UDFA Spending Cap

[tjbarnaba]

We should have a spending cap for UDFA, something like 20% of your post draft cap number as a spending bank.

Ex: CFFL WAS- $28,683,176 post draft cap space, so that would leave me with about $5.7 mill to spend on UDFA.

I only say this because I've been gauging the spending across the leagues to get an idea of what I should spend, it seems like the money being tossed around is unrealistic for UDFAs. The 20% of the post draft cap idea is a good one for rebuilding teams who have a lot of cap space but also limits the 1 mill SBs. It should also give incentive to make June 1st cap moves, similar to the NFL.

Just throwing it out there, I'm a noob so I get if this is bologna.

[soonertf]

That's just makes it where GMs with more draft picks get more UDFAs. That's not very realistic either. My suggestion would me to make them blind bidding like we do FAs during season. Thus you don't see bids on them unless you click on a fa to make a bid. This would cut down a lot of the bidding wars

[tjbarnaba]

I just think a spending limit would stop people from taking advantage of the system, but like I said, I'm a new guy so this is just me thinking out loud

[soonertf]

Under your method a team without draft picks or or lacking high rd draft picks wouldn't be eligible to sign UDFAs. That's not going to fly. Personally if a GM is idiotic enough to throw high signing bonuses at guys most likely to not even make a roster than power to them. Free agency is a free market. I don't think you are going to get many to agree to put limits on it. My suggestion above keeps it free just not open for every GM to see if a player is bidded on without clicking on the player out of interest of their own. It keeps GMs from using the signing soon feature to do their research for them.

[tjbarnaba]

I'm not saying the draft pool money, I'm saying your actual cap number, like before the draft you, with your AFFL DAL team had around $23 mill in cap, after the draft you have about $8 mill in cap(if you sign all 12 guys drafted), so 20% of your remaining 8 mill is your UDFA pool, which is about $1.6 mill.

[soonertf]

That makes more sense. Sorry I misunderstood what you said. I still don't think you will get many to buy in on that idea, but it's a good suggestion.

[Nathan S.]

None of the UDFA signings really change the cap numbers due to only the top 53 salaries counting. You would just be limiting UDFAs to teams who are tanking on purpose by leaving loads of cap space available.

I get your concern but it would result in top teams who compete every year being unable to sign UDFAs.

[soonertf]

Didn't even think of it that way. It's just bad to limit free agency in anyway IMO. I still think it should be more discrete though.

[Goodell]

Guys, thanks for the feedback. I've recommended something in the past:
http://www.fangm.com/sportstalk/viewtop ... f=7&t=1193

That didn't get quite enough support in the past but had a lot of positive and negative reviews (about a 50/50 split). It's something we'll think on more for future off-season rules discussions. There are a couple of things I'm looking at personally for future season enhancements overall. Thanks

[Jared A]

Here's a thought... what if we just kept drafting? After 7 rounds, we have basically comp picks. Fill your que if you want to sign players. 10 minutes per pick... if your que isn't filled, you're simply skipped?

Of course not tradeable.