Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Monster Thoughts on the New CBA - 2/20/2020

Episode Date: February 20, 2020

The NFL has proposed some new tenets as ongoing negotiations with the players’ association continue regarding a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA.) Fan-favorite Thomas Murphy joins host Mike D’Abate to discuss the latest additions to the CBA, and what it means for the New England Patriots. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello to all of you Foxborough faithful, and thank you for joining me today here on the Locked On Patriots podcast, your daily home for news, notes, and analysis infused with the occasional opinion on your six-time Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots. Locked On Patriots, of course, is a part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And because it's your team every day, that means your questions, your comments, and your feedback are always welcomed. Feel free to follow me on Twitter and also reach out to me on Twitter at MDABATEFPC. And while you're out there roaming the Twitterverse,

please give the Locked On Patriots account a follow as well at LO underscore Patriots. Pats fans, yesterday here on the podcast, we played a little game of what if, and we talked about some potential scenarios of the Patriots trading for wide receivers like Stephon Diggs or Eldell Beckham Jr. Even worked that what if game a little bit into moving Isaiah Wynn from left tackle to left guard.

And even though those situations were hypothetical at best, it's always fun to play games of what if in professional sports, especially in the offseason. Well, someone must have given the memo to the NFL, because they played their own little game of what-if Wednesday yesterday afternoon. But their what-if scenarios are a lot more than just speculation, folks. In anticipation of the meeting of NFL owners in Manhattan, which is taking place today on Thursday, the NFL released the subject of that meeting, and that will be the negotiation with the Players Association about reaching an accord on a new collective bargaining agreement. Now, this is big news for the league and the Patriots as well.

And today here on Locked on Patriots, we're going to get into exactly how that could impact both. And because I was in need of some extra wisdom and counsel, I chose to go to the greatest source I know when it comes to wisdom and counsel. That's right, folks. Our main green man, Thomas Murphy, joins me today here on Locked On Patriots, and we'll talk about the new CBA, what it means for the league, what it means for player safety, what it means for the New England Patriots, and whether or not Murph puts any stock into

some of these what-if scenarios surrounding the Pats as of late. So sit tight, folks. Get ready to absorb some of my good friend's wisdom and counsel. You'll love him as much as I do. Always fun when Murph joins me here on the microphone, and I sincerely hope that you enjoy today's podcast. But before I welcome my good buddy in to sit in the chair that adorns his name when it comes to guests here on Locked On Patriots, I just wanted to go over a little bit about

what the NFL owners are actually meeting for today in Manhattan and what that means in terms of a collective bargaining agreement. First of all, you have to note that the fact that the NFL owners are willing to meet one full year prior to the current collective bargaining agreement expiring is a very good sign for both the league and the players. The owners usually don't come together for an unscheduled meeting like this unless there's been substantial progress on both sides toward reaching an agreement. Now, the news that broke on Wednesday evening centered around what the owners will be proposing.

And their platform is definitely an interesting one, to say the least. The league has proposed a 17-game regular season as part of a new contract. Now, of course, we all know that means one more regular season game per year. As a trade-off, the NFL would be reducing the preseason from four games to three. Now, there are some unconfirmed rumors that either from the owners or possibly a counteroffer by the Players Association that with a 17-game regular season, an extra bye week would be worked into the regular season to give teams and players a chance to rest. Wednesday's reports also indicated that the owners would be willing to allow more

roster spots on NFL teams, as well as a larger percentage of revenues going to players. There was also an allusion to a change in the NFL playoff structure. And according to Adam Schefter of ESPN, who was all over this story from the moment it broke last night, the owners are proposing that seven teams from each conference would make the NFL playoffs, with only one bye per conference. Don't forget that the current playoff structure right now includes only six teams per conference and two first round byes.

So from a Patriots perspective, folks, this one's a little more relevant than the 17-game season. For the past 20-plus seasons here in Foxborough, the Patriots have at the very least been in contention for a first round playoff bye. Now, if they want to achieve that, they need to get the number one seed. With teams like Kansas City, Baltimore, and Tennessee out there, it might make that task a lot more difficult than it ever has been before. But the question beckons, what do the players think about all this?

Well, no Patriot has gone on record yet of giving his opinion. However, Richard Sherman, cornerback of the San Francisco 49ers, who can always be counted on to give you his candid opinion, did have a few things to say about it. And his opinion focused squarely on player safety. And here's what Richard said, quote, I don't think it's something players are interested in, honestly. And if that's the point owners are negotiating on, then I think these negotiations are going to go a lot longer than anticipated. It's always odd when you hear player safety is the league's biggest concern. They're really standing up for player safety, player safety, player safety, but it seems like player safety has a price tag. Player safety up to the point of, hey, 17 games can make us this

much more money, so we really don't care how safe they are if you're going to pay us this much money to play another game. That's the part that's really concerning for us as a union and us as players, unquote. Now, regardless of your opinions on Sherman on the field, off the field, he's one of the smartest and most aware players in the union. He brings up a lot of interesting points here, especially when it comes to player safety. It will be interesting to see how much of a sticking point this is going to be in the ongoing negotiations. As for the owners, they are meeting on Thursday,

but there's not expected to be any type of a vote or ratification of these proposals this is merely a meeting to get everyone on the same page with the nfl combine set to begin in just a few days it's expected that negotiations will move into the combine week and at that point an agreement is possible but as always folks stay tuned these negotiations can take twists and turns that no one sees coming. Don't forget, the last time the league was at an impasse like this, they did experience a lockout. In mid-March of 2011, the owners imposed a lockout on the players, and that lockout extended well into the mid-summer. It took one of those owners to cross negotiating lines and bring the two sides together in an accord that ended up working out to the benefit of both sides.

You know who that owner was, folks? That's right, you guessed it. Your owner, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. He brought both sides together and helped them come to an agreement that benefited both parties. Remember that. He may need those skills again sooner than we think. But those are the proposals being set by the owners, folks. But what does it all mean in practical terms?

For you as fans, for the players, for the owners? Well, in just a moment, I'll be welcoming in my good green buddy Thomas Murphy, and we'll be talking about those very points. However, before I bring Murph into the discussion today here on the Locked On Patriots podcast, I wanted to take a moment to address you. Yes, you. All of you Foxborough faithful listeners of the Locked On Patriots podcast. If you've been a listener of this podcast, I'm sure you've heard all of the faithful listeners of the Locked On Patriots podcast. If you've been a listener of this podcast, I'm sure you've heard all of the great advertisers working with Locked On to reach sports fans. But you may not know that Locked On Patriots is a great way for your local business to reach passionate Patriots fans just like you.

Unlike any other podcast, Locked On Patriots gives your local company the ability to reach local podcast listeners. Not just any podcast listener, a Locked On Patriots podcast listener. If your company wants to connect with Patriots fans, We'll see you next time. Text the word advertising to 33777 or visit LockedOnPodcast.com slash advertising and let us know who you are. We'll get our team to help your team achieve Locked On advertising success. Once again, text the word advertising to 33777 or visit LockedOnPodcast.com slash advertising. We look forward to hearing from you. Once again, folks, as we speak, NFL owners are meeting today

to discuss an agreement with the NFL Players Association on a new collective bargaining agreement. And I opened today's show by outlining the key components of that potential agreement. But what about its practicality? Well, for that discussion, I bring in my source of all knowledge. As always, you know him very, very well. He is a columnist extraordinaire for DieHardBostonSportsFans.com, compiles one half of the hosting tandem of One Patriots Place, and along with our mutual friend Steve Balistrieri, who joined me here on Locked On Patriots on Tuesday,

they put together my favorite podcast in Patriots Nation. He is the man, the myth, the legendary Thomas Murphy. Welcome back, buddy. Hey, bud. Thank you for having me back, man. Always a pleasure to be here on the Locked On Network. It's always great to talk to you. Thank you.

High praise. High praise that I don't deserve. Oh, no. You get high praise and you deserve every bit of it. And quite murph uh considering the news that we saw last night come out regarding the nfl there isn't anybody that i'd rather uh share uh the microphone with today and talk about this new collective bargaining agreement in the nfl because i know you've got some strong feelings on it as do i and i wanted to get your take on a lot of this uh there is a lot buzzing around Patriots Nation, and we know that, but the big news is the NFL and the possible, you know,

reaching out of an agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement. And we heard the highlights last night, the 17-game season, the reducing the preseason, and the adjustments to the playoff structure. Now, you read the reports, as I did, and as you did so, what was your reaction to the changes, and do you believe that there is a winner, meaning that if the players and the owners come together and sign this agreement the way we're hearing it right now, what side comes out maybe a little bit more on top than the other? Well, of course the owners come out on top. Anything that they propose, you know that it's in their best interest.

Now, the players are going to look at this and they're going to say, well, I get another 1.5% piece of the pie. So, yeah, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. There was no thought put into this about the health of players. I don't want to hear about one fewer preseason game. The starters aren't playing in that game anyway. They're not. They're not playing.

So now you've got to pay. You're still going to pay for a nonsensical game, folks. It's just going to be the second game of the season. Coaches are probably irate about that, along with the fewer padded practices, fewer hitting, things like that. But, no, this comes down on the owner's side, with the fewer padded practices, fewer hitting, things like that. But, no, this comes down on the owner's side, and there's a bit more piece of the pie for the players,

and I feel good for the fringy players, the guys that could use another paycheck if it works out that way. We're still not sure if you're getting another paycheck out of this or if it's just going to be split up into 17 instead of 16. I think that there were better ways to do this. The underlying factor of most of this is the fact that not only is the collective bargaining agreement coming up, but a lot of contracts with the networks are coming up. And right now the league is really upset, okay?

They sat down. No Dallas, no New York teams, both L.A. teams out of the show. What are we going to do about that? Hey, let's expand the playoffs. Let's do that. We'll give them a better chance to get in and keep the networks happy. We'll be able to sell them on more. It's just ridiculous.

It's all geared towards getting these bigger market teams who have not competed very well in the past decade, decade plus, except for the Rams last year, in getting into the playoffs and making any noise. Agreed. Agreed on all points. And again, I know our listeners are going to be really, really shocked that the two of us agree, but I mean, you make excellent points. First of all, a couple of points that I just wanted to expound upon.

You had mentioned the fact that this doesn't really eliminate or add anything to the player's pocket when it comes to, we don't know, I should say, we're still unsure of that point, but at present, the way it's structured, we're not sure if that does add anything to the player's pocket in terms of an extra game check, whether or not 16 is going to be split among 17. You mentioned player safety, and I think that really is paramount here because the league has gone out of its way to make sure that they are purporting that image, that player safety is first and foremost among their minds. It's really what everybody should be focused on.

Adding another regular season game and taking away a preseason game to balance it out, like you said, is not a very effective way to do that. The starters are not playing in the preseason game. I know there's been buzz that there may be a counter offer from the Players Association that an extra bye week would need to be built in. That is the case. Yeah, it does give players a little bit of an opportunity to rest at various points in the season. However, gearing up and resting when it comes to the playoffs, to me, is one of the more important things.

I'm surprised to see that playoff bye get expunged. A lot of reasons for that is because you're expected to see your best games, your best football played in the playoffs. And when your top two teams are able to get that extra rest, it means all that much of a difference. You take a look at a team like Baltimore this year. Okay, they didn't really benefit from the bye week. If anything, I think it might have hurt them. It might have created a little bit more rust. But Kansas City definitely benefited from that bye week. There's, I think it might have hurt them. It might have created a little bit more rust, but Kansas City definitely benefited from that bye week. There's no question about it.

We look at it from a Patriots perspective, and it could have been a much different playoff if the Patriots had an extra week to prepare for an opponent and get on the same page and really be able to work together. So I think that extra bye week definitely was an eye-opener for me, and we'll see what happens when it comes to the New England Patriots and how this works to them. And that leads me quite nicely into my next point, my friend, which you know as well as I, we can talk all we want to about national NFL, and you and I are pretty savvy when it comes to that,

but we always think about how this is going to translate to the Patriots. What's going to happen? What does this mean for New England? And logistically, it means the same thing from New England as it does for all the other 31 teams. The extra game, they have to play it just like everybody else. The playoff structure, they have to do it just like everybody else. Granted, the Patriots are usually in contention for that top spot more than the other teams, so it does have a little bit more of an effect, but ultimately the logistical impact on the Patriots is not really that heavy.

The practicality of this, though, does maybe impact the Patriots a little bit, and that's about the contract negotiations that they're set to begin with Tom Brady. We heard the reports earlier this week, WEI and BC Sports Boston reports that the Patriots and Tom are scheduled, are supposed to sit down in a couple of weeks and kind of try to negotiate a new deal or really find out what both sides want. You and I both know that these negotiations have probably been kind of going on through back channels, but you know what, we're not going to speculate on that. We'll take them for its face value. As I was looking at these reports of the collective bargaining agreement last night, our good friend Evan Lazar kind of beat me to one of my own thoughts. And I was thinking in

these lines, and then I read it, and Evan articulated this so perfectly that I thought this was a great way to put it. And I wanted to pick your brain on this a little bit. He reported last night that basically it would be big for the Patriots to get the collective bargaining agreement done before free agency begins. Essentially, what that would do was eliminate the issues with avoidable years and, of course, the 30% rule for Brady. Now, that makes it a little bit easier to play with the cap hits, and for our listeners that don't know what that 30% rule is,

that's a requirement that affects contracts that run past the end of the current collective bargaining agreement. The rule stipulates that a player's salary cannot rise more than 30% of his salary for the final CBA year in a subsequent season. That impacts how teams can structure contracts, particularly with respect to that backloading of the deals to try to save money in the long term. Patriots have been very, very good at doing that. So playing on the last year of that CBA, that eliminates that salary cap trick that I just

outlined and what they can do to move money around. So in your opinion, Murph, knowing what you know about the 30% rule, about CBAs and how they work, and taking into account Evan's point that he made last night, do you see this as a potential win for Brady and the Patriots when it comes to negotiating toward his potential return? It can only be better. It can only be better for Tom.

I think it's paramount that if this gets done, it gets done before the date that we were just talking about, and it allows the Patriots to manipulate and move things around. It's better for Tom. It's better for the Patriots. It's better for Patriots Nation. Absolutely, and I do completely agree. And, again, another mutual friend of ours that we talk to quite often, Miguel Benzon, made a good point last night as well when he was talking about what this type of deal would do.

He said for the Patriots and for Brady, this would be a very good thing because it allows the cap to remain as soft as possible, as usually it has been the 30 rule really makes that type of typical salary to signing bonus conversion that i mentioned earlier um almost illegal in a way i mean it really makes it much much more difficult so it would make restructuring a contract like stefan gilmore for example who's scheduled to have a pretty big cap hit people have been talking about oh you can restructure him you you can do this, you can do that. Miguel's put together some very nice packages.

That type of restriction makes it nearly impossible. And Miguel's term, I mean, he put it, it makes it borderline illegal. In other words, it would be very difficult to manipulate it within the league rules. And when you're a team like the New England Patriots that's being watched like a hawk, and I don't want to hear from any other fan base that the team, that the ownership and the league is not watching the Patriots with a very, very sharp eye.

We both know that they are. And they're not going to be able to circumvent anything in terms of any type of manipulation for the Caps. So I'm glad that you share my philosophy on that. I think it does make it better for Tom. I think it makes it better for the Patriots.

And that March 18th deadline is one that is approaching, believe it or not. It's coming closer and closer. It feels like it's been so far away, but it really is only a couple of weeks away, folks. So hopefully this type of an agreement may accelerate those negotiations and we can finally put some of these harebrained thought processes behind us. And speaking of harebrained schemes and harebrained ideas,

and I don't want to say that because sometimes you can make these things happen. Stranger things have happened. But here yesterday on Locked On Patriots, I had some fun and played a game of What If? on Wednesday, and I outlined a couple of different scenarios about the Patriots trading for a

weapon, quote-unquote, which everybody says they need weapons. I happen to think they need a player. No, I don't think they need weapons. One thing that I wanted to outline was the hot rumor of the day, and that is the Patriots trading for Stephon Diggs. There's also the CBS rumor that came out a few days ago before that

about trading for Odell Beckham Jr. Murph, you're always a level-headed approach to the New England Patriots doing business. You understand the fan side of it, but you understand the business and the logistical side of it too. I happen to label both of these scenarios as highly unlikely. I didn't say either one was impossible, but I believe that they were highly unlikely. When you look at a guy like Diggs, you look at even a guy like Beckham, do you see the Patriots pulling the trigger on either one of these trades? Because everything in Bill Belichick's body of work says that neither one of these deals are things that he would do.

Yeah, exactly. Unless it was a Randy Moss type of deal, and if you folks remember, the Patriots did not give up a lot for young Randy, because quite frankly he wasn't that young anymore. And while both of the players that you just mentioned are much younger, they also come with significant cap hits, and they're coming up on free agent deals again. I'm not sure if the Patriots would give up the capital

that these teams would want for these players. It doesn't make sense for the Patriots to do that. It's always been a lot easier for them to go out, find the right fit, and bring them in here. And I'm not sure either of these guys really fit into what Bill is trying to do. And it's going to leave a lot less room to maneuver on the true need of this team, and that's depth on the offensive front line. Absolutely. And that's exactly the point that I made yesterday here on Locked on Patriots.

You're looking at needing to give up, at the very least, at the absolute minimum, having to give up the 23rd pick in the NFL draft in the first round. And I know a lot of people are looking at that and going, oh, it's a 23rd pick. I even made the joke yesterday about, you know, you'll get fans that'll say, what difference does it make? Bill's just going to take a defensive back out of Rutgers with that pick anyway. Who cares?

Think about it, though. From a perspective of the New England Patriots, they don't have a second-round pick. They're basically forsaking the first two rounds of this draft, which does have some depth when it comes to linemen, both on the offensive side and the defensive side of the ball. They may be in need for some safety help. A lot of people roll their eyes at that, but there's a real possibility Devin McCourty may move on if he gets an overwhelming offer.

Those are tough to turn down. Or if Tom does not come back. Absolutely. This is what people keep forgetting. It's the chicken or the egg, and I've been saying this for weeks and weeks and weeks. Karen Garigian wrote an article today.

I haven't had a chance to read it. I'm sure it's fantastic over there at the Boston Herald, and you guys can go check that out. But Ninkovich said, I mean, we're talking about bringing free agents in and keeping our own players. And how many of those guys are not going to want to stick around if Tom Brady isn't here? I've said it a thousand times. Players in this league respect

the hell out of Bill Belichick. They do. Don't think that I'm saying that they don't. But nobody comes here to play for Bill Belichick. They come here to play with Tom Brady. Very, very good. Excellent point. And a point that I think needs to be made a little bit more. I really and truly do, by people in our profession, because it is such a key in players wanting to come here. We've both spoken about this several times. Stay here for less. Exactly.

I have never heard one player. How many pay cuts did Danny Amendola take just to stay here and play with Tom Brady or other ball players? You talk about guys like Julian Edelman. Even as egregious as the situation would be of a guy like Antonio Brown,

you don't think if the Patriots decided to open their world back up to Antonio Brown that he'd be willing to maybe take a little bit less money that he could get on the open market to play with Tom once again. I do believe he would do that. And this is from a guy that really is a me-first type of personality. I don't think anybody can argue that point, but they do.

They want to come here because it is infectious playing with Tom Brady. And again, I come back to the point, you've never heard one of his teammates, past, present, or, well, obviously not future, but past or present, or fringy, that will ever say a bad thing about the guy. They've always gone out of their way to say he is the best teammate that I've ever played with. Someone at his level, that's very unusual. That is very, very unusual. You don't hear that from a lot of superstars when it comes to play,

and really across team sports all over. The best players sometimes have the worst reputations of being terrible teammates because they try to hold their players to a standard that's just unattainable, and Tom Brady doesn't do that. He never has, and he never will. So I think those are great points. And, again, I think coming back to it, Bill definitely does not want to forsake the first two rounds of the draft. There are a lot of needs that need to be addressed there. Logistically, I know you can play with salary cap numbers. They need to trade up and get more picks in the second round

and in the third round. That's what this team needs to do. They don't need to be spending it on guys that would rather date kicking nets than go out and find a guard. Okay? Yeah, absolutely. I agree. And, again, I'm a little bit higher.

And I would rather see that money go to Joe Tooney than I would to anybody, anybody that's out there that catches a pass. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. And you know what? And going off of another good friend of ours, and I know we're quoting a lot of our buddies today, but you know what?

It really is something that lends in. Bernd Buchmasser lent that very point yesterday in his column about possibly moving over Isaiah Wynn to left guard as opposed to left tackle. Logistically, we're not even going to get into the X's and O's of why that's a bad idea, but you're going to have to go out and shell out Big Bunny for a left tackle that's uncertain to be able to play in this system.

Why not just give the money to a guard, Joe Tooney, keep the left side of your offensive line intact? There's a reason they're letting Toito go because they're not exactly. They can't match the type of offer he's going to get on the open market. If you think a guard is valuable, there's a lot more value on a left tackle, especially for a right-handed quarterback. And if you're going to bring back Tom Brady, you've got to make sure he's protected. I think Isaiah wins up to that challenge.

That's it. Murph, what can I say? It's always, always a pleasure to share the microphone with you. You bring the candor, you bring the heat, and you bring the opinions like only you can. That's why I love having you back. We're going to make you a repeat next week because it is Combine Week. It's one of your favorite weeks of the year. It's one of my favorite weeks of the year.

So we've got a lot to talk about, and we'll work out the logistics. But, folks, don't worry. The big green man will be back in the chair next week to talk some NFL combine, and it'll be a blast. In the meantime, you should be already, but if you're not, please follow the man on Twitter, at TeamMurf207, one of the best Twitter follows anywhere in the Twitterverse. But also make sure anytime the man puts out content,

whether it be the Monster Columns or whether it be the Monster Keys or any type of independent columns, always never miss an opportunity to listen to One Patriot's Place with him and Steve. Again, it's my favorite listen, and I highly recommend it more than you could possibly imagine. Murph, thank you, my good man. Honored and humbled, as always, by your presence. Thank you so much. You are just too kind, bud.

The words that you got, my own kids don't talk about me this well. Thank you. I just want to make one more point. For all those people out there that are talking about 8-8 and 9-7 teams getting in and making it relevant for them, think about this, how Week 16 and seven teams getting in and making it relevant for them. Think about this, how week 16 and 17 are going to be irrelevant for those top teams. Okay.

Absolutely. No longer. It's no longer. Well, you know, it's the two seed. I'm going to have to play on wild card weekend anyway. So yeah, you're going to see those, those players all rested in the same way that we have in the past when, when, you know, the Patriots are a definite number one seed, or last year when we're screaming about,

they're screaming today about the Steelers could have made it. And well, the Steelers had a chance to and they got beat by 18 points by the, the Ravens backups in week 17. Those are the teams that are going to be getting into the playoffs. Enjoy. Absolutely. And you know what? It might be interesting to see what it does for ticket sales in that games as well. Maybe some of your favorite players are not going to be active.

Are teams or are the casual fans going to be willing to shell out that type of money to see their favorite players knowing full well there's a chance they might be sitting down and resting? You're pissed off about not seeing them in the last week you're pissed off already about not seeing them in the last week of preseason now you're not going to see them in week 16 17 absolutely and that may and that may be a little bit of a sting that who knows that could be a sticking point we'll see we might have more information when murph and i talk next week and if we do we'll definitely do that and work that into our combine discussion. But excellent point.

I'm so glad that you made that. Thanks again, buddy. Can't thank you enough. Anytime. I'm always here for you guys. Locked on, Murph. And on that note, we wrap up today's Locked on Murph episode of Locked on Patriots. It's always my honor and privilege to share the microphone with Murph.

I appreciate his candor, his insight, and I hope that you enjoyed absorbing his wisdom and counsel as much as I did. As for me, I will be back tomorrow to wrap up the week by bringing you the latest news notes and analysis from Foxborough. As always, please be sure to join me each and every day here on the Locked On Patriots podcast. Subscribe and download via your preferred podcast provider. Once again, I'm Mike DeBate.

I thank Thomas Murphy for his time, insight, and appearance today. But most of all, I thank you so much for listening and for staying locked into Locked On Patriots. Have a great day, everyone.