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.

Looks good to me.

Sounds good, thanks for posting it 3 times.

This seems great. Can you add a 'Tier' column on the "Manage Roster" screen?

Great idea that came just at the right time.

That part is implemented, but its still NOT ready for people to sign their players yet.

love it....now if I only had a QB worth locking up..

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 "tropical rose spring scent") up shortly.

Are we allowed to bring in players for 'voluntary' workouts while we wait?

The new contract system is ready to go. You can start signing your players to contracts now. If you already entered them, you need to repeat the process (sorry). Bidding opens June 9th.

Good luck getting them in without contracts.

But now you can start signing them.

Got a lot of cap room lets make this free agency happen

Got them signed. Time to get them in to practice and start coachin 'em up.


Meanwhile, the GM will return to watching film and 'scouting' new talent for the Round Rock Cheerleading squad.

I've got my own team (Anchorage) and two other teams that I'm babysitting at the moment, and here's where we stand.

Rancho Cucamonga enters free agency with 49 players on our roster and a whopping $370 in free agent money.

We have:

0 7 year contracts
2 6 year contracts (Percy Harvin and Nate Solder)
5 5 year contracts (Ahtyba Rubin, Akeem Ayers, Amini Silatolu, Aqib Talib, and Bernard Pierce)
5 4 year contracts
10 3 year contracts
7 2 year contracts
20 1 year contracts

Little Rock enters free agency with 49 players on our roster and $198 in free agent money.

We have:

3 7 year contracts (Calvin Johnson, Cordy Glenn, Von Miller)
2 6 year contracts (Morris Claiborne and Ryan Kerrigan)
2 5 year contracts (Chandler Jones and Chris Conte)
5 4 year contracts
12 3 year contracts
11 2 year contracts
14 1 yea contracts

Anchorage enters free agency with 53 players on our roster and $213 in free agent money.

We have:

2 7 year contracts (Bruce Carter and Charles Godfrey)
2 6 year contracts (Russell Okung and Lesean McCoy)
5 5 year contracts (Alphonzo Dennard, Garrett Hartley, Kendall Wright, Nigel Bradham, and Vernon Davis)
6 4 year contracts
9 3 year contracts
11 2 year contracts
18 1 yea contracts

We are 100% sure on the keeping 2 FAs by giving them 5+ year contracts, right?

I'm about to do something a little unconventional, and I want to make sure this won't change. If it does, I could get burned big time.

Honestly, nothing is in concrete at this point. But we'll do it for at least one season. If it leads to wacky strategies we'll need to change it up, but we'll try to do so in a way that doesn't screw anyone over...or at least not much.

We also want to design a system where people can't game the system n an unrealistic way, so if you see a way to do that, let us know.

I have a rather important player who I want to keep for a long time. I was arranging my roster, trying to figure out who I would be losing each year, when I realized that I was losing no one important next season. I had the idea to defer the cost of this important player by signing him to a $0 one year contract, then signing him long term next season.

Kind of like a franchise tag, maybe? Or is it gaming the system?

So...

Yay? Nay?

That's really kind of a Year One hiccup, so that doesn't bother me. It's gaming the system a little, but on first glance I don't think it would be an ongoing problem. Go ahead.

Looking for a starting MLB let me know if anything on my roster is something you want to trade for it.

I wouldn't mind getting my grubby little hands on AD.

For MLB, I can give you DeMeco Ryans. Obviously you would need more compensation than that, take a look at my roster and see if there's anyone that interests you.

AD would take a ton to get.

(Clearing throat and shuffling feet.)

Hopefully this isn't a problem, but I need to confess something.

This is the first offseason we've had, and we're still learning the process. If you go to your roster and see all those 1's and 0's that indicate availability by week, those are from the 2011 season. We should've cleared them out once the season ended. We're working on the new table now and just realized the old table is still in there and could have misled somebody. So don't assume that's your player availability by week.

(Flinch.) Don't yell at me, okay?

Whoa, scandal. I didn't use the 1s and 0s just in case you guys were trying to screw with us.

Yeah, I figured that out. Plus the fact that every rookie is available every week except #8.

So it's purely coincidental that my availability numbers spell "oldworldorderends8192013" in binary?

No. It's not.

Just a reminder that you cannot bid on free agents until your roster is at 53 or lower AND all players on your roster are under contract. Go to the "Manage Roster" menu under your team name in the menu bar to sign all of your players.

is the the correct cap space for the teams you're watching? yowza

On my three teams? Yeah. I'm locking players up. I'm surprised at how much cap space other teams have, but then again no one really knows the best strategy right now. My strategy is that I'm going to be signing a lot of other teams' free agents in coming years.

I am willing to offer up my 1st round pick next year for a good QB i was left with Jake Locker, or a good MLB.

I bet people beat your door down for that offer with the incredible Geno Smith available in 2013. Do you have any interest in Blaine Gabbert?

Im looking at 24 teams, and not one good QB in free agency unless I missed someone. So some team has to have two good qb's on their roster.

any interest in matt hasselback?

naw, looks like my only chance is with Olddog, he has Freeman and Dalton

Sucks that you feel that way.

It would have taken more than just a 1st next year for Matt Stafford, anyhow.

I don't think you have much of a chance trading with me. You have only about three or four players that I would be remotely interested in and only a couple that would be a possibility for a trade for an established QB. Trading a first for one.....LOL, not close to enough.

haha k he can sit on the bench then

I appreciate your permission to do what I want with him.

For the right price, I'd trade RG3. throw your ridiculous offers at me.

I was trying to send you a pm ebolapox

try now.

Looks like Jones-Drew will be back for the start of training camp. Anyone interested in him?

RB nearing 30 years old who only played in 6 games last year and is already approaching 2,000 career touches....what could POSSIBLY go wrong there?

Wouldn't dream of giving more than a 3rd in the upcoming draft for him as long as there was a breathing RB available. Please tell me he's not what you're trying to get a QB with.

lol cool old dog for some reason everything i post you have to get so angry about. Ever since I said something about the changing draft picks to 30 minutes you cried about it. Now every time I post anything you come here and have to say something smart ass about it.

I think you're looking at this all wrong. He missed most of last season with a foot injury, looks to be in good health now, his body is rested the Jaguars should be a lot better. He could be a very productive RB this year. probably has 2 to 3 years of great production left.

Peterson has more touches then jones-drew does and I am 100% certain you would take him with no questions asked.

Now, look here you little ****ing queer. You asked a question in a discussion thread and I posted a reply. Don't like it? Go **** yourself. Angry about you? I don't even know who you are....
Your father should have just made your mother swallow like she did for me.

lol internet tough guy

I've got tons of MLBs. If you throw in a RT or FS or starting WR, I'm in. (Waco)

Are trades still working? When do then kickers and punters going to be added?

I would like to make a deal but the system is not working right.

What's not working for you? I just tried it out and it's working for me.

FA bidding open.

Let's do this.

So the issue I'm having is this...
I can't outbid anyone. If a player shows up as a $5 bid, no matter how much I bid, I get a message saying I must bid more.

Secondly, and this isn't a huge deal but may be from your end, anytime I put n a bid, it takes me to a page with these two messages.
I just hit the back button and it works out fine, but it happens every time. Get the same screen when trying to offer a trade (but it won't let me send offers at all).

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Notice

Message: Trying to get property of non-object

Filename: models/leagues.php

Line Number: 286


A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /homepages/33/d138192300/htdocs/wsb3888436602/chachacha/libraries/Exceptions.php:166)

Filename: helpers/url_helper.php

Line Number: 541

1. Try to outbid someone again.I may have fixed your out bidding problem.
2. working on the line 286 problem. several people have reported it.
3. The trade problem I can fix, give me a few minutes.

Still a no go on outbidding

Okay. I'll keep working on it. I'm going to take over your team for a few minutes.

OK, Sully, it worked for me. Refresh your web page and try again. If it still doesn't work let me know what browser you are using.

Bidding is working
Thank you

As far as I know, I've fixed all known issues related to bidding and trades. Let me know if anyone is still seeing problems.

When I go to propose Trade screen I get the team doesn't exist error.

An Error Was Encountered

There is no such team

Everything else is working so far. Thanks.

I still get the errors when I first bid. I just do the "back" button and try it again and it always works, so it's not hard to work around, but it's still probably vexing for anyone who hasn't figured that out yet.

Log out and log back in always fixes it for me

line 541 error here. can't bid.

Hit the back arrow and then rebid. It's a glitch we need to fix, but it's easy to work around.

Or you can close the window and then open it and log back in. But it's easier to just hit the back arrow.

Just like I expected really active in free agency right now.

Can someone post the full text of the trade error message? I'm not seeing it.

fixed

Question for people. My League 2 team is the Anchorage Eskimos and I'm also babysitting the Little Rock Nine.

Little Rock has a massive glut of cornerbacks (Mo Claiborne, Cromartie, Asomugha, Tarell Brown, Aaron Williams (10 starts in Buffalo), and Orlando Scandrick. They need a NT badly (working with only Sedrick Ellis right now), and could upgrade over Rocky McIntosh at one of their 2 ILB slots, though they could also easily move one of three good OLBs into the middle.

Anchorage is desperate for CBs (starting Alfonzo Dennard and likely a combination of AJ Jefferson and Mike Jenkins). They have Shaun Cody, who is a one-year solution only at NT, and they have Bruce Carter (11 games starting and they want to keep him), Paris Lenon (1 year solution only), and Ray Lewis (6 games, 1 year solution only) at ILB.

Is there a trade here that's fair and would move Cody to Little Rock and a CB to Anchorage? I'm not sure there is and would want permission for a trade since I'm handling both teams right now.

Asante Samuel is on the trade block, willing to listen to offers.

Edit: Maurice Jones Drew, and Steve Smith the panthers one all on the block let me know.

Edit 2: Adrian Peterson is on here taking offers, have to really wow me though.

Kickers and Punters now available in FA. PM me if you are aware of one that isn't on my list.

I'm noticing there is a free agent bid on Tim Masthay. I also notice I still have him on my roster.

and there are two of him

Uh-oh. Involuntary cloning again. Kickers and punters are our bane. We'll take care of it. Thanks.

Also, in the trade area it won't let me switch to a different team. I click on a team and it loads up to my team.

I don't understand. Can you give me a little more info?

Where you click on the team to trade from, if I click on any other team it will reload the page and still be my team. It won't change teams from mine.