With NFL Free Agency still scheduled to begin in one day (for now), the league finally has certainty over its future as the NFL players ratified a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that will keep labor peace for the next 10 years.
In a tight vote—1,019 voted yes and 959 voted no—the new deal was just barely approved as only 51.5 percent of players who voted were in favor of adopting this new CBA.
Now that we know there will be football played, there’s a need to look at what changes will come to the game in the new deal.
First, there will be two big ones that go into effect immediately.
Teams will no longer be able to use both of the franchise tag and transition tag in the same offseason. For instance, the Dallas Cowboys can no longer place tags on both Dak Prescott or Amari Cooper.
Also, the playoffs will be expanded to add two additional teams (one from both conference) and only the number one seeds will receive a bye. Had the rule been in place last season, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Los Angeles Rams would’ve made it into the postseason.
By 2021, the NFL will transition to a 17-game regular season with teams playing just three preseason games as a trade off.
Off the field, the CBA now provides a bump in the percentage of league revenue from 47 percent to 48 percent—and it could potentially grow larger as the league negotiates a new television deal in the coming years.
On the whole, this new agreement is most beneficial to the majority of the league. 60 percent of players in the NFL fall under the category of “lower-earning” and in this deal, minimum salaries are getting a 20 percent increase. By 2030, the minimum salary for players with less than one year experience will have risen from $510,000 to $1,065,000.
Also, game-day rosters will increase from 46 players to 48. By 2021, teams will be able to keep 14 players on their practice squad.
Another big takeaway from the deal is that the NFL will no longer be suspending players who test positive for marijuana use. Instead, any player who tests positive will have medical professionals review their results and offer any clinical care or treatment that they deem may be necessary for the player.
These are all just the tip of the iceberg in the new CBA and the new deal is going to bring a lot of changes to the NFL and relatively soon.
