For the past few months all signs pointed to an NFL lockout going into effect shortly after the collective bargaining agreement was set to expire at 11:59 p.m. on March 3. That never materialized, however, thanks to a 24-hour extension of the current CBA. This gave the NFL and NFLPA an extra day to negotiate, and they spent it talking about a new extension.
The current collective bargaining agreement will now last another week, as the two sides agreed on Friday to extend it seven more days. This will allow negotiations to continue next week (they're taking a break this weekend) without the threat of the union decertifying or the owners locking out the players.
The end result of this may be nothing more than delaying the inevitable (a lockout or battle in court), but most people covering this see it as a big step forward. The tone has changed from not expecting a deal to be done for months to the door opening for a potential deal later this month. With the two sides coming together to agree on a week-long extension, the thought is that they could continue doing so until a new CBA is in place, which would avoid all of the messy things that come along with a lockout or a battle in court.
For now, this is a definite positive, as the sides communicated well enough to iron out an extension. Again, it may mean nothing in the end, but right now it looks like a step in the right direction.