[Editor’s note:  After further review, this item is incorrect.  Article LVI of the CBA conflicts with Article XIX.  If this is the biggest mistake we make this week, it will have been a damn good week.]

One of the most widely reported inaccuracies regarding the uncapped year, which currently is scheduled to unfold in 2010, is that a player will need six years of service to qualify for unrestricted free agency instead of four.

As a league source pointed out to us tonight, Article XIX of the CBA states, in maddeningly roundabout fashion, that the minimum number of years for unrestricted free agency in an uncapped year under the current CBA is five.

Per Article XIX(a):  “Subject to the provisions of Article XX (Franchise and Transition Players), any player with five or more Accrued Seasons, or with four or more Accrued Seasons in any Capped Year, shall, at the expiration of his Player Contract, become an Unrestricted Free Agent.”  By implication, this sentence means that, in an uncapped year, five or more accrued seasons is the key to becoming an unrestricted free agent.

For players drafted in 2005 who’ll be hitting the market in 2010, the significance is huge.  If the number were actually six years, those players would be restricted free agents.

For players drafted in 2006, who would have otherwise been unrestricted free agents in 2010, the CBA makes them restricted free agents if 2010 is uncapped.  Notable players who’d miss their shot at unrestricted free agency include Texans linebacker DeMeco Ryans,  Bears receiver/kick returner Devin Hester, Vikings quarterback Tarvaris Jackson, and Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew.

The mistake regarding six years versus five has appeared in numerous places, including the Bears official web site and NFL.com, and in items published by the Associated Press, the New York Daily News, USA Today, SI.com, and, um, PFT.

The error apparently is the result of an assumption that the 2006 CBA extension incorporated the same terms as the prior CBA regarding the number of years of service necessary to qualify for free agency.