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The next decade of professional football could be radically influenced in the coming week if the new Collective Bargaining Agreement is agreed to. In addition to the ongoing CBA talks, the NFLPA is currently in the process of electing a new president. Whoever is voted into that role will have a large voice for the foreseeable future, but so will the new CBA if the proposed one (which was sent to player vote) ultimately passes.
On Saturday morning it was reported that there are some NFL owners that do not want to see the proposed CBA (the one that they sent to the players) pass into reality. That’s noteworthy.
Coming up on @SportsCenter shortly: A number of NFL owners are hoping the current CBA proposal doesn’t pass next week because they believe they can negotiate a better deal next year, potentially with a push for an 18-game season in the future, a league source told ESPN.
— Jeremy Fowler (@JFowlerESPN) March 7, 2020
The outcome of this vote will be significant for the Dallas Cowboys and their pending free agent decisions. If no new CBA is agreed to then the league will carry on through 2020 under the current CBA, this is the final season of it (which is why owners feel like they can get something done next year). That is potentially great news for Dallas.
The “Final League Year” of the current CBA allows all NFL teams to use both the franchise and transition tags in the offseason of 2020. This means that the Cowboys can apply tags to both Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper which would buy them serious time to negotiate long-term deals with those players and protect them from losing either Prescott or Cooper while the rest of free agency got going.
If a new CBA is agreed to then teams can only utilize one tag. In many ways, Cowboys fans should be rooting for no new CBA to be agreed to in the immediate future.
The deadline for teams to use franchise tags is March 12th. If Dallas has both in place on Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper and knows that they won’t be losing one then they could theoretically try to keep Byron Jones.
Anything is possible. For now we wait.