NFL Distributes Referee Crew Assignments as Progress Continues Toward New CBA

The NFL distributed crew assignments to referees this week amid indications of continued progress toward a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement with the NFL Referees Association, sources told ESPN.

The assignments did not include any of the replacement officials the league has onboarded and vetted in preparation for a potential lockout. The league's officiating department has planned to start training those replacement officials beginning Friday.

The existing CBA between the sides is due to expire May 31. Both the NFL and the NFLRA declined comment. The sides have been negotiating for nearly two years but reached an impasse this spring, prompting the league office to begin laying the groundwork for using replacement officials.

At their annual meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, owners passed a series of rule changes to give league staff in New York City broad authority to help officiate games via video feeds if replacement officials were used in games.

A meeting earlier this month that included multiple owners, including the Dallas Cowboys' Jerry Jones, produced what a league source said was "progress." Sources said this week that momentum has continued to build toward an agreement.

But even as the sides continue talking, the NFL has managed its contingency planning on a parallel track. Perry Fewell, the league's senior vice president of officiating, told teams in a memo before the NFL draft that the league had begun conducting medical examinations and performing vetting on college officials who were willing to step in as NFL replacements if needed.

Fewell also wrote that those replacements could begin staffing OTAs and mini-camps as early as June 1.

At the time the talks stalemated this spring, the NFL had offered the NFLRA a six-year deal that averaged annual raises of 6.45%, sources said. The average NFL official earned $385,000 in 2025.

The league also pushed the NFLRA to allow several fundamental changes to officials' job structure, which the NFLRA largely resisted early in talks. Those measures include increasing the probationary period for new officials from three to five years, shortening the "dead period" during the offseason to allow for more training and reducing the seniority-based approach to covering playoff games.

ESPN's Kalyn Kahler contributed to this story.