2013 RULES: Off-Season Rosters and Cap

[Jared A]

Not really. If they don't have other options, put them on the practice squad, and we'll see if they have other options.


Our FA system is set up as first come first serve... not by needs. So, huge rosters allow teams to just sign as many players as quickly as possible, hold them, and hope they pan out. When they do, trade them for something.


So, we could also close the loophole that says no trading of players just signed until the roster is 53.

[Ben C.]

I was making a comparison to the NFL. In the real world, training camp bodies like this don't have options. So why does it matter if they don't have options in our free agency system either?

The system isn't first come first serve. Everybody has 5 bids every 24 hours. So the maximum number of players a team could sign would be 5 per day, assuming no other teams place competing bids. At that rate, it would take over a week before a team could push their roster from 53 to 90. More realistically, it would take a couple of weeks at least.

Also, if a player is worthy of attention from other teams, the price will be higher than the minimum salary and will more than likely be counted in the top 53.

[tino38]

I have to side with Ben on this one. The only first come first serve players are the 8 guys you are allowed to put on your practice squad and even then, someone can still bid on the guy an take him if you choose not to match.

[Jared A]

So, basically, a team can keep 90 players, and only have 51 count against the cap? Doesn't make any sense to me. But, you can be sure, that I'll be signing a lot of guys that I have no intention of keeping, and will try trading them for picks during the offseason.

[Goodell]

So, basically, a team can keep 90 players, and only have 51 count against the cap? Doesn't make any sense to me. But, you can be sure, that I'll be signing a lot of guys that I have no intention of keeping, and will try trading them for picks during the offseason.

That's how it's done in reality as far as off-season cap management. We use real NFL salary cap, try to implement most of the same real transactional rules as we understand them, and started the league with attempts at real contract values to put our sim teams in the most real situations to see what kind of teams they could build under similar constraints and opportunities as their real NFL teams have.

There were suggestions of practice squads but p-squads are only intended to be available during the regular season. The NFL doesn't have practice squads in the off-season or training camp. We could move further away from trying to follow NFL realism there, but would be a big change having practice squad and some of the practice squad rules about matching rights, etc. running all year even in off-season.


But this would be a big change from just a few teams having large off-season rosters in the past to most teams having larger off-season rosters ahead if we make that change. There were some advantages to those teams doing the big roster thing in the past, but also some disadvantages in that they had more minimum contract guys paid far less on average than a team that maximized their average salary within the 53 man roster.

For players to get traded, there has to be a market for them meaning a team really wanting them now (when they wouldn't have put in a counter offer months or just weeks ago when they could have signed them themselves) and having an open roster spot for them. I think there will be more of that type of strategy if all teams can go to those larger off-season rosters without impacting their available cap, but if more teams having more "unwanted" players trying to all trade at once before the season, I don't know if it'll work out there as hoped for most outside of the few breakout players who really see a last minute surprise rise in value, as the trade market would have a lot of those guys available but everyone needing to cut down to 53 with their own batch of training camp guys they need to cut or move also.

This is intended to be a GM game. Taking the gameplay to a higher level giving more teams the opportunity to evaluate more of those younger training camp type players and place their own stakes in that game across the board could really ramp up some of the competition in the off-season in either a good or bad way. I'd think probably good, but it would be new and we'd have to see.

[tino38]

Well that should be the goal. Sign a guy you think that can give you a return in value either in trades or actually improving your team.

[Goodell]

Well that should be the goal. Sign a guy you think that can give you a return in value either in trades or actually improving your team.

Yeah I agree. That should be the goal in reality too, and I believe it is. When a team signs a dozen undrafted free agents, they see something in each one of them and hope their potential talent emerges but know they don't have roster spots for all of them and not all of them are going to reach their hoped potential. They see which ones proved worthy of their hopes to perhaps keep a few, but will end up cutting most of them and adding a couple back to their practice squad when the season starts.

Sometimes these low-end guys become something great (I signed Victor Cruz as an undrafted free agent after the draft one year) but most of the times they won't. There are some advantages for more active GMs building up larger rosters of potential talent to find a couple more nuggets, but it's not the end of the world either for teams that don't have time for that in the off-season to compete over lower-end guys. The hope for the league is that it can accomodate both types. If you are really busy and might miss the occassional league activity, you aren't penalized too highly. Maybe your get autodrafted a player you didn't want if you were too busy to show for your 5th round draft pick, but you still get the highest available undrafted talent so not too bad. Free agency runs almost all year, so we give something for more hyperactive players to always be doing, but it's mostly battling over long-odd players with lower demand in the off-peak times so doesn't hurt the busier GMs as they probably aren't missing out on too much in terms of proven talent.

[Royce R]

So, basically, a team can keep 90 players, and only have 51 count against the cap? Doesn't make any sense to me. But, you can be sure, that I'll be signing a lot of guys that I have no intention of keeping, and will try trading them for picks during the offseason.

5 bids per day, starting with 53 people. 90 - 53 = 37 / 5 = 7.4 days. gonna take you 8 days to get your players if noone bids against you, which you say that the players have options so surely at least a few of the players your bidding against will get other offers extending the time it will take to fill your team.

[hoopie44641]

I will try to get some free agents but not sure how many. when can we start trying to get them?

[Goodell]

I will try to get some free agents but not sure how many. when can we start trying to get them?

No time determined yet, but after rules discussions and team openings sorted out and all the finances adjusted for 2013. Sometime sooner teams will be able to put in some of their own tag/tender decisions.

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