New CBA Agreement!

[Goodell]

Thanks for the links above, and for adding any new ones as people find detailed salary cap management details under a new CBA.

I've added the first 2011 new rules polls based upon some of this to get the general idea if people tend to favor a strict cap and trying to build in some of these exemptions/provisions or prefer to a more all-encompassing cap figure for us that allowed teams to go up to a cap that was "essentially 126M" (or whatever it ended up being).

[Jared A]

"An originally proposed agreement included a new rookie compensation system, a salary cap of $142.4 million per club in 2011 and additional retirement benefits, according to the NFL."



Sounds like 142.4?

[Nathan S.]

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... greement/1

Free agency
•Players unrestricted after four accrued seasons.

Rookie contracts
•Drafted players get four-year deals (with club option for fifth year on first rounders), undrafted players get three-year deals.
•Each rookie class is allotted a maximum "total compensation" package.
•"Strong anti-holdout rules."
•Funds previously allotted to rookie pool reallocated to veterans and retirees.

Salary cap
•$120.4 million in 2011 and clubs must utilize 99% of space.

[Nathan S.]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nf ... story.html

The salary cap is to be set at $120.4 million per team for the upcoming season, not counting $22 million per club in player benefits. There is a salary cap exception by which a team may borrow up to $3 million in cap space from a future season to sign players this season. There are new payroll minimums requiring the teams to collectively spend 99 percent of the salary cap in cash over the next two seasons, and 95 percent in subsequent seasons.

The requirement for a player with an expired contract to be eligible for unrestricted free agency is restored to four seasons of NFL experience, down from the six seasons required last year in a season without a salary cap. Teams can continue to use franchise-player tags and transition-player designations to restrict some players’ free agent mobility. A new rookie pay system curbs the amount of guaranteed money in rookies’ contracts and stipulates contract lengths. Rookies selected in the NFL draft are to sign four-year contracts, with fifth-season options for first-round draft choices. Undrafted rookies are to sign three-year deals.

So looks like if we included the player benefits it could be around $144 but I think $120 is the real number.

[Jared A]

Yeah, I had just found that.


Were player benefits included in salaries before or not included?

[Nathan S.]

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/67907 ... ball-terms

There is John Clayton's article on the new CBA. This pretty much sums it up...

*Restricted FA is players with 3 years & Unrestricted is 4 years

*$120.375 Million Cap/$107.1 Million Minimum
-3 million exemption year one - 1.5 next three years

*Minimum salaries...
Rookies, for example, would go from $330,000 to $375,000 and so on..
$450,000 for second-year players
$525,000 for third-year players
$600,000 for fourth-year players
$685,000 for players with five-to-seven years of experience
$810,000 for players with eight-to-10 years of experience
$910,000 for players with more than 10 years of experience

*Franchise tags are the same

[Ulrich82]

These were mentioned above, but here are a few of the finer details not posted:

Profootball talk:
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... -nutshell/

ESPN's Clayton:
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/67907 ... ball-terms

Salary Cap exemption:
Clayton says: 3 million exemption this year for a single player. Next year, teams have three 1.5 million exemptions for three players.
PFT says: Teams can “borrow” $3 million against future salary caps to pay for veterans. They can also use another $3.5 million in what would otherwise be performance-based pay to use for veterans.

Rookie contracts:
Also, the new 5th year option on rookie contracts will be a good way for teams here to keep a player from hitting free agency. I know Cam Netwon's deal will include a 5th year option that would be equal to the average of the top 10 QB salaries. Not sure how this breaks down for other picks yet.

Salary Floor:
Clayton says: There is also a mandatory cash minimum payroll for each team at 89 percent of the cap, which translates into $107.1 million per team.

I understand the point of realism, but I am not sure if we really need to bother with a salary floor in this league. We aren't trying to save money to turn a profit here, so there is little reason not to use your cap space. We already have the minimum contract rule for undersized rosters so that people can't subvert the cap by carrying only 30 players. With no ability to resign your own players (how a lot of teams might deal with the salary floor), I don't see the point. I think having a minimum floor would just lead to teams signing a 1 year contract for large money late in the year to meet the goal.

Also, in a press conference, NFL lawyer Jeff Pash said the franchise tag salary now has a new formula to calculate it. Apparently, they are moving to the tag paying a certain percentage of the salary cap. I haven't seen full details yet. The transcript is here:
http://nfllabor.com/2011/07/21/nfl-meet ... #more-5646

Here is the text:
On franchise and transition tags:
Pash: There is not a change on that. There is a change to how the value is calculated, but the franchise tag and transition tags do remain in place.
More on franchise and transition tags:
Pash: There is no limitation on the use of it if that is your question. It is a different calculation of how the base works. It is calculated as a percentage of the salary cap.

[Ulrich82]

Also saw this:
PFT passes along a story from the Eagles website which says new CBA doesn't allow teams to use both franchise and transition tags.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... ition-tag/

Not sure if this really matters for us, but NFL Is limiting the total signing bonus each can team spend on undrafted FAs to $75k.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... -new-deal/

[Strategist]

Also saw this:
PFT passes along a story from the Eagles website which says new CBA doesn't allow teams to use both franchise and transition tags.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... ition-tag/

Not sure if this really matters for us, but NFL Is limiting the total signing bonus each can team spend on undrafted FAs to $75k.
http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... -new-deal/

It seems to be that that article is wrong. In the article posted before yours Pash (one of the NFL executives) stated there was no change in the number of franchise/transistion tags.

[Ben C.]

There is no change to the rule limiting teams to using one or the other of the tags. This is one of the few areas we have chosen to have a rule different from reality because it provides teams with another way to retain players. Since we can't sign contract extensions without players testing the market, it makes sense to allow the transition tag as the team can match the market price.