NFL and players union extend CBA negotiations to March 11

The NFL and NFLPA has agreed to extend talks on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement for another week. The deadline will be scheduled for next Friday night.

Both sides will return to the negotiating table first thing Monday morning and will spend all of next week working on a new deal.

George Cohen, who has been mediating the talks between the owners and players was pleased with the open discussion between both sides, but would not go into details on what was talked about. He also placed a gag order on both sides to keep them quiet until an agreement in reached.

Teams have been instructed to operate as if the old CBA has expired, which means that teams cannot sign free agents, re-sign their own players or make cuts until the deal is complete.

The players union threatened to decertify if negotiations failed on an extension of talks. Decertification could still happen if the new deadline comes and passes without a deal.

Currently everyone in the league is very optimistic. "If we can make the kind of progress that you needed to make to have a further extension, that's where we'd be looking," League negotiator Jeffery Pash said. "Hopefully, we can make some progress and keep this thing going. That's obviously in everybody's interest. It's been our goal all along and we're going to just keep at it."