Earlier this afternoon, MDS shared a report on progress being made as to the contentious issue of the rookie wage scale.
Albert Breer of NFL Network describes it as “major progress.” Breer also points out that there aren’t many other remaining issues.
Mike Freeman of CBS Sports writes that the owners made a significant concession on the rookie wage scale, something we’ve been saying for days that the owners should do, especially since the players’ proposal as of Monday already represented a win for the league.
Our guess is that the league assumed the players would go the rest of the way to the owners’ position on the rookie wage scale. When the players made it clear they wouldn’t, then the owners finally decided to compromise.
Regardless, Cam Newton won’t be smiling when he realizes how much less money he’ll make than last year’s No. 1 overall pick, Sam Bradford, who used his windfall to buy a ping-pong table.
In an on-air update moments ago on NFLN, Breer (sporting the Michael Scott in lieu of the Jim Halpert) tiptoed around saying that a deal is close. But Breer made it clear that, once the rookie wage scale is worked out, there’s not much else standing in the way of getting this thing done.
In fact, Breer reports that, if the rookie wage scale can be put to bed on Thursday, there’s a “50/50 chance” that the parties will be presenting a handshake deal to Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan on Tuesday.
And now stay tuned for the daily dose of cold water. Feel free to start a pool as to which player or reporter it will come from.
Today, I’ll go with Mort.