Aus: First, that EA comment made me happy as well. The EA of 5 years ago would have had us $10 mil over.
Anyhoo, I think the players are sick of being bent over for the last 10 years. Upshaw has been comatose for those years, and the players have gotten dick (but it is their fault for keeping him). If they are going to continue to receive non-guaranteed contracts, shit, go for broke and get what you can. Football is the #1 money making sport in the country, yet these guys get nothing compared to baseball players. The owners simply don't want to rock the boat and want to keep stuffing their pockets, because under the current system, they can't shoot themselves in the foot. The football CBA truly is a joke. If the owners want non guaranteed deals, they have to pony up more cash. They can't have it both ways.
On to the article. As far as teams cutting players to get under the 94.5 mil cap, that's a bit of a joke too. If the cap would have been raised to $101 mil as speculated once the cba was signed (the 105 number in the nfl.com article is a pipe dream), why not make that the cap # right away? Owners have only hurt themselves by saying the sky is falling and setting a low cap. Vets are not going to hurt that bad. If the next season came with no cap, they'll easily make up for what they didn't get this year. If 2008 came with no cap, big market teams will pay vets what they want. You won't stop the NFC East from spending $160 mil each. In the end, peeps who deserve the dough will get it.
At this juncture, I still see this whole thing as owners casting doom and gloom over nothing. Why does the deal need to get done today? You have 2 years left on the current cba. 1 year with a cap, 1 without. Keep at it and get a deal done in a month, 2 months, 12 months, whatever. The owners are purposely making matters worse just to try to keep their cash cow pumping. I went through all this owner induced bs last year with hockey, and it's not gonna trick me this year either. Simply give the players what they deserve.
I reeeeeeeeeeeally hate owners.