.

NFL teams want an answer on the CBA by next week, when teams can begin applying franchise and transition tags. If the 2011 CBA remains in place by then, teams can use both transition and franchise tags in a final-league-year special circumstance. This would impact a few marquee free agents.

A new CBA represents one of the key offseason pieces for ownership. The other part of the equation, the upcoming negotiations for new TV deals, is likely contingent on the NFL being able to sell 10 more years’ worth of labor piece. If ratified before the start of the 2020 league year, this CBA agreement would run through the 2029 season. After Friday’s development, some key hurdles remain. But with the NFL’s desire to have a new deal in place before the new league year, it seems unlikely owners would not be open to more negotiations — despite earlier reports of this week’s proposal being a take-it-or-leave it offer.

The NFL and NFLPA have made significant progress on talks this week and a new collective bargaining agreement feels imminent. Meanwhile, owners say that the latest variation of the deal – which includes entails lots and lots of complex changes – would grant another $100MM in player costs for 2020.

The owners issued that statement on Friday morning in an effort to get the union’s sign-off as soon as possible and before the start of the league year in March. Even though the NFLPA is warming up to it, they could decide they’re better off waiting for something better.

The new CBA may include an additional game on the regular season schedule and an expanded playoff field that would see seven teams from each conference make the cut. Other expected changes include two extra active roster spots per team, two additional practice squad spots per team, changes to training camp practices, and a close cousin of the NBA’s mid-level exception which would give teams extra money to spend on veterans without impacting the cap.

And, per the union’s fact sheet, the new CBA will have a reduction in both on-field and team fines, as Michael David Smith of PFT notes.

Wednesday night brought the most substantial development in months on the CBA front. The NFL’s six-team playoff structure — used since 1990 — will shift to a 14-team format, should a new CBA be finalized. Here is the latest on that process, which is gaining traction in advance of a critical stretch.

• This is not yet a done deal. NFLPA reps will participate in a key conference call Friday, and Tom Pelissero of NFL.com notes there is a fairly sizable faction that remains committed to voting no on the owners’ latest proposal (video link) because of the increase to a 17-game season and its impact on future generations of players. Only 11 of the 32 player reps must vote no to prevent the proposal from reaching the next stage.
• The projected $200MM salary cap for 2020 will likely remain, but Mike Garafolo of NFL.com tweets the new CBA will begin to generate bigger cap spikes in 2021.
• Negotiations have created a gray area that could affect teams with multiple high-end free agents — like the Cowboys or Titans. A new CBA being agreed to by March 18 will prevent teams from using both their franchise and transition tags — which they are permitted to do in the final year of a CBA. But with the window for tags to be applied closing March 10, teams would seemingly have the opportunity to use both tags before a new CBA is agreed upon. However, Dan Graziano of ESPN.com reports (Twitter links) teams would be prevented from using both tags this year if a deal is agreed to by March 18. This would create a strange setup where teams retroactively lose the option to use both tags, but it sounds like certain players’ free agency statuses — like Amari Cooper and Derrick Henry — will hinge on a CBA being finalized by March 18.
• Training camps will include less hitting under the owners’ latest proposal. As part of the many concessions the owners are making in hopes of enticing the players to agree to 17 games, there will be a five-day period to start training camp where no contact is permitted, per Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (on Twitter). There will also be limitations on how much hitting teams can have on consecutive camp days, per Rapoport. The 2011 CBA ended two-a-day practices; this one will move the needle further in a safety-based direction.
• The latest proposal will push the players’ side of the revenue split from 47% to 48%, with the 48% share being the minimum for each year the 16-game format remains in place, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. Once the schedule moves to 17 games — at a point from 2021-23 — the players’ share spikes to 48.5%. This will mean roughly $5 billion more going to the workforce.

The regular season isn’t the only part of the schedule that could be expanded. In the latest collective bargaining agreement proposal, the league would see the postseason balloon to seven teams per conference with only the top seed receiving a first-round bye, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (on Twitter). The change would go into effect immediately, meaning that we’d see two extra playoff teams beginning in 2020.

Schefter adds that the current CBA proposal also includes an increase to 17 regular season games, which has been a long-debated topic between the two sides (and among pundits). Predictably, the preseason would be shortened to three games.

On Thursday, NFL owners and execs will huddle up in New York to consider terms requested by the players, as Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets. The NFLPA, meanwhile, will discuss things via conference call on Friday. Jason La Canfora tweets that a vote isn’t expected at the owners meeting, while Ralph Vacchiano of SNY notes that the decision could come down to the wire (which would be March 18th). At the very least, this is an indication that CBA talks are progressing and there’s reason to believe that the two sides will avoid a work stoppage with a new deal.

Still, many issues remain unresolved. At last check, the two sides were still haggling over the funding rule, which puts a player’s guaranteed money into escrow. Originally designed to protect players, its become an oft-cited reason for teams avoiding lots of guaranteed money in future seasons.

The players want the funding rule scrapped and NFL owners are aiming to keep it. A compromise could be on the horizon, however – the league has offered to give teams a $10MM credit against the requirement, Mike Florio of PFT hears. The $10MM amount isn’t much, but as Florio notes, it could be a workable solution if the league is willing to push that figure higher.

Further, La Canfora notes that the players would push for fewer training camp and regular season practices. If those conditions (along with a few others) are met, the NFLPA is confident that the players would approve the expanded playoff format.

The players may be willing to expand the regular season to 17 games, but they want to adjust the owners’ proposed window for activation, sources tell PFT’s Mike Florio. The NFL is seeking the option to implement the longer season sometime between 2021 and 2023. The players want to take 2021 off the table and push that off until 2022 or 2023.

This is, in part, due to logistical reasons. With many players contracted through 2021, and approximately 70 players under contract through 2023, those players would need to be given additional compensation on their existing deals in order to make something work. The later the start date, the easier it becomes to facilitate that.

Despite plenty of opposition to the longer season within the union, it seems as though the NFLPA is warming up to a compromise. And we’d speculate that the later start date would be more palatable to players for other reasons. For example, veterans who are in the final years of their career could be more open to the proposal if they are only facing one or two extended seasons.

We should know more about where the NFLPA stands after their meeting on Thursday, which could include a vote among union leadership. In exchange for the 17-game season, owners have reportedly some key concessions, including a revamp of the fifth-year option for first round picks, relaxed testing for marijuana, and a larger cut of league revenue.