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By Michael Gehlken
7:34 PM on Mar 15, 2020 — Updated at 7:49 PM on Mar 15, 2020
For months, a quirk to the NFL’s expiring 2011 collective bargaining agreement complicated the Cowboys’ effort to negotiate player contracts, such as potential extensions for quarterback Dak Prescott and wide receiver Amari Cooper, without uprooting their salary cap.
The team bus was sitting at a light.
It finally just turned green.
Voting on a new CBA concluded late Saturday evening, and on Sunday morning, the results were announced. Players ratified a CBA proposal that includes such changes as an expanded regular season, wider playoff field and an increased player share of overall revenue. For the Cowboys, the labor agreement removes a couple of hurdles from their path.
While the franchise would’ve gained and welcomed the ability to place tags on both Prescott and Cooper had players voted against the deal, negotiating large contracts in the final season of a CBA would have presented serious challenges.
Certain rules are enacted once the NFL begins operating in a CBA’s final season. The most relevant provision for the Cowboys, one they discussed internally and identified as an impediment to reaching an extension with Prescott, was the 30% Rule. It restricts the scale to which a contract’s value can increase each year beyond the life of the current labor agreement.
For example, last year, defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence signed a five-year, $105 million contract extension with a $25 million signing bonus. The deal’s structure would have looked very different if the 2019 contract had been done during a 2020 league year in which players hadn’t just ratified a new CBA and effectively averted the final season of the 2011 labor agreement.
In 2019, Lawrence earned a $1.5 million salary with a $4.6 million roster bonus. Had the 30% Rule applied, Lawrence’s contractual earnings for 2020 could not exceed an increase greater than 30% of his $6.1 million from 2019. That increment would then continue over his contract’s remainder. So, Lawrence could earn up to $7.93 million in 2020, $9.76 million in 2021, $11.59 million in 2022 and $13.42 in 2023.
The contract’s worth would have fallen well short of $105 million.
A theoretical work-around would be to simply increase Lawrence’s $25 million signing bonus. But the “Deion Rule” prohibits that.
Inspired by the 1995 contract to which the Cowboys signed cornerback Deion Sanders, this rule dissuades teams from signing players to contracts under which the prorated portion of the signing bonus is disproportionately higher than the nonsigning bonus amounts early in the deal. Between the 30% Rule and Deion Rule, it simply wouldn’t have been possible for the Cowboys to do Lawrence’s deal in as cap-friendly of a manner if 2019 had been the final season of the league’s CBA.
That contract’s average value per year was $21 million.
Now, imagine the difficulty for a Prescott contract approaching around $35 million in annual value.
NFL agent David Canter, who represents Lawrence and negotiated his extension, characterized the significance of teams and players avoiding the 30% Rule and Deion Rule as “ginormous.”
“The Deion Sanders rule and the 30% Rule are just mechanisms that hurt players even more,” Canter said in a Sunday phone interview. “It’s absolutely massive to avoid the uncapped year rules. They’re antiquated, horrible mechanisms that really destroy players’ values and the ability to get long-term deals that create financial security for a class of players that have worked three, four or five years to get there.”
The Cowboys can negotiate with Prescott and Cooper on Monday without worry of either rule.
Prescott is expected to receive the exclusive franchise tag Monday if no long-term deal is reached before 11 a.m. Teams can begin negotiating with other clubs’ unrestricted free agents at 11 a.m. Cooper would be allowed to test the market if he and Dallas fail to reach an agreement by then. Or, if the Cowboys can extend Prescott, they can place a franchise or transition tag on Cooper.
On Sunday, Dallas received a green light to broker long-term deals with some of its 25 impending unrestricted free agents.
It must act quickly now. Those players’ contracts are due to expire at 3 p.m. Wednesday.
7:34 PM on Mar 15, 2020 — Updated at 7:49 PM on Mar 15, 2020
For months, a quirk to the NFL’s expiring 2011 collective bargaining agreement complicated the Cowboys’ effort to negotiate player contracts, such as potential extensions for quarterback Dak Prescott and wide receiver Amari Cooper, without uprooting their salary cap.
The team bus was sitting at a light.
It finally just turned green.
Voting on a new CBA concluded late Saturday evening, and on Sunday morning, the results were announced. Players ratified a CBA proposal that includes such changes as an expanded regular season, wider playoff field and an increased player share of overall revenue. For the Cowboys, the labor agreement removes a couple of hurdles from their path.
While the franchise would’ve gained and welcomed the ability to place tags on both Prescott and Cooper had players voted against the deal, negotiating large contracts in the final season of a CBA would have presented serious challenges.
Certain rules are enacted once the NFL begins operating in a CBA’s final season. The most relevant provision for the Cowboys, one they discussed internally and identified as an impediment to reaching an extension with Prescott, was the 30% Rule. It restricts the scale to which a contract’s value can increase each year beyond the life of the current labor agreement.
For example, last year, defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence signed a five-year, $105 million contract extension with a $25 million signing bonus. The deal’s structure would have looked very different if the 2019 contract had been done during a 2020 league year in which players hadn’t just ratified a new CBA and effectively averted the final season of the 2011 labor agreement.
In 2019, Lawrence earned a $1.5 million salary with a $4.6 million roster bonus. Had the 30% Rule applied, Lawrence’s contractual earnings for 2020 could not exceed an increase greater than 30% of his $6.1 million from 2019. That increment would then continue over his contract’s remainder. So, Lawrence could earn up to $7.93 million in 2020, $9.76 million in 2021, $11.59 million in 2022 and $13.42 in 2023.
The contract’s worth would have fallen well short of $105 million.
A theoretical work-around would be to simply increase Lawrence’s $25 million signing bonus. But the “Deion Rule” prohibits that.
Inspired by the 1995 contract to which the Cowboys signed cornerback Deion Sanders, this rule dissuades teams from signing players to contracts under which the prorated portion of the signing bonus is disproportionately higher than the nonsigning bonus amounts early in the deal. Between the 30% Rule and Deion Rule, it simply wouldn’t have been possible for the Cowboys to do Lawrence’s deal in as cap-friendly of a manner if 2019 had been the final season of the league’s CBA.
That contract’s average value per year was $21 million.
Now, imagine the difficulty for a Prescott contract approaching around $35 million in annual value.
NFL agent David Canter, who represents Lawrence and negotiated his extension, characterized the significance of teams and players avoiding the 30% Rule and Deion Rule as “ginormous.”
“The Deion Sanders rule and the 30% Rule are just mechanisms that hurt players even more,” Canter said in a Sunday phone interview. “It’s absolutely massive to avoid the uncapped year rules. They’re antiquated, horrible mechanisms that really destroy players’ values and the ability to get long-term deals that create financial security for a class of players that have worked three, four or five years to get there.”
The Cowboys can negotiate with Prescott and Cooper on Monday without worry of either rule.
Prescott is expected to receive the exclusive franchise tag Monday if no long-term deal is reached before 11 a.m. Teams can begin negotiating with other clubs’ unrestricted free agents at 11 a.m. Cooper would be allowed to test the market if he and Dallas fail to reach an agreement by then. Or, if the Cowboys can extend Prescott, they can place a franchise or transition tag on Cooper.
On Sunday, Dallas received a green light to broker long-term deals with some of its 25 impending unrestricted free agents.
It must act quickly now. Those players’ contracts are due to expire at 3 p.m. Wednesday.
