The current NFL CBA expires after the '20 season, but there is "optimism that a deal" on an extension "could be reached as early as this year," according to sources cited by John Clayton of the WASHINGTON POST. However, there is still a "long way to go before an agreement would be reached." There has "never been a labor agreement completed a year early in the NFL." But sources said that the relationship between the NFL and NFLPA has "improved over the past year." One reason is the "cash spending of NFL teams." In the '11 CBA, the two sides "agreed to a concept called the 'minimum spend' -- a requirement that each of the 32 NFL teams must pay in cash 89 percent of the salary cap over a four-year period." Every team "complied during the first four years of the minimum spend." The '18 season "marked the third year of the second round of the minimum spend, and the only four teams below" the 89% threshold -- the Cowboys, Texans, Colts and Bills -- are "expected to be active in signing players this offseason." With that much money being spent, the "feeling among some union leaders is that there is an incentive for players to make a deal rather than enter into an extended labor dispute" (WASHINGTON POST, 3/2).
