2016 Off-Season Update

[soonertf]

I would support putting in minimum bids by grade. I'd be reluctant to support unlimited bidding (only because there are some GMs who openly admit their mission is to drive up bids, regardless if they even have the salary cap to do so). My preference would be just have 10 bids that you can use on any players (regardless if they are your FAs or not). I think with LTC and tags, we have plenty of hometown discounts in place.

[Ben C.]

I disagree with removing the unlimited bids for your own players. This is an important part of keeping things realistic. NFL teams are in constant contact with their own players, or at the very least have months of lead time for negotiating with them before other teams have a chance.

Plus, in the AFFL there are currently 538 free agents that are associated with a team. Only 125 of those have a grade of B or better. If we assume that those graded C+ or lower are probably only worth around the league minimum anyway (which is already high at $760,000 for any player with more than 2 years of experience), then there are plenty of bids to cover all of the B rated players - there are 160 bids that can be placed every day.

[RyanM]

I have to disagree.

I think a hometown discount is in the realm of realism.

I think a reasonable hometown discount is okay, but when you look at the top 50 FAs current bids there is somewhere around 60-70% with leading offers that the player would never even consider in real life. If we're trying to keep the league close to reality then we need to do away with those types of offers.

[Goodell]

Adjusting bids in the future one way or another is something that could always be discussed and/or tweaked for future seasons. Of course it's way too early to make conclusions on bids in the first few minutes. Usually bid competition drives prices up for most. With the extra LTC this year, which may really change some things, you may also have less players on the market to spread around all those bids and less steal contracts falling through the cracks. That would be my expectation, but we'll have to see how it plays out.

I think a hometown discount is in the realm of realism.

I would agree with that in general. However, we don't want crazy unfair hometown discounts. Another change this off-season that we have to see play out is the increase in requirements for long-term bids which should prevent any long-term steals. If someone gets a short 1-year steal on a player that slipped through, that's not so big a deal to me as a 7-year steal. Hopefully some of the increases in bids prevent any long-term insane steals even if the market doesn't stop those through competitive bidding because the minimums were raised.

There were two very significant changes to free agency made this off-season. Way too early to make conclusions about changes for next year yet until we see how it all goes. But it's definitely something to monitor and possibly discuss for next off-season if things play out unexpectedly. Thanks.

[tino38]

I have to disagree.

I think a hometown discount is in the realm of realism.

I think a reasonable hometown discount is okay, but when you look at the top 50 FAs current bids there is somewhere around 60-70% with leading offers that the player would never even consider in real life. If we're trying to keep the league close to reality then we need to do away with those types of offers.

This gets works itself out when all those trying to pull a fast one waste their bids and then the realists come in and mark up the bids to new actual value

[sportznut]

I have to disagree.

I think a hometown discount is in the realm of realism.

I think a reasonable hometown discount is okay, but when you look at the top 50 FAs current bids there is somewhere around 60-70% with leading offers that the player would never even consider in real life. If we're trying to keep the league close to reality then we need to do away with those types of offers.

This gets works itself out when all those trying to pull a fast one waste their bids and then the realists come in and mark up the bids to new actual value

Yeah, looking at the initial bids before they become final is no way to judge if its working or not. Most, if not all the lower bids will be upped to the point of a fair deal or an overpay. Very few "bargains" will get through. I assure you that more GMs will overpay and regret it later, than getting those bargains that turn out to be steals. Not saying there won't be any though.

[Goodell]

Quick update that I added a hopefully helpful feature which totals up your currently winning bids so you get an idea of what kind of money you've already got committed. Hopefully that helps teams to know how much they have available (from team roster page) and how much they've got winning bids currently, before they place another bid to avoid financial problems.

It is located on the right column below how many bids you have left today. The figure is just for cost of currently winning bids in their first year under contract, so how much it should go against your cap this year. If you notice any problems with that calculation, let me know. Thanks!

[jmdaz44]

Great add, Commish. Should help out a lot. No more adding in my head.

[soonertf]

If a team is overcap or approaching cap, does FA limit their bidding?

[Goodell]

If a team is overcap or approaching cap, does FA limit their bidding?

Approaching, no. Over cap, yes (with some more complicated exceptions during the season involving empty roster spot charges versus partial salary players with lower bids that helps get back in compliance).

If over the cap, it's long been programmed to not allow teams to be in salary cap violation and continue to spend more. Would be lots of complaints about teams in violation winning bids over compliant teams.

In part, it's a self-governing mechanism where if someone is in violation and wants a player, they have to fix the violation to go get the player.

Bidding is not signing, though. It's just negotiation like calling an agent to see if a player would like this offer. There is no guarantee that a bid turns into a signing. So teams do not need to cut players ahead of time just to make a bid (negotiate a possible deal) on their possible replacement you may or may not win the bid to sign. Teams have 48 hours to resolve a signing that results in a salary cap violation. The automated penalty for that is you can't bid on players until fixed, so an automated incentive for teams to be in compliance.