The NFL and its player’s union, the NFLPA have been negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement for a while. While the deadline for the current CBA does not expire until after the 2020 season, and there’s still 18 months left before the threat of any games missed comes to fruition, the two sides have been working diligently to maintain labor peace. Earlier in the offseason, the league presented new CBA proposals to the union’s executive council.
The 11-member council rejected it, twice, by votes of 6-5 and 7-4. However, the player representatives from all 32 teams approved it prior to the scouting combine, by count of 17-14. Even though it’s supposed to take a greater majority, the NFLPA has passed the proposal on to the full body where only 50% approval is needed to ratify the deal. Now, the window opens on that vote. Players will have until just before midnight March 12 to cast their ballots.
Ballots will go out to players at 9 a.m. ET today to vote on ratification of the proposed CBA and voting will be open until 11:59 p.m. ET next Thursday, March 12, per source.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 5, 2020
If the date of March 12 seems familiar, it’s because that is the closing date for the current tag window, where teams are allowed to place either a franchise or transition tag on a pending free agent, restricting their possible movement.
Each year, teams are allowed to choose one of the exclusive franchise tag, non-exclusive franchise tag or transition tag to place on one player. Each has a different level of salary associated with it and a corresponding level of compensation should the tagged player sign an offer sheet with another franchise. The current CBA wrote in a clause that if the final year of the agreement was reached without an extension, 2020, than teams would be allowed to use both one of the franchise tags and the transition tag.
With 25 unrestricted free agents including three players at Money 5 positions who are set to be at the top of their markets, this would be a big boon for the Dallas Cowboys.
They have not worked out deals with any of QB Dak Prescott, WR Amari Cooper or CB Byron Jones as of yet. Having both tags would possibly allow the club to make different decisions on prioritization.
Teams have until July 15 to work out long-term deals with players they have tagged, or the player will be locked in for just the one-year.
Recently, the league has clarified their stance on what would happen if a new CBA was reached. With the tag window having opened on February 27, teams have been able to use both tags on players, though no organization has done so yet.
If a team were to use both, and then the CBA get ratified, they would be forced to rescind one of the two tags. That is still in effect.
No word yet on if the NFL and NFLPA will again push back the franchise/transition tag deadline, which also is March 12. But as we've said on @nflnetwork, the sides agree if a team uses both tags under Final League Year rules, and then the CBA is ratified, team must rescind one.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 5, 2020
The new proposal covers a lot, including expanded rosters raising the minimum salary for players, and giving them a slight increase in their share of shared revenue. Though titled “all revenue” it’s actually only around 90% of the money the league brings in which is then shared with the players. Players will get between 47% and 48.5% under the new proposal (distributed to each team evenly in what is known as the salary cap and salary floor).
The other key components are a future 17-game season, and an immediate increase of the playoff field from 12 to 14 teams, adding extra wild-card games for each conference.
The full 456-page CBA proposal can be read here.
It appears the league is not going to extend the tag window, which means that clubs will likely proceed with plans to only have one tag at their disposal, as it’s widely expected the players will ratify the deal. 60% of the players in the league are minimum salary guys, so the league wisely gave them an immediate raise of around $100,000 a year. With the roster expansion, it also means around 60-100 more players will have full-pay jobs. Higher paid players aren’t getting a bigger share of the pie, so many will be against the deal, but again, only 50% of the players need to approve.
For Dallas this means they have a firmer picture of what they need to do. The club has already resigned itself to letting Jones test the CB market, but they desperately want to keep Prescott and Cooper.
They seem comfortable with using the tag to buy more time, months for negotiations or a year of service for either, but will need to agree with one of them on a long-term deal in order to keep both.
Each player has maintained their interest in continuing to play for the Cowboys and each side continues to negotiate with the front office. The almost assured loss of one of the two tag options is a help for the player’s negotiation stance.
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