Dalvin Cook showed up for work Tuesday, the day the Minnesota Vikings were due to show up at training camp. No, the broker does not yet have the new contract extension you want. And no, despite the threat he allegedly made in June, there was never a chance that he would leave the camp in any way.
The traditional suspension from training camp by a player entering the final year of his contract is not something he can expect to see much of this year, and it has nothing to do with the coronavirus pandemic. The reason that camping groups are mostly a thing of the past is what the league’s new collective bargaining agreement says, passed in March by owners and players. Here is the exact wording in Article 8, Section 1 (b):
A player will not receive an Accumulated Season for any League Year in which the player has a contract with a Club and in which (i) he did not appear at the Club’s preseason training camp on the date of mandatory notification of that player; or (ii) the player did not perform his contractual services for the Club for a material period of time, unless he demonstrates to the impartial Referee extreme personal difficulties that cause such lack of report or performance, such as serious illness or death in the family.
This was a priority for homeowners in the latest round of CBA talks. They wanted to toughen penalties for resisting training camps, and they did. The previous CBA stipulated that players could lose a cumulative season only if they did not show up to camp on the date 30 days before the team’s first regular season game. So in Cook’s case, that date would have been August 14. According to the new CBA, it was Tuesday.
Why does this matter? Losing a cumulative season affects a player’s free agency status. As a 2017 draft pick, Cook has accumulated three seasons so far, and he needs four to be eligible for unrestricted free agency. If he didn’t win a cumulative season for 2020, next March he would only be a restricted free agent, meaning the Vikings would have the right to match any offer he received from another team.
Now, even when the mandatory notification date was after the old rules, this did not stop everyone. For example, last year, Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott held out well beyond the 30-day mark prior to the season as he was heading into his fourth year, meaning if he had reached free agency in March. Last, he would have been a restricted free agent rather than an unrestricted one. Elliott didn’t mind, since calculating his accomplishments during his first three seasons, meaning leading the league in rushing yards twice and rushing yards per game the other year, would prevent restricted free agency from limiting his market. In the end it didn’t matter, because he signed an extension with the Cowboys just before the season.
But a player like Cook, even as good as he is, can’t take on the same thing Elliott could. Cook has missed 19 games due to injury in his three-year NFL career, and even if he had an excellent and healthy season, there is no way to make sure a team is willing to beat the Vikings for him. and starts with a second-round draft pick.
So Cook is there, since Joe Mixon will surely be in Cincinnati and Alvin Kamara in New Orleans and George Kittle in San Francisco and all the other guys who are entering the final years of their contracts and want new ones will be in the cities in the that their teams play. Waiting a couple of days in camp carries a harsher penalty than it used to be, and it doesn’t make sense unless you’re a star quarterback or someone you can trust that restricted free agency wouldn’t restrict you.
Three other things you should know about this new CBA feature:
Don’t expect any “hold” either. There are some in the league who believe that a player in Cook’s situation would show up at camp and simply refuse to practice until a new deal is reached. It is possible, but go back and re-read Article 8, Section 1 (b) again and note where it says: “the player was unable to perform his contractual services for the Club for a material period of time. ” That’s the part that would allow the team to dock the player for a cumulative season if he showed up and refused to practice or participate in mandatory team activities. Could a player in Cook’s situation claim an injury? Of course. But if the team did not believe him, or diagnosed him as injured, the matter could end in front of a referee, who could rule in favor of the team and deny the player a cumulative season.
The fines are stiffer, but not for Cook, Mixon, Kamara or Kittle. The new CBA raised the maximum fine for skipping training camp from $ 40,000 a day to $ 50,000 a day, but the penalties for players who still have rookie contracts are capped at $ 40,000 a day, as long as they’re not in your fifth year option. season. Any player recruited in 2017 is entering the fourth year of his rookie contract, so his fines stay at $ 40,000 a day if he skips days. Not that it matters much, as the threat of losing an accumulated season probably acts as a more significant deterrent.
Fines cannot be waived. It used to be that if a player endured and eventually agreed to a new deal with the team, custom dictated that the team waive fines. But as a result of the owners’ desire to discourage the suspension of the camps, there is a provision in the new CBA that prohibits that from happening. Article 42, Section 1 says of camp fines, “For the avoidance of doubt, said fines will be mandatory and the Club will not reduce them in their entirety or exempt them, in whole or in part, but the player must pay or deduct them as provided in Section 5 (b) of this Article. “ (Section 5 (b) specifies how fines are collected.)
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