2013 RULES: End of Year Transaction Dates

[Goodell]

I need to hard code in some of our deadlines so that I don't have to try to remember how we did them before (as well as complete more comprehensive league rules documents), and that way things will automatically happen on time even if I get too busy.

Thinking of setting the hard stop date for free agency to always be as soon as the regular season ends after week 17. That prevents any playoff altering implications if teams dump high quality players after their regular season is over, as well as prevents teams from signing guys off practice squads when less teams are around with their season over, trying to cut players and re-sign for less while fewer watching, etc.

This is supported through real-life examples I believe like 49ers cutting Brandon Jacobs after the regular season ended but playoff teams couldn't add him to their rosters until after the playoffs ended. http://blogs.sacbee.com/49ers/archives/ ... acobs.html

Also thinking of having a hard date set on the calendar for final current salary cap transactions. With playoffs into February, thinking March 1st being the annual deadline where all roster moves frozen on March 1st before we switch over to the new year cap in March. That allows all teams to do a little roster cutting (only if they have salary cap room to do so and still fitting the full year paid salary plus any cap hit still within their cap) prior to free agency as NFL teams do I believe after the season prior to the new league year official starting.

Let me know if any thoughts on that otherwise or strong objections, but want to get stricter time frames down within the system for efficiency and consistency from year to year.

[tino38]

Fully support this!

[Strategist]

To me if the NFL does this then it is kind of a no brainer plus I think taking one less thing off your plate is always a good idea.

[Goodell]

Just a reminder that any current season transactions must be completed within February as March 1st we'll use as the cut-off for a new league financial year.

The only financial transactions you can do now should be cutting players. You can cut them and have any salary cap hit count toward this year's cap still so long as you do it before February ends. if you make a move that puts you over your cap, it'll be corrected (probably reversed if no other correction possible) before we end the financial league year. Everyone will have to be under the cap and active roster limits before we'll switch over to the new league year with all in compliance. Once I run these last playoff games, I'll turn my attention to ensuring everything is good for us to switch over to new year finances.

Then we'll have some off-season discussions and gear up for free agency probably slightly delayed from NFL start depending upon those discussions and how many new GMs needed, etc.

[soonertf]

Can you remind me on how much money we can carry over to the next year?

[tino38]

Can you remind me on how much money we can carry over to the next year?

I believe we agreed to allow a maximum of $5 million rollover

[Goodell]

Can you remind me on how much money we can carry over to the next year?

I believe we agreed to allow a maximum of $5 million rollover

Yeah, it'll probably be something that comes up in off-season rules discussions for future changes but we've stuck with 5M cap on that. Any changes would be toward future off-seasons.

[Joe]

Quick question... considering the playoffs arent over yet, do we still have time to make those cuts?