Thursday, September 02, 2010

Eagles are on solid footing

ESPN's Chris Mortensen created a bit of a firestorm yesterday when he reported that the NFLPA was looking at a series of trades for potential violations of the "85-Percent" rule. One of the deals under a microscope according to Mort was the Eagles-Arizona Cardinals swap, where the teams exchanged sixth round picks, FB Charles Scott and CB Jorrick Calvin.

Now it looks like Mort just misunderstood the league's CBA.

Mortensen claimed any drafted player in this uncapped year who was cut by the team who drafted them was guaranteed 85 percent of his 2010 minimum salary of $320,000, and mentioned that the NFLPA was
concerned that the rule was being circumvented by teams in order to save money.

Scott was unlikely to make the Eagles roster and by releasing him the team would have had to pay out $272,000 under Mort's assumptions.

The real rule is that 85 percent of the money not paid to draft choices and undrafted rookies released will revert to the team's rookies who made the team as a year's end dividend based on playing time.

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