In this week’s episode of Handle Your Business, I dive headlong into the NFL owners’ proposal for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement to the NFL Players Association. I take a look at the main points of the offer via the NFLPA’s fact sheet that was disseminated this week.
We also take a look at the plans of Detroit Lions cornerback Darius Slay based on Tony Pauline’s reporting in his mailbag. Also, based on Pauline’s reporting, I discuss the possible return of Trent Williams to the Washington Redskins and what is says about Ron Rivera. The Redskins also made another significant cap-saving cut this week. Plus, in a continuing theme of the early offseason, another kicker received a contract extension, find out who. And lastly, the window for applying franchise tags to players changed. Does that signal anything about the possible resolution of the CBA this week?
The owners proposed CBA will see significant changes to the NFL. Two of the biggest headline-grabbing issues are the expansion of the regular season to 17 games and the addition of two playoff teams.
Pauline reported that the NFL is considering having teams alternate between 9 home games and eight home games per season. On a previous show, I broke down how a 17th game could work with all neutral sites. In a prior iteration of this podcast, I looked at why expanding the playoffs was a bad idea.
I then take a look at the financial considerations of the new CBA if approved. There’s a significant increase in salary headed to the player, but will it be enough of a carrot to overcome the reported opposition to the expansion of the regular season. And are the players getting that much more as a percentage compared to what they get now? I also look at which players on the salary scale might benefit the most and how that could cause division within the union.