SB Nation Atlanta - NFL Owners Approve New Labor Deal In Atlanta Meetings; Players Yet To Vote

Atlanta Falcons Have Emerged As 'Winners' Of The NFL Lockout

2011-07-26T11:00:35Z

You could call the Falcons winners of the lockout (no, not in the Charlie Sheen sense of the word), though "survivors" is probably a more appropriate term. However, regardless of what you call it the Falcons front office has done a stand up job of guiding the team through a very uncertain time.

Under the new NFL salary cap, the Falcons will be a comfortable $13.9M under the cap, as opposed to teams like the Cowboys who are almost $19M over the mark. That leaves the Falcons with enough room to retain most of their roster, along with a few minor deals to bring in some complementary pieces the team will need.

You also have to consider that the trade for monster trade for Julio Jones was as timely as ever. While rookie contracts and guaranteed money were higher than ever last season, the new rookie wage scale will likely make Jones much more affordable under the new CBA.

However, the Falcons ability to organize effective team practices in the midst of the lockout was especially promising for 2011. Matt Ryan's ability to coordinate the workouts displayed some great leadership ability, and the Falcons probably had one of the best turnouts around the NFL for their player-led practices.

Many were also worried that the lockout would stunt the growth of rookies by keeping them away from meaningful practice time. Not so for Jones, who proved to be one of the regulars at the unofficial practices and has already built up a good relationship with his QB.

This lockout was a very trying time for owners, players, and fans alike. But seeing the Falcons running strong out of the gate almost makes up for it.

For more on the Falcons, check out The Falcoholic.

NFL Lockout Ending: Catch Up On 2011 Falcons Schedule, Free Agency Targets And More

2011-07-25T14:21:53Z

According to reports, the NFL lockout is winding down, and the world can't thank Atlanta enough. After former Falcons player Domonique Foxworth dropped a bomb on owners, negotiations began picking up right quick as the league realized it had nothing left with which to trump players. With just a few loose ends left to stitch, the parties headed to the Peach State, where the whole sad sideshow began to wind to a close.

So, now what?

First of all, head to SBNation.com's coverage of the lockout to catch up as details about the new collective bargaining agreement's free agency and rookie wage scale rules continue to make their way out.

Now, Atlanta Falcons fan, you're going to need to catch up on some team-specific things (head here if you're not quite brave enough to root for the Falcons):

Schedules: Here's a quick look at the team's preseason schedule against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens, Jacksonville Jaguars and Miami Dolphins, and here's the entire 2011 Falcons regular season schedule, from their opener against the Chicago Bears, through four prime time games and finishing with a pair of NFC South rivalry games against the New Orleans Saints and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Training camp: By all accounts, training camp will begin very soon. The Falcons could start on Thursday.

Free agents: Get ready for a quick and weird free agency period. The Falcons have players to sign (Trey Lewis has signed) and players to pursue. And don't forget about undrafted free agents.

How 2011 rookies fit into the upcoming roster: Here's our best guess at Atlanta's depth chart heading into next season -- we're assuming the team makes only one free agent splash, and that it will be a defensive end. The team will have a passel of rookies to sign in a hurry, including offseason centerpiece Julio Jones.

Much more to come as teams prepare for training camp.

Professional football!

Your Atlanta Falcons And The New CBA: It's All In The Details

2011-07-25T13:02:13Z

As I'm sure you all have been keeping yourselves up to date on the recent lockout happenings (if not, check out the lockout page at SBnation.com), then you all know it is very likely the player leaders will vote this Monday to recommend approving the current CBA proposal.

After that will be a jumbled, confusing process where players can essentially meet with their teams, start practicing, discuss contracts, and vote to recertify the NFLPA. However, excluding any lingering issues the NFLPA may wish to revise, the core details of the new CBA are now available, with more than a few interesting changes. The most important ones for the Falcons look to be the rookie wage scale and the new salary cap.

The rookie wage scale could not have been implemented at a better time for the Falcons. Julio Jones was likely on his way to a monster rookie contract, but with limits on how much he can earn the Falcons can now channel that money toward free agency. The "strong anti-holdout rules" are also a nice bonus for teams (though given that Julio has been practicing for free I'm not worried about him at all).

Under the system, all draft picks will sign four year deals, after which they will be unrestricted free agents. The only exceptions are first-round picks, whose contracts can be extended for a fifth year much like restricted free agents. That's great news for any team looking to hold on to their franchise players a little bit longer.

As many have already speculated, the salary cap for this year will be just a shade over $120M. However, for the next two years clubs will be required to spend 99% of the current salary cap. As it stands, the Falcons are about $13M under the cap right now. That should leave room for one big free agent splash and a couple of re-signings.

If needed this offseason, teams can also borrow $3M of their cap room from a future year for veteran re-signing purposes. However, should they still be pressed for cap space there remains the likelihood of the Falcons having to restructure the contracts of guys like Michael Jenkins and Jamaal Anderson, due to make $5M and $3.5M respectively, or possibly even cutting them altogether.

So, as it stands, the Falcons seem to be in pretty good financial shape moving forward. Of course, technically everything is still on the table until the players sign on the dotted line. Let's hope that's soon.

For more on the Falcons, check out The Falcoholic.

Of Course Drew Brees Gets To Signal The End Of The NFL Lockout

2011-07-25T01:17:12Z

Hating Drew Brees has never been easy. Even though he's the most important player on the world's most despicable enterprise, he's just so goshdamn admirable that it's hard to fault New Orleans Saints fans for calling him Breesus. So when the National Football Post's Brad Biggs reports that an email from Brees says the NFL lockout is all but officially over, well, it just means the Atlanta Falcons fan will have to try even harder to keep hating Brees.

NFL.com's Jason La Canfora has more details, including the Saints scheduling a team meeting on July 31 at 2 pm ET. According to the tentative schedule, the league will announce a deal Monday, then teams will have three days to re-sign their own free agents before free agency begins in full.

Typical Brees. Just when he starts to look like anything less than the best guy in the world, he goes and does a thing like this.

Falcons Players Not Thrilled With NFL Lockout Tactics, But Not Panicking

2011-07-22T18:10:14Z

Let's all take a minute, step back, and consider what was actually accomplished on Thursday. Roger Gooddell and DeMaurice Smith reportedly talked on the phone for about an hour, and then the owners voted to ratify a new CBA, pending NFLPA recertifaction and its mutual approval of the deal.

That last part is very important. By choosing to approve the CBA first on their own terms, the NFL basically put the player reps in an awkward position. If the players decline to approve the deal, then it's a PR nightmare for the NFLPA, and they are suddenly cast as "the bad guys." However, should they be pressured into accepting a deal and recertifying by Tuesday, the players may be signing a bad deal.

In a conversation with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Roddy White has offered a great breakdown of what's to come.

Smith and other player reps were naturally rubbed the wrong way. Whether this was caused by a failure to communicate or otherwise is still not certain. However, the owners very well could have changed a few details around at their meeting, and so the players certainly have every right to thoroughly examine these documents.

Ultimately, what it all boils down to is the media getting carried away with themselves and the owners trying to pressure the players into accepting a deal agreed to on the owners' terms.. Here's what some Falcons and ex-Falcons had to say on Twitter:

Roddy White (roddywhiteTV):
Ok, so we agreed to the big parts of the CBA still have some little things to iron out once we establish ourselves as a union again. So we are a couple days away and the owners have to relax with the deadline of tuesday we doing this on our time. It still court cases we got to get resolved and get through and all that stuff won't be done by Tuesday

Brent Grimes (BGrimes20):
I was getting a whole lot of premature "the lockout is over!!" tweets earlier... Everybody needs to pump their brakes & wait til it's official

Jay Feely (jayfeely):
A 10 yr agreement has implication on current players future players and past players. It is our duty to proceed with caution and logic

Eric Weems (ericweems):
They trying to game us no deal

Akeem Dent (Akeem_Dent51):
"@rcobb18This is a soap opera... #changingthechannel" Exactly lol

That's pretty much the entire range of emotion and response you're going to get. There are guys like Weems who were understandably put off by the power move the owners pulled. Guys like Roddy and Grimes point out that everyone got ahead of themselves. And then there's Dent, who like many is a little fed up with everything.

However, Feely probably made the best point in that this is a 10 year deal with zero opt outs. If and when the players agree, their livelihood depends on this deal for the next decade. In the world of business, you always have to look out for your own interests, and the players would be stupid not to.

For more on the lockout, check out SB Nation. For more on the Falcons, check out The Falcoholic.

NFL Owners' Deal Presents Timeline To Start 2011 Season, But Players Furious

2011-07-22T00:15:24Z

Thursday night, NFL owners voted to approve a deal that would end the ongoing lockout, if players agreed and reformed the NFLPA. The league presented a detailed timeline, including preseason, free agency and training camp dates, along with bullets on new collective bargaining agreement high points.

And it's all pretty much masterful marketing by the owners.

Here's labor leader DeMaurice Smith's letter to players:

All:

As you know the Owners have ratified their proposal to settle our differences. It is my understanding that they are forwarding it to us.

As you may have heard, they apparently approved a supplemental revenue sharing proposal. Obviously, we have not been a part of those discussions.

As you know from yesterday, issues that need to be collectively bargained remain open, other issues such as workers compensation, economic issues and end of deal terms remain unresolved.

There is no agreement between the NFL and the Players at this time. I look forward to our call tonight.

Players are now in the awkward position of either agreeing to a deal that doesn't work for them or coming out looking like the bad guys. Many are angry, including former Falcons player Domonique Foxworth, one of the most influential player leaders.

The lockout is technically halfway over, but be prepared for the second half to be as hard-fought as the first.

Visit SB Nation's NFL hub for more NFL lockout news. Join The Falcoholic for more on the Atlanta Falcons.

NFL Lockout Halfway Over After Owners Vote To Approve Labor Deal

2011-07-21T23:09:35Z

NFL owners in Atlanta have voted 31-0 to approve a deal that will end the lockout -- if players likewise agree to approve. The one abstaining vote? Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis. I don't know. Let him roam.

The players have a conference call at 8 pm ET. It will be up to players to decide whether to reform the NFLPA union and whether to accept the new collective bargaining agreement. The former will involve every player, while the latter will be up to each team's player rep -- the Falcons are represented by Tyson Clabo. Things could end later tonight, or it could drag on into the weekend.

A few unresolved issues remain, along with some lawyerly stuff. But this is very good news. Looks like a Chick-fil-A dinner was all this thing needed all along.

Visit SB Nation's NFL hub for more NFL lockout news. Join The Falcoholic for more on the Atlanta Falcons.

PHOTO: Limo Jam 2011

2011-07-21T20:27:58Z

Expensive Atlanta traffic! God help you if you accidentally stumble into Dan Snyder's vehicle. #everylawsuitatonce

Via Peter King, on the scene as limo drivers wait to whisk NFL owners away from Atlanta's airport Marriott: