Off-Season Rules Discussion

[Goodell]

If you have any suggestions for off-season rules discussions, you can reply here or PM Goodell.

One issue this season was free agency staying open during the delayed playoffs. Even though NFL teams can sign players during the playoffs (to add a kicker, for example, if theirs is injured in a playoff game), in hindsight I believe free agency here was intended to be closed at the end of the regular sim season. That was a manual thing I had to remember to do, though, and I've just recently updated the systems with some scripting which will manually close free agency automatically once the regular season ends in the future whether I remember to or not. The more I can automate, the better we can keep things rolling. I can imaging that might be a rule discussion people might raise, but it's already been implemented for the future.

I want to take a quick look at some of the free agency bid tweaks we discussed after last year's free agency and see if any common sense improvements before we kick off our new year, especially related to what types of bids beat other types of bids.

One larger tweak to free agency suggested that we might put up for a vote is whether it makes sense to add 2 bonus bids within the first crazy 24 hours to help reduce some of the players that fall through the cracks at lower than expected contracts after the first 24 hours.

Another bigger idea I've wanted to implement (but not sure I had time to) has been setting up a GM of the Year type point system for another way of measuring individual management success beyond wins and losses. It would incorporate player grade improvement over the season (add players who get better means you're good at selecting those improving players) and reward/deduct points for positive/negative game actions (such as being over the salary cap deducts points from GM score).

I personally don't have a lot of other immediate rule/process changes planned, so if no big issues come up that require much manual work to implement, my hope is to get through the rules discussions quickly. Soon also transition team rosters to 2018 finances for the new league year. Replace any GMs needed. And then be able to re-open rosters and set a free agency starting date later this month.

Feel free to offer up rule change or other suggestions here during our off-season rules discussion period. Once the new season starts, we don't change rules mid-stream, so now's the time.
Thanks!

[robroach]

I have 2 offerings:

I claimed a player off waivers late in the year and was charged that player’s salary for the whole year. We need to fix that. That’s not how it is in the real NFL and that’s not how it is here for a player traded or a player signed to a free agent contract.

The free agency issue is a relatively easy fix and one that would bring more realism to the free agency process: have 2 waves of free agency.

Wave 1 - Teams can’t place the initial bid on their own players. If a team has had a chance to LTC that player and hasn’t, then there’s no way that player (in real life) would sign a 1 year $450k contract 24 hours into free agency. Also, all contracts would have to be 3 years or longer. And since 3 year contracts require guaranteed money, this would keep players from falling through the cracks.

Wave 2 - Same rules as we have now.

Wave 1 could last anywhere from 5-14 days. This would bring about a slightly longer free agency period and make the process much more strategic and realistic.

[tino38]

I have 2 offerings:

I claimed a player off waivers late in the year and was charged that player’s salary for the whole year. We need to fix that. That’s not how it is in the real NFL and that’s not how it is here for a player traded or a player signed to a free agent contract.

The free agency issue is a relatively easy fix and one that would bring more realism to the free agency process: have 2 waves of free agency.

Wave 1 - Teams can’t place the initial bid on their own players. If a team has had a chance to LTC that player and hasn’t, then there’s no way that player (in real life) would sign a 1 year $450k contract 24 hours into free agency. Also, all contracts would have to be 3 years or longer. And since 3 year contracts require guaranteed money, this would keep players from falling through the cracks.

Wave 2 - Same rules as we have now.

Wave 1 could last anywhere from 5-14 days. This would bring about a slightly longer free agency period and make the process much more strategic and realistic.

Teams have the option to talk to all of their free agents in the NFL. They have the option to spend every last cap dollar on “their” players if they would like. We do not get that option, except to bid on them in free agency with everyone else. What you are implying is that if I have 5 A rated players but can only sign 2 of them then immediately I downgrade my team cause it’s just too bad, so sad. I can’t sign this player but instead I can sign someone else’s cast off. This would lead to everyone just trying to dump their players with 1 or 2 years left on their contracts and always a sell off. No teams would be able to maintain their level of success. I do not support the rules you have suggested. I am very much so in favor of everyone having a chance to sign their own free agents. Don’t punish good GMs because someone sold everything off and now has $100M in cap space to sign all the free agents everyone else is prohibited from signing because they played for them and weren’t a top LTC choice.

[tino38]

With the constant increasing cap, the NFL continues to one up itself with contracts, particularly the QB position. I think we need to visit the minimum LTC values again for QBs. Probably something that should be looked into every couple of years to keep up with the NFL.

[jerrydlux]

I think the issue with Robs idea is we only have a limited number of LTC's. In real life if a team has the money available and needs to lock up 5 good players, they are going to do it. So the argument of not using the LTC on someone means they should be fair game for everyone else doesnt quite work.

I am not saying unlimited LTCs...that could cause many other issues.

I am not opposed to two tiers, the baseball sim I am in has that (I think others here are in that league as well) where there are the top 10 or so free agents. Maybe we could do something similar and have what have been considered the top 20 free agents available for the first week of free agency and then we open the doors to everyone else after that.

With that model though I think we would need to adjust the 5 bids per day though because I could potentially have the highest bid on 25% of the free agent market and thats unrealistic. Could bring back the 5 bids for tier two.

[bpboguta1483]

"Teams can't place initial bids on their own players". Think about that for a second. We as GM's should have every right to sign their own players whenever possible. I agree with robroach however about low balling offers to players. I have two in Thomas Davis and Mike Adams, This is Davis' last year and Adams more than likely his last year as well. This is where the one year deal makes sense but put a modifier in there where the one year deal either matches or near match to their real life NFL contract. It would be an insult to offer a $450,000 1 year deal to both players who have played at a very high level throughout their careers, and are still playing at a high level.

[vikingfan]

Is there any way we can pare down the player list? Its getting pretty long filled with retired and dead.
thanks
al

[vikingfan]

I have never had it where I got charged for full year salary during season. its always prorated. See Sloeter and Stringfellow on my roster for 2 examples.

I have 2 offerings:

I claimed a player off waivers late in the year and was charged that player’s salary for the whole year. We need to fix that. That’s not how it is in the real NFL and that’s not how it is here for a player traded or a player signed to a free agent contract.

The free agency issue is a relatively easy fix and one that would bring more realism to the free agency process: have 2 waves of free agency.

Wave 1 - Teams can’t place the initial bid on their own players. If a team has had a chance to LTC that player and hasn’t, then there’s no way that player (in real life) would sign a 1 year $450k contract 24 hours into free agency. Also, all contracts would have to be 3 years or longer. And since 3 year contracts require guaranteed money, this would keep players from falling through the cracks.

Wave 2 - Same rules as we have now.

Wave 1 could last anywhere from 5-14 days. This would bring about a slightly longer free agency period and make the process much more strategic and realistic.

[jerrydlux]

Is there a way for qb and rb ratings to be factored into matchups? Or would that mess with the fantasy portion?

I know we get a little boost when a qb has a great day but also hurt when they have a bad day in real life but what about teams that are using a backup qb? They arent getting those ups and downs so maybe the rating would come in to play?

I think having a back up as your starter should be a bigger negative. I know some teams have really high ranked Olines and other grades to off set that a little. And im not meaning a backup like Nick Foles who comes in and actually plays but rather if Wentz didnt get hurt and Foles never played a down yet was a teams starter for the season.

Part of the issue is that such players can be had for pretty cheap while real nfl qb salaries are getting higher and higher.

If im missing some part of the sim calculations and it actually is a bigger hit than I realize, I apologize

[Goodell]

Is there a way for qb and rb ratings to be factored into matchups? Or would that mess with the fantasy portion?

I know we get a little boost when a qb has a great day but also hurt when they have a bad day in real life but what about teams that are using a backup qb? They arent getting those ups and downs so maybe the rating would come in to play?

I think having a back up as your starter should be a bigger negative. I know some teams have really high ranked Olines and other grades to off set that a little. And im not meaning a backup like Nick Foles who comes in and actually plays but rather if Wentz didnt get hurt and Foles never played a down yet was a teams starter for the season.

Part of the issue is that such players can be had for pretty cheap while real nfl qb salaries are getting higher and higher.

If im missing some part of the sim calculations and it actually is a bigger hit than I realize, I apologize

No need to apologize. The grades for QB do matter in a scenario mentioned where a real backup becomes a starter here. QBs with high grades get higher default updates while QBs with low grades get worse default updates. Like all from there, the supporting team grades vs defense grades further adjust those initial stat updates.

It's always something to look at and try to further improve, though.