YES - New CBA Agreement Close
 

http://browns.scout.com/a.z?s=149&p=2&c=502826

An NFL source has told Scout.com that the 2006 salary cap will be announced on Monday, February 27. 2006's cap, 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.

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 Player’s 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, Seahawks.NET has been informed by our Scout.com source at the Combine 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.

Thanks for the information.

a new cba is a done deal.

That made my night great news if true.

Good news and new headaches as major players will seek to get the lions share of that...but great news anyways.

It will be interesting to see if more teams copy the Patriots by using the extra money to fill out the lower 2/3's of their roster or go for the ticket sellers. Every team that mismanages their cap is a team scratched off the list of haves...

I predict the Patriots will manage this extra money in the future better than everyone in the AFC except for Saban...it's gonna be fun to watch.

As a side note...Mangini's $25 million headache is still there...;)

Pro Football Talk is saying basically the same thing :

"CBA "IS GONNA GET DONE"

A league source tells us that an extension to the Collective Bargaining Agreement "is gonna get done" in the near future, and that the start of free agency will be delayed by "a week or so" so that this year's class of free agents will hit the market under the terms of the new labor deal.

As it currently stands, free agency is set to begin on Friday, March 3. Because 2006 is the last capped year under the existing CBA, various provisions of the contract between the NFL and the player's union would make it much harder for teams to navigate the salary cap in signing new players.

There has been plenty of gloom-and-doom rhetoric of late from NFL executive director Gene Upshaw regarding the status of the talks, even though we've continued to hear that progress was being made. An industry source (who apparently was right on the money) told us on Friday that, in his opinion, Upshaw and Commissioner Paul Tagliabue have been working together to put pressure on the owners to resolve their differences regarding the proposed expansion of local revenues that are not currently shared.

The NFLPA has insisted on the inclusion of such monies in the funding of the league-wide salary cap. But if the local revenues aren't shared, the salary cap for the low-earning teams would be artificially inflated by the local income of the big-money teams.

Though no specifics as to the terms of the coming CBA and possibly expanded revenue sharing are available, it's looking stronger than ever than something will happen soon."

Wow! Great news. Betcha 2:1 that Kraft got his exemption, at least partially, (and that part will be where the money is) because he completely self funded his stadium.

Whew. The NFL will not completely suck in the future, assuming they finish this up. An uncapped year would have been disasterous.

thanks for the good info !

lets hope this all comes true