So you know those days throughout the year when it’s especially quiet on the NFL news front?Well, usually, it’s not because things have suddenly gotten a whole lot peaceful and easy in the league but because certain teams are in the middle of a standoff with key players who are holding out of training camps. I’m sure you know about the big stars like Jalen Ramsey, Melvin Gordon, Yannick Ngakoue, to name just a few.It can be confusing to those on the outside trying to figure out what’s going on when one of these holdouts drags on, so I thought I’d share a bit of what I know about NFL holdouts.
Let’s start with the basics. When an NFL player’s current contract is up, they’ll become either a free agent or a restricted free agent. A free agent is a player that a team doesn’t have a right to, but restricted Cheap Jerseys free shipping agents still have a few strings attached. If a team wants to keep their restricted free agent, they must offer them a certain amount of money when their contract ends. If the player doesn’t accept the offer, they can negotiate with other teams. If the restricted player strikes a deal with another team, the original team can try to match the offer, or they can get something called a “compensation pick” if the player ends up signing elsewhere.
The holdout occurs when the player and team can’t work out a agreement and the player opts not to report to training camp. Cheap Jerseys from china there, things can get rather contentious, especially if the two sides seem far apart in their expectations. Sometimes the player may even say they’re willing to sit out the season if no deal is made.Fans can get caught in the middle, too. On one hand, you can sympathize with the players who seem to be getting a raw deal because teams rarely have to offer their best contracts right away. On the other, you can understand the teams’ side of not wanting to break the bank too soon to set a bad precedent for future negotiations.
While it can be easy to focus on any of these holdouts as one isolated incident, it’s important to remember that there’s often a much bigger picture at play. The more we understand about the CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) between the players and the owners, the more we can view these negotiations within their proper context. Keep in mind, too, that each franchise has a salary cap that limits how much money they can spend on players, so they have to be careful when negotiating so that they don’t strand themselves down the line.
Now for the hard part: how do the holdouts get resolved? The truth is, it’s hard to say. Interview the player, the agent or the team and you’ll often get different stories. The general consensus, though, is that the team is usually willing to make some kind of compromise, and the player usually backs down after a few weeks or takes the team’s offer. This isn’t always the case, though. Some players, like Melvin Gordon with the Chargers and Yannick Ngakoue with the Jaguars, have held out for weeks and still show no signs of caving.
There are actually a few ways that these holdouts can be resolved that end up benefiting both parties too. One is that the team may be willing to extend the length of the player’s contract in exchange for a lower amount of money spread out over a longer period of time. They may also give the player incentives like roster bonuses for reaching certain goals in the season. There’s no one-size-fits-all fix, though, and every situation is handled differently.
At the end of the day, holdouts are a complicated subject even for the most savvy NFL fan – but with a better understanding of the CBA, salary cap, and how unrestricted players can be offered compensation if their team refuses to match outside offers, we can start to put these stories into context. Of course, it looks like this season is going to be full of unmissable holdouts – I guess it’s the price we pay for an exciting league.