"The night before delivering a joint message to NFL rookies with commissioner Roger Goodell, NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith held an under-the-radar conference call Tuesday to update many of the league's most prolific stars on the status of labor negotiations, FOXSports.com has learned.

Perhaps the most important thing to emerge from the talks so far was this: While saying he was optimistic because the two sides were continuing to negotiate, Smith painted a different picture than that of a collective bargaining agreement being reached as soon as this weekend.

Smith began the call by informing players — 50 Pro Bowlers were given call-in information, but the number of participants is unknown — that recent reports by certain news outlets were way off. That is why Smith wanted to tell players they still haven't gotten a good enough offer from the owners to bring to them just yet.

According to several sources, Smith took questions but prefaced that by saying he couldn't get into specifics because of a court-mandated gag order.

The first question came from Baltimore Ravens All Pro linebacker Ray Lewis. He asked, "How optimistic are you that a deal will get done soon?" Smith insisted that any time the two sides are working together, as they are now, there is reason for hope.

But later in the call when Jacksonville's Pro Bowl running back Maurice Jones-Drew asked about the details of free agency once the lockout ends, players on the call were given examples of just how sticky these negotiations have become.

A few of the issues cited were the years of service required to become an unrestricted free agent, and money allocated for retired players — neither of which has been agreed upon yet.

It has been widely reported that both sides have agreed to restore parameters of the 2009 CBA that allowed unrestricted free agency after four seasons for players who weren't under contract. But after Tuesday's conference call, that hardly seems to be the case.

Since this story was first posted, sources have told FOXSports.com the NFL would consent to four years as the unrestricted free agency threshold. However, that is contingent upon each team having a right of first refusal in 2011 on three named players entering their fifth or sixth NFL season who would now qualify as UFAs."