Labour Negotiations

This is from a site in the States, Footballguys, they seem to think there is less than a 1% chance of the season being cancelled.
On a fantasy football note if you register with this site they rate your team and bench giving you weaknesses and strengths.

We fully expect a deal to get done and the NFL season to be played as usual. If we were to speculate, we think this thing shakes out along these lines:

A new labor deal gets done before the NFL draft on April 28th. Our reasoning here is that this starts getting a lot messier if the deal gets done after the NFL Draft. Typically free agents would be signed first and holes filled later through the draft. If this process is reversed it could lead to a tougher situation for teams as they are unsure what free agents they will be capable of signing. They also would not know what rookie salaries would be since that item is up for discussion now. The NFL also puts themselves on report should this not be settled before the Draft as the talking heads will discuss these negotiations at every turn on that day. And that's a distraction the NFL owners probably don't want to have.

Free agency opens up soon after the deal gets inked and a multitude of deals get done prior to the draft. This process likely won't be perfect (with a smaller timeframe), but we expect the biggest names will know what teams they are playing for.

An 18 game schedule will be adopted, but we believe the cut in date will be 2012. This will allow further studies on injuries to be gathered, as well as efficiently mapping out all the ramifications of such a change. Neither the fans nor the players really want these extra games, but it's been stated that these extra games would add $500M to NFL revenue. And for that reason alone this will definitely get done.

A lower rookie cap for the first 15-20 picks. The rest of the rookies are compensated about right. Both sides are approaching this differently, but they have general agreement that the top rookies can destroy a team when they bust. Both sides want less pay for unproven talent.

Better health coverage for the players. Both sides want this and it's a fairly easy gesture the owners can give here without breaking the bank. This is the kind of issue where I expect the mediator will be able to push this through easily once the money issues are solved.

Teams will get expanded rosters and probably more game day actives as well. This has been a long-time coming and it's an issue that both sides can likely come in agreement to.

The Salary cap stays in place. The players want the cap too as it guarantees a MINIMUM that a club must spend. When the cap went away (this season) so did the minimums. Both sides benefit from the cap and the league as a whole benefits with competitive balance.

Independent arbitration hearings for rulings on discipline that Goodell imposes. Currently, Goodell levies the fine and hears any appeal. This process is broke and the players should get their way here.

Some expense/revenue carve outs for the owners that won't be included in total revenue/costs. This is the big one, but the owners have legitimate expenses that likely should be above the line. These carve outs will need to be spelled out, but in the end the owners likely win this major battle line.

Here's to football happening in 2011 just like every other year