2019 Off-Season Update

[Goodell]

I've made the first steps toward getting the game ready for a new league year. Take a look at the roster and let me know if you notice any problems before we open it up more to team check-ins and tag decisions. NFL and our salary cap for 2019 went up to $188.2 million.

[Goodell]

Teams can now check-in for the 2019 season on their team roster page. Let me know if you have any big scheduling conflicts to consider with free agency/draft or if any other team ownership situations (want a new team, want to give up one of your teams, won't be back, excited to be back, etc.). If you know someone who wants to play, now is a great time for them to register on the message board and post a message on the wait list thread. We'll be going over team openings before the start of the new season.

I am on vacation this upcoming week, but will be checking in every now and then also (hopefully from a laptop in the sand).

[JonC]

Just a heads up:
It looks as though Rotoworld has reorganized, so player pages are not loading properly on Rotoworld when I click through from our player pages here.

[Goodell]

Okay, more team functions have been turned on as we begin to have some transactions toward the new league year. Teams can now:

- Franchise/Transition Tag elite pending free agents (at top 5/10 salaries)
- Set the compensation for restricted free agents (RFA)
- Sign up to 2 players total (all season) to LTC extensions at provided prices
- Sign your exclusive franchise tag player to a long-term contract extension similar to LTC but at tag prices
- Cut players
- Restructure up to 2 contracts (1 more restructure available once regular season starts).
- Pick up 5th year option (or not) for first round draft picks who are on their last year under contract.

If you're fairly new to the league or forgot, don't cut pending free agents (UFAs). You want to keep them on your roster tied to your team for unlimited bidding rights, as well as for possible draft compensation if you lose more UFAs than you sign.

You probably do not want to tag players unless they are worth that elite top 5 NFL-set high prices. Check their LTC price first (probably lower than franchise tag). Teams also have unlimited bidding rights to essentially match any offer they get in free agency if willing to pay market price and have cap space for that. So be careful with tagging players to make sure that they are worth elite price, as you have other options to try to retain for possibly less.

Remember that all LTCs have a 1-year no-trade clause this year per off-season rules discussions. You must sign an LTC for any pending free agents prior to our free agency starting sometime in April when other teams can bid on them.

If you wish to trade a top free agent, you should tag them to a 1-year franchise tag. At that point they will be an active player on your roster under that 1-year deal, and can be traded like other active roster players.

Trades are not open yet, but should be later this week. Let me know if any questions or problems. Thanks!

[Chad55]

Could we possibly have the draft pick's updated with exactly what pick they are before trading open's?

[Goodell]

Could we possibly have the draft pick's updated with exactly what pick they are before trading open's?

Yes, that's one of the reasons trading not opened yet. I have all the orders for all the leagues finished now off-line, but I'm still in the middle of factoring in the compensatory picks for final full draft order soon.

[Adam K]

Do we have a target date for free agency?

In other words, a timeframe of when we should make some of the LTC or tag decisions?

[Goodell]

Do we have a target date for free agency?

In other words, a timeframe of when we should make some of the LTC or tag decisions?

Not just yet. Still sorting through some of our openings, etc. Announcements coming soon.

[Goodell]

Deadline for entering any franchise/transition tags, RFA values or signing pending free agents to LTCs before they hit the market will be: April 12, 2019 at 11:59 PM ET. A lot of teams have already made moves.

FREE AGENCY STARTS:
Unless there are a lot of objections, looking at Saturday, April 13th as the start of free agency. Last year we had some date options in a poll and Saturday won.

DRAFT ORDER:
The draft orders have been set. You'll see your exact 2019 overall pick # listed on the team roster page under draft picks now. You can also see the full draft orders here: http://www.fangm.com/football/draft-picks.php

A couple of notes:
- Most leagues will have one missing draft pick for last year's supplemental draft selections, so if you see that in the overall order that's why.
- Compensatory picks (c) are from last off-season's UFA free agency losses. Send me a PM if you have any questions about that.

Let me know if you notice any problems.

Now that the draft order is put in so no confusion over picks traded, I expect we'll turn trading on this weekend (perhaps Sunday after seeing if any draft problems brought up tomorrow).

[Goodell]

Trading has now been activated. Let me know if any problems, thanks!