If the NFL Players Association re-certifies and ratifies the owners’ proposal, the 10-year collective bargaining agreement will have a major impact on the future of the Falcons.
Team president Rich McKay, in an exclusive interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, discussed how the new deal could continue to send the once-struggling franchise’s fortunes skyward.
Over the past three seasons the Falcons have been to the playoffs twice and are the defending NFC South champions. Before getting upset by the Green Bay Packers in the playoffs, the Falcons were the No. 1 seed in the NFC and considered favorites to reach their second Super Bowl.
On the field, the Falcons are enjoying unprecedented success — with three consecutive winning seasons — after decades of being one of the NFL’s downtrodden franchises.
A new agreement will give them momentum and a financial playing field that could launch an even brighter future.
Because the Falcons have practiced fiscal responsibility in retaining their own players and have selectively dipped into free agency, they will be about $18 million under the $120.375 million salary cap (for salary and bonuses). Several teams in the NFL will have to release players to get under the cap, while other teams will have to increase their spending to hit the minimum floor spending that starts in 2012.
Of the final eight teams in the playoffs last season, the Falcons’ player salary total of $121.3 million was the lowest. After several minor postseason moves, the Falcons’ player salary total is projected at just over $102 million. The club also has the ability to get lower if they elect to release some veterans or they could restructure their contracts to reflect the veterans’ roles on the team.
“We won’t be in a situation where the cap will mandate those decisions,” McKay said. “We’ll be in a good place.”
Last season there was no salary cap under the league rules. The salary cap during the 2009 season, the last capped year, was just under $130 million.
In the new agreement, there is a league-wide commitment to spend 99 percent of the cap in 2011 and 2012. From 2013 to 2020, teams have committed to spend 89 percent. Teams such as Tampa Bay and Cincinnati, who have traditionally under spent, will have to pay more in salaries to the players.
McKay was heavily involved in the negotiations. During one stretch when both sides were working through the rookie salary system, he spent 15 consecutive days in Washington.
In May 2008, quarterback Matt Ryan, the No. 3 overall pick, signed a six-year, $72 million contract that included $34.75 million in guarantees.
This year, the Falcons will not pay nearly as much for wide receiver Julio Jones, who was selected with the sixth pick in the NFL draft.
Under what’s called the “entry-level compensation system,” rookie pay will be greatly reduced. Offensive tackle Russell Okung, the sixth pick in 2010, received a six-year contract worth $48.5 million.
Jones likely will receive 40 to 50 percent less.
“The entry-level system is one that continues to provide for individual negotiations,” NFL attorney Jeff Pash said. “It is not a strict scale or slotting system. But it provides for individual negotiations within a fixed, agreed upon pool.”
Working through the rookie system was one of the more difficult tasks of the negotiations.
“The rookie system took a long time, but it ended up in a good place,” McKay said.
The Falcons have 11 free agents and believe they have enough money under the new cap to focus on retaining their players. They will continue to be selective in free agency.
In a strange twist, this year’s free-agency period will be ongoing as teams try to sign their own players, their rookies and undrafted rookies — while training camp is underway.
“We’ve done a lot of planning for it,” McKay said. “[General manager] Thomas [Dimitroff] and his staff are ready to go. I think that we’ve done a lot of work planning for the changes.”
During the early stages of the negotiations, the NFL stressed that a new agreement was need to help fund state-of-the-art stadiums in Atlanta, Minnesota, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The Falcons have plans for an open-air stadium where they could sell more suites and control more of the revenue streams. The team has entered into a “memorandum of understanding” with the Georgia World Congress Center Authority on plans for a potential $700 million open-air stadium downtown. The new stadium could open as soon as 2017 and would be built on a site just over a half-mile north of the Georgia Dome.
“This labor agreement would certainly help the vitality of our stadium efforts,” McKay said.
