An agreement a day sounds like a good pace for bringing an end to the lockout. Yesterday, arguably one of the major hurdles remaining, the rookie pay scale, was agreed to. Today, the owners and the players reportedly took another significant step forward by coming to an agreement on free agency rules.

The owners originally wanted teams to have "first-right-of-refusal" on up to three free agent players, meaning they could match any team's offer on those players. The players never warmed up to this idea, and today the owners decided to throw the whole concept out of the window. Poof, it's gone. The lack of a compromise seems like more evidence that both sides are ready to keep things moving along and not let the smaller issues hold things up for much longer.

Roger Goodell and DeMaurice Smith will reportedly continue to talk this weekend, without the lawyers, as both sides prepare to meet in court this Tuesday.