Free Agency and Draft Dates

[Goodell]

Working on setting the start dates for free agency and the draft. I've had a couple of people mention times they would be unavailable ahead. We can't pick dates that work 100% for 100% of people, but I tried to keep those mentions in mind in setting up a couple options. One option is to strike quickly with our sim activities in the next few weeks while the NFL draft triggers fan's football interest and reminds them about their sim team to get everyone together and knock these activities out while participation high. Or we could spread things out longer over the long off-season. Times I was initially thinking would be starting free agency a week from now (Saturday 4/28 AM) and the draft on Sunday May 6th, but I wanted to throw a couple of options for either doing these activities here soon or spreading them out and see opinions on that before we set official times.

[Goodell]

A lot of mixed opinions but one is starting to separate from the others, so let's set Free Agency to start Saturday, April 28 at 10 AM ET.

[Knighty Knight]

I’ll be out of the country April 27 through May 8. Starting free agency next week is fine with me but it would be great if I didn’t miss both that and the draft. If possible, I support a later draft date.

[jerrydlux]

I think more time between start of FA and the draft would be good. How long has the gap been in the past? One week seems pretty close together (+/- a day or two)

[Ben C.]

I’d really like to see more time before the draft. The NFL has over a month between the start of FA and the draft. If the aim is realism we at least need more than a week.

[vikingfan]

I have no life so anything really works for me. I just dont want this drawn out until the summer. Then I start to get one!!!

[larry linke]

Brother in law died this morning so I will be unavailable until April 30th as my wife and I will be flying up to New Jersey.

Larry
Minnesota AFFL

[kevinl]

Praying for you Larry!

[VinceO]

I'd also like to see 2 weeks between FA and the draft, FWIW.

[Goodell]

Sorry to hear about that Larry.

Our check-in form I believe asks for upcoming scheduled conflicts so that I can try to factor some of that into these decisions. Some things are out of our control, but wish I would have known about some others.

Big mess of differing opinions, but here's the deal. I set up the options of doing FA and draft fairly close together or far apart based upon the limited feedback I received from the checkout form of some people unavailable at different times in May some for extended period of time. So the options that made the most sense were to get everything done earlier before some people said they were out or space it out further after.

I know not everyone will agree, but there is no scenario where they would.

I've already put the FA date out there so we're going with that, and we'll wait a bit before the draft date set. Based upon some feedback and new unavailability, leaning towards that being later.