Now that NFL Lockout is over, what happens next?

By Ray Bennett
Monday July 25, 2011

When NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA Executive DeMaurice Smith took the podium outside of NFLPA headquarters in Washington D.C., both men were smiling at the fact that both sides finally reached a labor agreement that took them over 4 months to complete. The look of happiness and relief was echoed by select player representatives that attended the meeting.

The Collective Bargaining Agreement, first approved by NFL owners last Thursday, solved the core issues that were brought up when discussions began after last season ended. The rookie wage scale, that assures that drafted and undrafted players have to earn the money that veteran players make, a fair 52-48 revenue split in favor of the owners, added retirement benefits and leaving the current 16-game regular season untouched were far from easily solved.

After the finishing touches were ironed out, players, owners and fans of the NFL will not have to worry about labor issues for another decade.

Now that the labor agreement is in place, along with the fact that the preseason begins in just a few weeks, the league has to make up for over four months of lost time. The lockout has forced league general managers to wait to negotiate and sign with free agents, rookies and current players that they want to keep around.

The guidelines that the league handed out after the CBA was agreed upon for off-season transactions will make the next couple weeks for front office members and players the most quick, torrid and raggid time that the NFL has ever seen.

On Tuesday, a day after the league allowed teams a look into a huge free agency pool, that includes players like former Raiders CB Nnamdi Asomugha and Seahawks QB Matt Hasselbeck, and an extension of team rosters to 90 men, teams can begin discussions with unrestricted free agents, however, they cannot sign them until Friday. Teams can also begin trading players, like disgruntled Eagles backup QB Kevin Kolb, and sign drafted and undrafted rookies, along with players team's would want to keep. On Thursday, teams can free up salary cap space by releasing players that are owed large sums of money that drain a team's payroll.

If the movement of players wasn't enough to get teams discombobulated, current contracted players can enter team facilities and report to camp on Wednesday. The pattern of teams entering training camp will be based on how long until a team's first preseason game. 10 teams on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday will enter training camp 15 days before their first preseason game. The New York Jets and Houston Texans will be the final two teams to start camp on Sunday.

Even though the league and players union have agreed to a new CBA, the NFLPA has until August 4th to recertify as a union. This means that all players must write in and send their union card to union head Smith in order to finish the CBA process. Once everything is settled by the first preseason games on August 11th, the league can return to normal business.

The quick pace and the eventual stress that is involved in squeezing over four months of off-season activity in less than two weeks will indeed be frantic for every member of every rank in the NFL. Although all the movement may seem exciting for fans, every move that is made until August 11th will have a major domino effect on every team and every free agent. For example, if Asomugha signs a huge deal worth over $60-$70 million, it will dictate how much money Antonio Cromartie and Jonathan Joesph will make. Every free agent player will be affected by who signs with what team for how much money they are given.

The next two weeks in the NFL will be the most craziest time the league will ever see in it's 80+ year history. Brace yourself for a lot of player movement in only a few days time.