2010 Season - Week 24

The current Collective Bargaining Agreement (the deal between the Owners and the Players) expires on March 3rd at 11:59pm. Without a new deal the owners will lock the players out of their workplace and negotiations have not gone well. Last week the NFL (on behalf of the owners) filed a complaint with the National Labour Relations Board charging the NFLPA with not negotiating in good faith. This week a mediator has been brought in t try and find some common ground after the owners pulled out of 2 days of talks that were scheduled to take place the week after the Superbowl. The key sticking points seem to be whether they go to an 18 game regular season, the imposition of a rookie salary cap and the sharing of the $8-9 billion that the NFL generates each season. Franchise Players 2010-2011 We must plan for there being a season next year, hell someone has to step up and stop Johnnies domination. With that in mind I shall be asking for your Franchise players for the next two years early in June as any key Free Agency moves plus big draft signings may have an impact on your decisions. Free Agency will be subject to a new CBA but the draft will take place. CBS Draft Expert Rob Rang’s mock draft has limited options for us next year with just 6 BUMS-eligible players going in the first round starting with Georgia WR AJ Geen going to Cincinnati with the 4th pick. Tennessee will take Missouri QB Blaine Gabbert at 8, Washington get Heisman winning Auburn QB Cam Newton at 10 with Julio Jones (Alabama WR) being the 14th pick by the Rams. Miami will take the first RB, Bama’s Mark Ingram (the 2009 Heisman Trophy winner) with the 15th pick and Rang has WR Torrey Smith (Maryland) going to Baltimore at 26. Draft Order In the same way the play-off seeding works the draft order is based on lowest to highest scorer irrespective of division. Following the tie breaker (where the player with the most post-season points gets the earlier pick) the draft order is now set. Therefore like last year John is on the clock while Johnnie will have the 16th pick. The full order is John, Daz, Cheryl, Dave G, Ron, George, Marcus, David S, Craig, Andy H, AP, Aaron, Wayne, Mark, Chief and Johnnie. There will be an extra pick at the end of the 5th round for David S followed by Chief. BUMS on Seats The NFL Draft is on from Thursday April 28th to Saturday 30th. Hopefully it will be back on TV again and we can get together to see the first round develop.