Daily Archives: July 11, 2011

Many reporters who have been covering the NFL lockout have marked July 15th as the believed internal deadline for a deal to be reached and the full pre-season saved. With the 15th only four days away, many people feel that a deal will not be done by then, leading to pessimistic feeling among fans that a deal would be done.

But if ESPN’s most recent report is true, then the owners and players may have more time then we think to get a deal done. ESPN’s Adam Schefter and Chris Mortensen are now reporting that the two sides have a self imposed deadline of July 21st to get a deal done. The 21st is also the day of a planned meeting among league officials in Atlanta.

According to Schefter and Mortensen, if a deal was able to be reached by the 21st, the full preseason schedule would be left intact- except for possibly the Hall of Fame Game on August 7th. The report also states that an owner they spoke to said their is “no reason to believe it won’t get done.”

Schefter and Mortensen state that while a deal should be done by then, there is a growing sentiment amongst the players that they have done all the compromising they can, and are looking for the owners to do the same to finish the deal. Once again, the rookie wage scale seems to be one of the final sticking points in getting a deal done.

An interesting part of the report is a proposed “post-lockout” schedule. Here is what a timeline for signing free-agents post lockout would look like, according to ESPN:

July 21- Educate the clubs on the new league rules and allow voluntary training for teams and agents.

July 25- Sign undrafted rookies, as well as give free agents a chance to re-sign with their team.

July 28- League year starts and free agency begins.

August 2- Rosters must be set at 90 players.

August 3- Deadline for restricted free agents to sign offer sheet

August 7- a four-day match period for teams to match restricted free-agent offer sheets.

August 12- Deadline for rookies to sign contracts (not agreed upon)

August 16- Signing period for restricted free agents end, as does the signing period for franchise and transition tenders

August 29- Deadline for players to report to earn credit for an accrued season toward free agency.

One interesting note from this potential schedule is that in in theory, players could still be waiting to see if a team is going to match a contract while participating in training camp. Of course, the likely hood of players coming to training camp without a deal in place are slim to none- which could lead to a lot of holdouts this year.

Will Schefter and Mortensen be the ones to first report the correct ending to the NFL lockout? Time will tell, but as the details continue to come together, it appears more and more like no games will be missed- regular or pre-season.

As the owners and players walked into a Manhattan building last Thursday, ready to kick off two days of negotiations, the mood was optimistic and positive.

But after a deal was once again unable to be reached, the feeling around the league is that the August 7th pre-season Hall of Fame Game is now in serious jeopardy.

Danny Watkins financial future is up in the air this week in negotiations

With hopes of saving the pre-season in full, the two sides will once again kick off another week of negotiations today. Just like last week, the talks will begin with only the lawyers from each side meeting face to face, with the big names expected to come in later on.

While most of the talk surrounding the labor negotiations has focused on the overall spilt of revenue, Albert Breer of NFL Network says that the issue of rookie wage scales was actually the reason behind the stalemate on Friday. According to Breer, the NFL owners and players both agree the system needs to be fixed, but how they want it fixed (naturally) is where the disagreement falls.

The NFL wants to see a dramatic decrease in the overall value of the contract. The two sides reportedly agree on how deals can be structured for players selected in rounds 2-7 (surprisingly, the contract value of Mr. Irrelevant is not holding up the deal.) It is the contracts of the players in the first round, specifically in the top 8, that is causing a hold up in the negotiations according to Breer.

Breer uses former number one pick Sam Bradford as an example. When Bradford was selected first overall by the St Louis Rams, he received a 6 year deal with over 50 million in guarantees. Under the new system, the total value of his contract would fall around 34 million for 5 years.

The NFLPA disagreement with this system does not fall under the monetary value of the contract, but the length. If rookies coming in are going to be paid less, then the union wants to see them hit free agency quicker, so they can profit from a new deal. It appears as if the players want deals to max out at 4 years if the incoming rookies are going to take such pay cuts. The league would prefer to see deals be allowed up to 5 years. The players have a deal on the table that would allow a 5th year to happen, but with a significant pay increase. Breer also reports, along with Sports Illustrated’s Peter King, that the issue among the players is more about what the compensation for the fifth year would be, not about adding it on.

One interesting note is a clause that the two sides reportedly agree on, which would prevent rookies from renegotiating their contracts in the first 3 years of the deal. This could effect the Eagles and Joe Banner, as the love to wrap up their talented players early on at a bargain price.

While it is good to see the union fighting for it’s incoming workers, its not hard to imagine some current NFL players having a problem with this. Perhaps more then any other sport, each pay check cashed by the players in the NFL should be cherished. The majority of players in the NFL only get big money for a few years. I know current players will not be happy with missing game checks over a disagreement about incoming rookies salaries.

It’s unlikely that the rookie contract details will hold up the negotiations much longer, given that they are only one year apart, but as a reported self-imposed deadline of July 15th amongst the two sides grows closer and closer, each minute grows in importance. The sooner they can get past this issue, they can move to another- making a deal even closer.

Other then the rookie deals, the two sides (reportedly) have yet to come together on a deal for how the overall revenue would be spilt, so their is still a lot of work to be done.

But as both sides are reminded of daily: time is ticking away.