Falcons owner Arthur Blank said on Tuesday that the push to sign quarterback Matt Ryan was tied directly to the owners’ decision to exercise their early termination rights of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.

“We couldn’t have gotten a six-year contract if we didn’t get this deal done by [4:00 p.m. EDT Tuesday],” Blank said.

But, frankly, we’re not sure why that is.  Based on Article LVIII, Section 4 of the CBA, it appears that only one cap rule immediately changes in light of the early termination.  And that rule relates to the timing of the 30-percent rule regarding salary growth from a capped year to an uncapped year.

Prior to Tuesday’s early termination, the 30-percent rule applied to any jump from 2012 to 2013.  After Tuesday’s early termination vote, the 30-percent rule now applies to any salary bump from 2009 to 2010.  And Article LVIII, Section 4(a) makes clear that any contract that complied with the 30-percent rule prior to early termination won’t be invalidated merely because it doesn’t comply with the 30-percent rule trigger after early termination.

In English, there was a loophole.  Teams had until the close of business on Tuesday to sign players to contracts that would violate the 30-percent rule if signed at any point thereafter.

Though we can understand why the Cowboys would have benefited from this provision in extending the contracts of Marion Barber and Terence Newman, our confusion arises in connection with rookie deals.  Because rookie contracts are limited to maximum annual salary growth of 25 percent of the first-year cap number, the 30-percent rule shouldn’t even apply to Ryan, or to any other first-year player.  By rule, no rookie contract may increase by more than 30 percent from one year to the next, anyway.

We’re still trying to figure all of this out.  And we’re willing to ponder this issue before getting it all figured out because our sense based on discussions with league insiders is that there’s plenty of confusion in one or more of the 32 front offices regarding how these rules apply.

Indeed, if there wasn’t widespread confusion, there likely would have been many more contracts signed on Tuesday afternoon than the three that were.