Anyone ready? YOU GUYS READY? I WANT TO BID BID BID BID

I'm starting to wonder if the lone punter in FA is going to get a max contract.

I'll add punters and keekers by the time FA starts.

Based on the feedback we've received and a lot of discussions between Rain Man and me, I think we're converging on a new system that incorporates many of the suggestions you've made. The new system won't completely satisfy everyone's desires, but I think most of you will think this is at least a large step in the right direction. Playability and a meaningful free agency period are still guiding principals of the design of the new system. Rain Man will describe new system in a day or two and soon after we'll reboot the bidding and implement the new system. You might want to take notes about any current contracts to facilitate entering the new ones.

Due to deadlines we're both working though, it might be a few days before all of this goes down. But the new system should be active no later than sometime on Sunday and we are still set to begin free agency bidding on Sunday June 9.

You'll need to have your rosters at 53 or below and all of your contracts signed in order to access the bidding system on June 9.

Okay, here's what we're proposing.

We're hearing three main critiques: rookies are too expensive, contract lengths and costs for mid-tier players/positional value, and a desire to keep some players from becoming free agents.

The Rookie Issue:

We'll have a rookie contract table that is separate and used only for the draft. It will price contract lengths by round, though as a concession to ease of use it will not price by position.

It will look like this:

The Positional Value/Contract Length Issue:

For free agents, the bidding will proceed as normal. However, the pricing will be based on five position tiers:

Tier 1 - QB
Tier 2 – HB, LT, WR, CB, 3-4 OLB, 4-3 DE
Tier 3 - TE, DT, NT, 3-4 DE, 4-3 LB, MLB/ILB
Tier 4 –G, C, RT, *S, FB, KR/PR if no other position listed
Tier 5 – P, K = 0.5

When you bid on a free agent or re-sign a player, the contract length correlates to the amount of money you pay for them. It's the same system originally put forth, but now we delineate by positional value.

The table below shows the thresholds for each contract length. Once you pay above the thresholds shown below, you have the rights to that player for X years (unless you trade him). So for example, if you pay 40 points for a defensive tackle, who is a Tier 3 player, you get his rights for four years. (Look at Tier 3, and if you pay between 37 and 54 points it's a four-year contract.) If you pay 40 points for a quarterback, who is a Tier 1 player, you only get his rights for two years. If you paid that quarterback 44 points you could up his contract to three years.

The Retain My Players Issue:


At the end of each season, all of your players with 0 contract years remaining will go to free agency, just like usual. However, there are two exceptions to the existing rule.
You can retain up to two players before they go through free agency. However, in order to do so, you must give them a contract of five years or longer. Also, note that they are now paid on the veteran scale.

Note that you can still retain the players by beating the high bid, as discussed in the initial rules.

I think this is a pretty good solution. It addresses most of the concerns that were brought up without making the process overly complicated.

I'll be honest, when I first glanced at the tables Rain Man posted my eyes started to glaze over a little bit, but once I read through it it's pretty straightforward.

:bravo:

This is very good. I know it's more complicated that you would have liked.
I do think it will simulate the constraints of a salary cap more realistically, while also putting good players in the FA market.

Bless you beautiful bastards for this game it's going eat up many an hour from my life

Excellent job guys... this is amazing.

Question - When you retain 2 players - is that when you have to give them a 5 year contract? Or/and do they have to be on an original 5 year contract to be retained?

Thank you.

You have to give them a five-year contract (or longer). It doesn't matter what their first contract was.

We're hoping the fun part of this is that you have to make a decision with an ascending player about locking him down or letting him go in hopes that you can re-sign him cheaper after he tests the market. I suspect we may have to tweak the signing dollars everyone gets each year until we get the right balance, so we're hoping nothing goes wonky the first year or two with hyperinflation or deflation or something.

I think this is very smart because it makes you think and hesitate on some players that are a bit older and or who have a breakout year the year you have to decide... (contract year). LOL - pretty realistic in my opinion... the 5 year contracts acts like a franchise tag for the 2 retained players...

Okay, cdcox is making the necessary changes to implement these revisions. Stand down for a bit and he'll have the new and improved system (now with "fresh summer breeze smell") up shortly.

A first run through my roster suggests that my roster and the contracts therein are going to cost me about $150 more than they used to, putting me pretty far above the $1,300 threshhold.

I assume all previous contracts are going to be nullified by the changeover?

Yeah, we'll do a reset for anyone who asks. Want one?

Unless I can just leave it as is and keep my present FA balance...

If I'm going to get a retroactive kick to the gonads, yeah, that's gonna need to be re-set.

Brace yourself. This is going to hurt a little when cdcox does it.