2022 Off-Season Update

[Goodell]

Thanks to all who had interest in another team. All open slots are filled now prior to free agency. Didn't get quite as many new people as hoped as several of them didn't return messages (PM or emails) or didn't log back in after signing up ever. Hopefully some of them will re-engage and get a team ahead.

Of those who contacted me or mentioned interest in another team when checking in, GMs with just one team had first priority there over GMs with multiple teams already. When it got down to the last spots with similar GMs and in terms of giving some of the GMs their opening preferences first, performance of existing team(s) was a tie-breaker as we scrambled to get every team filled quickly prior to tomorrow's free agency.

Still have that list ahead for any openings that come up if some GMs don't show at all for free agency prior to the draft.

[Goodell]

Will be making some free agency updates tonight before we start tomorrow, but a couple of things to note.

Minimum salaries/bids always go up a little each year to stay in line with the NFL minimums. Instead of 660k and 990k for rookies and veterans, it's now $705K and $1.035M to go along with the NFL numbers this season.

As we've done in recent years, also no 1-year bids on the first day. That helps keep some veteran minimum 1-year guys from slipping through the cracks early unrealistically.

Per some of the off-season hope notes posted earlier, will adjust some of the bid score and winning counter offers a little. Guaranteed money is important in bidding, but maybe have to find a little more balance between the signing bonus and overall amounts in terms of counters. I think there was some frustration in previous season over bigger, longer deals getting easily beat by very short-term but lots of SB counters that lowered the overall cap/yr and total value but still won over the previous deal because more guaranteed salary. That is important, but maybe we'll slightly tweak that so that it's a little less extreme in what short-term guaranteed deals beat higher overall value deals. In the past some have suggested different considerations by age, etc. and we won't get into making that big of changes, but just some slight adjustment to the bid score formula that doesn't make it quite as extreme in lower cap/yr bids being able to counter bigger overall bids. There are arguments for both sides of that, so we'll probably move it a little more toward the middle to where some lower cap/yr deals may still be able to win counter offers if they jack up the guaranteed SB much more which is also very important to players, but just not able to do so in lowering the cap/yr as much as before. May also take a look as some other minimums over the years to see if they need slight boosts if haven't been changed for a while and not as realistic as years ago, etc.

[Goodell]

You'll notice on your team roster page that the listed draft picks for the upcoming 2022 draft now have estimated contract costs for those picks based upon slight updates from last year's slots. You'll see the total estimated cost for all your picks toward the top listing of picks and a breakdown of those toward the bottom of your roster page.

Keep your draft picks in mind when spending money, knowing that you'll have to sign your draft picks later this summer.

[Goodell]

With free agency starting soon (less than an hour) a couple reminders:

- Use commas in your bid amounts to avoid typo or extra zero. We will not un-do any bids, but if you make an extra zero mistake if you contact us immediately via PM, we can correct that.

- Be very careful, especially if you are new, on bidding on franchise tagged or restricted free agents (RFAs). Draft compensation from the upcoming college draft may be required if you sign the player and their previous team does not match (up to 2 first round picks). If an RFA is set at an original draft pick compensation level, the compensation required is based upon their real-life NFL draft round. If they were undrafted free agent in NFL, then it's no compensation but the team gets to match. If they were drafted in the 5th round in the NFL, though, and set at original compensation (orig) then it would require a 5th rounder to sign them if offer not matched. You can lookup where a player was drafted in the NFL at Yahoo Sports searching their name or lots of internet places.

- Speaking of RFAs, if you have one but didn't choose anything for them (1st, 2nd, original round tender or just making them a UFA) then they defaulted to original tender at that original tender amount. If you don't want them listed as original tender RFA at that NFL tender amount, you can click on their name in free agency and you'll see options at the bottom of the bid page for you to change that and remove them from RFA to just UFA (or lower compensation). Same if you want to reduce the compensation required for someone to sign your franchise tagged player from 2 first rounders, you can lower the compensation on their bid page.

- Especially if you're new be careful with big signing bonuses. There is no way to ever get out of a signing bonus. Not if the player dies or goes to jail or gets severely injured or cut or traded or anything. You will 100% be responsible for 100% of a signing bonus against the cap. It cannot be transferred or avoided. The NFL has had some unexpected retirements and unfortunate career changes in recent years, so things can change fast and don't put yourself on the hook for a massive signing bonus unless you know what you're doing there. As I always tell new GMs (and anyone actually), feel free to PM me anytime with questions or even if just want advise or confused about something.

- If you weren't around at the start of free agency and reading this later, it may be to your advantage. Often early bids as things start become immediately counter-offered in the rush to start and there goes one of the limited 5 bids per day on other team players and you have to wait 24 hours until you get that bid back again. So sometimes it can pay off to be a little patient and see how the markets are looking before throwing in your limited bids. At least for other team players. On your own guys you have unlimited bids for, probably the sooner the better on those.

- No 1-year bids on the first day of free agency to help keep some veterans from slipping through the cracks on 1-year minimum deals while the rush of bids are focused elsewhere. Starting tomorrow you can put in bids with 1-year.

- Depending on your team situation, keep a close eye on the compensatory picks chart on the homepage and your team update on lost/gained UFAs there and on your team and free agency page. There's a details link from the homepage chart, but just know if you lose more of your own UFAs than you sign from other teams, you could be eligible for up to 4 compensatory picks (starting at the end of the 3rd round). Beyond having more UFA losses than gains (and only UFAs from other teams with unlimited bidding count on that, not RFAs or tagged players or street free agents cut loose similar to NFL), if you want a compensatory pick for a UFA you lost you have to also make sure you don't sign another team's UFA with a similar or better grade which balances that loss out. Only the top 32 unbalanced losses from eligible teams get compensatory picks in next year's draft.

- I did adjust the bid scores for determining if a counter offer wins or not a bit as mentioned. Biggest changes I think focused on not making it too easy to counter by just adding one more year to same deal on the table, leveled things out a little with shorter deal counters having little less cap/yr but more guaranteed, making cap/yr more impactful on the bid score compared to SB dominating that more previously, and requiring a higher bid score increase to win counter. I tested it on several possible bids/counters but nothing like getting hundreds of bids out there being countered to test if any further tweaks needed or if adjustments had some unintended consequences, so we may adjust it a bit as needed after today for better counters ahead. Send me a PM if you notice something that you don't think should be that way.

- I mentioned in previous note about adding the estimated costs for your draft picks on the team roster page. Keep the amount you'll roughly need for draft picks in mind as your available cap space shrinks.

- Speaking of shrinking cap space, haven't been able to add the new additional contract restructure option voted on yet but hope to soon as those big available balances begin to tighten.

Let me know if any questions and happy spending.

[Aftermath2531]

I was curious how everyone feels about the bid score changes for this year? It seems to be adjusted a little to far. Ive experienced players turning down double the signing bonus and double the amount in the life of the contract in counters. Most players would jet for a new team for a fraction of that. I just wanted to see what everyone else thought on the subject.

[Goodell]

One aspect of the bid score I think we still need to tweak more in the future is how much total $ guaranteed is compared to % guaranteed of a deal. We moved it a bit this season where 1-year huge SB deals weren't quite as overwhelming and could be defeated as the % guaranteed was adjusted down and cap value and total value boosted up. But I do think still needs a bit more adjustment and the total guaranteed money being the highest factor perhaps and more than guaranteed percentage would move it even more in the best direction I think for logical player decisions on counters they'd generally prefer in getting the most guaranteed money.

[Knighty Knight]

One aspect of the bid score I think we still need to tweak more in the future is how much total $ guaranteed is compared to % guaranteed of a deal. We moved it a bit this season where 1-year huge SB deals weren't quite as overwhelming and could be defeated as the % guaranteed was adjusted down and cap value and total value boosted up. But I do think still needs a bit more adjustment and the total guaranteed money being the highest factor perhaps and more than guaranteed percentage would move it even more in the best direction I think for logical player decisions on counters they'd generally prefer.

I think one thing that would help is counting the first year of base salary as guaranteed for the purposes of a bid calculation. I think this would really solve the issue.

[Goodell]

Hope everyone enjoyed the first round of the NFL draft tonight.

Our draft tool has been rebooted for the new season and ready to go. Pick windows aren't set quite yet (hopefully soon) but it'll start Sat. May 14th and be a round per day.

As you watch the draft in the days ahead, if you want to add players to your draft rankings queue you can do that now. Having some players ranked in your draft queue is important if you happen to not be online in your pick window as you'll get your highest rated player available. If you don't have any players left in your queue, you'll get the highest available player based upon NFL draft selection.

You can also mark if you're interested in moving a pick up or down to generate trade interest and find partner matches for draft trades like all those we saw tonight.

[Goodell]

I think one thing that would help is counting the first year of base salary as guaranteed for the purposes of a bid calculation. I think this would really solve the issue.

Yeah, that could be something to try in adjusting the calculations in the future. thanks

[Goodell]

With some of the free agency markets slowing down, we'll set the end date for peak free agency to be Wednesday May 4th. That'll be the last day teams can bid on tagged or restricted free agents. At that point, those players who haven't had any bids will be returned to their teams at their tender amount. Franchise tagged players with no bids do have some extension options from there. That'll also be the last day that UFAs are associated with their former teams with unlimited bidding. After that, all UFAs will still be available but nobody will have unlimited bidding on those. Signing soon links and notices of players with bids on them will also go away after that as usual as free agency changes after this peak period for the rest of the season.