(although an NFL topic, I feel it will be a much better discussion here on themain board and its go wit effects the Bills and what they might be doing in advance to prepare for this inevitablity)
The 2010 uncapped season is right in front of us, and there is a strong possibility of a lockout in 2011.
Many fear an uncapped season will benefit wealthy teams, but there are a lot of new parameters that change for 2010's uncapped year.
You are no longer eligble for UFA unless you have 6 years in the league
Teams get to use 2 tags in 2010.
and if you are a playoff team that makes it to divisional games or later your FA market capabilities are limited
However the overall feelings are that a work stoppage in 2011 is unavoidable...
The uncapped year of 2010 has some good rules in that I feel even better balances the league, but the thought of a nasty work stoppage in 2011 sucks.
However given the present state of the NFL they are going to have to do more to keep costs in check or risk alienating fans who find their everyday expenses sucking them dry and having to sacrafice things like NFL to make end meet
The 2010 uncapped season is right in front of us, and there is a strong possibility of a lockout in 2011.
"I can't imagine we get a deal before there's a work stoppage at this point,'' one team's general manager told me. "The players are going to dig in, and that's where this thing is headed.''
You are no longer eligble for UFA unless you have 6 years in the league
For starters, once the salary cap disappears, players can't be free agents until they've completed six NFL seasons, rather than four. That means there will be fewer quality young players in the 2010 free-agent pool, and less talent for any spend-happy teams to accumulate.
In addition, teams in 2010 would own an extra transition tag, meaning a franchise could use both a franchise tag and a transition tag on two of its own free agents (or two transition tags) in the same season, as opposed to the one or another they get to designate now. Again, that stipulation should serve to limit the quality of the free agents who actually reach the open free agent market
And there's more. In the uncapped season of 2010, the league would have a rule called the top eight plan, in which the eight teams that reached the divisional round playoffs in 2009 would have their activity in free agency limited. The NFL's final four teams wouldn't be able to sign an unrestricted free agent until they had lost one of their own. The other four teams among the final eight to be eliminated in 2009 would have some salary restrictions on the free agents they signed, which would serve to keep them from being able to afford any elite free agents.
However the overall feelings are that a work stoppage in 2011 is unavoidable...
The uncapped year of 2010 has some good rules in that I feel even better balances the league, but the thought of a nasty work stoppage in 2011 sucks.
However given the present state of the NFL they are going to have to do more to keep costs in check or risk alienating fans who find their everyday expenses sucking them dry and having to sacrafice things like NFL to make end meet
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