GREAT NEWS: CBA Extension Now Appears Likely

[Nick]

Breaking News: CBA Extension Looks Likely
By TFY Draft Preview
Date: Feb 25, 2006

Getting a Collective Bargaining Agreement extension before the deadline isn't as impossible as it sounded not long ago. In fact, word is that an extension could be announced in the very near future.

Atlanta Falcons GM Rich McKay, who co-chairs the Competition Committee and has long been a major player in league matters, talked to the media on Saturday about the possible extension to the Collective Bargaining Agreement that would greatly affect how cap money is spent.

McKay said that the teams remain hopeful that there will be an extension, despite Players Association head Gene Upshaw's recent comments that agents should negotiate as if there will be no extension. McKay also said that without a new deal, the March 3 free agency deadline will not be pushed back.

McKay said that it would be "extremely difficult" to operate without an extension.

Without a cap, McKay said that the "tricks of the trade" will all drop into this year's cap, affecting cap room. Contracts would only be able to be four years long and he thinks trades will be less likely because of accelerated bonuses. He also expects free agency would be slower.

But in late-breaking news on this matter, our Scout.com source at the NFL Combine reports that members of one NFL organization are telling their staff that there is a very strong chance that the CBA will be extended by the deadline. Significant recent progress has been made, according to our source.

In a somewhat related matter, an NFL source has told Scout.com that the 2006 salary cap will be announced on Monday and according to this source, will be $95 million. This is on the high end of what was expected - most estimates were anywhere from $92 to $95 million.

[RamsFan16]

Does that mean the Free Agency won't be pushed back?

[Nick]

Not necessarily. It might be pushed back just so clubs and agents have more time to prepare themselves under the new CBA. I doubt it means more than a week or so if it should be pushed back though.

[RamsFan16]

Ah I don't want it to be pushed back

[Goldenfleece]

Good news, but it would be a lot better if it was coming from Upshaw rather than McKay. It seems to me like the owners have been a lot more optimistic that a deal will get done on time than the players' association all along. The whole story has been so up and down for the last few weeks, I just hope this isn't the owners convincing themselves the players are bluffing. I mean on the surface you say we all know an extension is in everybody's interest, but if it were that simple it wouldn't still be deadlocked.