How the new CBA proposal effects Falcons, rest of NFL
Details of the latest CBA proposal were reported on Wednesday afternoon by ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Among the new deal’s details is the playoff system is expanding from six teams per conference to seven. Only the top seed will receive a postseason bye in the Wild Card round, as opposed to the former top two seeds in each conference, and the preseason will be cut to three games. Players on teams with postseason byes will receive pay on the bye weeks, contrary to how the current CBA has been set up.
The deal is expected to be finalized within the next week or so, according to Schefter’s report. An agreement to the reported details have an effect on every team in the league but particularly to league bubble teams like the Falcons of 2018 and 2019.
One less week of preseason to discover diamonds in the rough
August has been the annual month of complaining for the majority of football fans and stars for quite some time due to the length of the preseason. Each and every season, blood-thirsty fans who haven’t watched the NFL live in over eight months lick their chops and wait in front of the gates in their favorite team’s throwback jerseys for the doors of stadiums to open once again. In half-empty stadiums, the die-hard faithful scream at the top of their lungs for the opening kickoff before screaming some more watching their favorite stars trot on the field and play for a couple of series. After those often uneventful six minutes of gameplay are up, the stars are out of their pads and the bloodthirsty football fan begins to grow impatient.
The fan ultimately returns at least one more time in the preseason to go through the same stage of disappointment before complaining about preseason football.
To hundreds of professional athletes across the country, however, the final weeks of the preseason are their last guaranteed chances to leave a lasting impression on potential future employers. For the underdog stories who have dedicated their entire 20-something years on earth to this game and are one big play in those meaningless preseason minutes away from making their dreams a reality. Multiple standout athletes slip through the cracks, especially in a populated sport like football. Without the preseason, Atlanta may have never seen the Ring of Honor career that undrafted free agent Jessie Tuggle had, or current undrafted standouts like Justin Tucker, Taysom Hill and Kenny Moore II.
Hundreds of livelihoods are on the line in the final weeks of the preseason and those days can change the course of NFL history in a select few cases. Insert Jeff Saturday and Kurt Warner.
Increased opportunity for the Falcons to return to the playoffs
Although both teams in 2019 who would’ve made the playoffs under the proposed changes, the Pittsburgh Steelers and L.A. Rams, finished with at least .500 records, the Falcons were right there in the hunt with a 7-9 record. Extending the season by a week, which is expected to be effective 2021, and expanding the playoffs increases the chances of parity occurring around the league. With more unpredictably comes the greater chance of mediocre teams sneaking into the playoffs. Only two teams have qualified for the postseason with sub-.500, the 7-9 2010 Seattle Seahawks, remembered for Marshawn Lynch’s run and upset victory over the defending-champion New Orleans Saints, and the 7-8-1 2014 Carolina Panthers, the team before the 2015 bunch that dabbed its way to the Super Bowl.
Typically there are not seven good teams in one conference, so the door is now ajar for a late season surge similar to the what the Falcons did in 2019 being rewarded with an opportunity at the grand prize.
The new proposed set of rules can cause so much parity in the NFL that mediocre teams should be ecstatic to make an unexpected-stumbling run through the playoffs.
