It's Monday morning and another week of depressing NFL lockout talk is upon us. But this week may be different than the ones prior, however, because it could be the last. Reports from those in the know are saying the players and owners are very close to finalizing a new collective bargaining agreement and this week is critical. Good news is on the horizon. But how close is it?

Last week Don Banks put the status of labor negotiations in football terms saying they were 'at the 5-yard line.' One inside source he spoke with was optimistic while taking the football metaphor further: 

"But if you think of both sides as a team, now we're in the red zone, we're driving, we can see the goal line and we have momentum.

Just yesterday Daniel Kaplan from Sports Business Journal said a deal wouldn't come until at least early next week:

Hearing NFL talks are at best a week away from a deal now. Ugh. Would explain july 19 meeting set by judge boylan    

It could come before that, though, because there's motivation to get a new agreement in place by this Friday, July 15th; that's the presumed deadline before pre-season games would be missed and money would be lost.  

Right now both sides are working out all the finer points of a new agreement. NFL.com reports that it's the rookie salary system that's currently the biggest issue left on the table.

Whether it happens this week or next, all signs point to positive and a new CBA seems close at hand. So buckle up and stay tuned because soon the dam will break, exciting news will be flowing too fast and too furious and all hell will break loose. You'll want to be here at CSC when it happens.

Here's to a good week.