Naptown's Finest » CBA

Manning and Other Players Now Hold Keys to NFL Season

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 01:14:04 +0000

The NFL franchises voted 31-0 to ratify a proposed new collective bargaining agreement tonight, with the Raiders being the lone holdout. The fate of the agreement now lies with the players, who may still vote tonight, but who also appear to still be in haggling mode. While we wait, we can consider the points that the owners approved. In particular, the new deal would:

Last through the 2020 season
Take effect next Wednesday
Give players 48 percent of revenue
Establish a salary cap of $120 million and a floor of $106.8 million
Grant unrestricted free agency to players after four years in the league
Establish four-year rookie contracts
Lower and cap rookie spending
Reduce the length and severity of training camps
Reduce the number of OTAs from 14 to 9

In addition, the players would need to re-certify their union in order for the new CBA to take effect. Also, commissioner Roger Goodell announced that the upcoming Hall of Fame game has been cancelled.

Significantly for the Colts, the new agreement does not include a concession to the players that would prevent a team from using the franchise tag on a player more than once. For us, that means Peyton Manning won’t be a free agent when/if the CBA comes into play. While that removes some of Manning’s leverage, it also sets him up for a bigger cap number than he’d probably have with a long-term contract in play.

Stay tuned!

Vinatieri, must keep for Colts in 2011

micflo — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 13:32:53 +0000

Peyton Manning was the most important player the Colts had to be keep this offseason, but when it comes to the other free agents there is none more important than kicker Adam Vinatieri. During his time as an Indianapolis Colt he has contributed quite a bit especially in the Colts Super Bowl run where he made a single game record five field goals…twice.

This past season Vinatieri only missed two field goals but was spotless in his other attempts; he even made the go ahead field goal in the Wild Card Playoff game just before the Jets won the game with one of their own. So there are definitely no signs of him slowing down just yet, plus there aren’t a whole lot of options out there at the kicker position and why burn a draft pick on a unproven rookie kicker?

Of course there are some factors that will go into whether he will be kept around, one of them being the terms of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement and how much room the Colts will have left over after Manning gets his new record breaking contract. If Vinatieri does stay in Indy he will have perfect weather conditions for eight games out of the season, it would be surprising to see him in another jersey next season but crazier things have happened. Vinatieri spent most of his career in New England where he won three Super Bowls, before he went to Indianapolis and won one in his first year.

Colts to Wait to Offer Peyton Manning His New Contract

Josh Dhani — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 19:50:23 +0000

Although he hasn't got his contract yet, we all know Peyton Manning will become the highest-paid player in the league history soon

Jim Irsay will have to wait until after this season until his star franchise quarterback Peyton Manning will get his new deal, according to the Associated Press. The Indianapolis Colts’ quarterback looks to become the highest-paid player in NFL history.

Irsay said he was set to give Manning his contract during the team’s bye week, but Manning and his agent insisted that they will have the deal done after the season. Nice sign of unselfishness, don’t you think?

“Any negotiation is a two-way street and we were ready to roll and we had a proposal, but they wanted to wait,” Irsay said. “That’s OK because every player is different. We had a bye week, and we thought we could have gotten [negotiations] rolling.”

Manning’s deal will expire after this season. Irsay hopes that Manning is a Colt for the rest of his career.

Manning will make his 199th career start tonight against the Houston Texans, hoping to get revenge on them at home after an embarrassing lost at Houston, led by Arian Foster. Whoever wins this game takes control of the AFC South division.

Manning is the only four-time MVP in the league. The Colts look to franchise-tag Manning if necessary. But it might not happen, since Manning will get his maxed-out contract.

“He is going to be the highest-paid player in the league,” Irsay said Monday. “Look, we love him, and we’d like to see his career end here.”

The Colts look to sign much higher than New England Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady’s recent contract, which was a four-year $48.5 million contract extension.

Manning will get his contract, but the question of what time?

“During the season, Peyton wants his only focus to be on preparing for football games,” agent Tom Condon told The Associated Press.

The only thing that could mess up the contract is the CBA. A new collective bargaining agreement stands in the way. But Condon doens’t see anything slowing down the contract.

“It’s probably not any more or any less difficult because of that,” Condon said.