With the NFLPA voting on a new CBA having closed at 11:59 p.m. Saturday, NFL teams will finally have an idea sometime Sunday morning of what rules with which they will be working in the new league year.
The next question: When will that new league year begin?
Currently, that is slated to happen at 4 p.m. Wednesday. But there seems to be a growing feeling the NFL will delay the start of the new league year in response to growing concerns about COVID-19 across the country. According to the New Orleans Times-Picayune, the Saints' Sean Payton, who like Mike Tomlin is a head coach serving on the NFL's Competition Committee, believes the league will push back the start of the new league year to a later date once it knows how the players have voted on the new CBA.
"Most immediately, the start of our league year, which is due to be this Wednesday, free agency begins, that's gonna be, I think, pushed back," Payton told Amie Just Saturday.
That falls in line with what Mark Maske of the Washington Post surmised Saturday, as well. Maske wrote that, once the owners know how the players have voted, they will move forward to assess whether or not they want to have the new league year -- and the free agency that comes with it -- to start.
One thing that will not be changed is the deadline for teams to use the franchise or transition tags. That will remain 11:59 a.m. Monday.
But the legal tampering period set to begin at noon Monday would be pushed back if the NFL does decide to shift the start of the new league year.
The NFL already has canceled its annual spring meeting, which had been set to begin next weekend in West Palm Beach, Fla., and on Saturday shut down all in-person visits, both on campus and at team facilities, at this time for teams and potential draft picks.
The NFLPA has been voting on the new CBA for the past two weeks. Results have been tabulated by an independent auditor. The auditor will inform the NFLPA of the results sometime Sunday morning.
