SCHEDULE 2010 OFF-SEASON

[Goodell]

Here's a quick look at general off-season schedule for us. I'm going to try to add more of a calendar feature at some point this off-season but we'll do this for now.

Rules Discussions for 2010 - Feb 26 thru ?
Roll Call - Feb 27 - ?
Pro Bowl - TBD
March 1 - Rosters frozen
RFA / Franchise-Transition Tag deadline - TBD
FA & Trades Begin for 2010 - TBD (March/April)
Draft - TBD (Late April)

Roll Call - This weekend I'll try to setup an automated roll call like last year where teams need to sign-in and we can see which teams haven't yet and make those franchises open to GM replacement at some point this off-season prior to free agency and trades beginning. I doubt we start a new league (although I kind of wanted to keep the 1 new league per year pace but it was too much for me this year), but have some good candidates eager to jump into open team spots. We'll try to determine that in the next few weeks. If you know anybody interested, have them register and then put their name on the GM wait list thread.

Post-Season Cuts - We typically allow teams to still cut players and have that count toward this year's cap (instead of next year) through the Pro Bowl a week after the Super Bowls. That's a bit different this year in reality with Pro Bowl before Super Bowl, but we'll keep that still an option for teams until March 1. You CANNOT reduce your space under the cap at this time. Any player cut will already have had his FULL salary paid to him in full. If you are anywhere near or over the salary cap, DO NOT CUT ANY PLAYERS as it won't save you any money now that you've already paid everyone their full salaries. You can't save any money by cutting them now after the season is over. However, if that player has a Signing Bonus balance that generates a cap hit and you have room under your cap for that cap hit (as well as the 310K replacement for empty roster spot) you can still cut them now thru the end of the month. There are teams over their caps now and that's partially my fault for the system not being accurate in the estimated cap quoted before a team makes a potential move but we'll try to right those situations by either reversing some transactions that put a team over or adding that to dead money next year in fairness of the teams that aren't over.

Pro-Bowl Game - I'll look at that this weekend. Don't recall if that was easy or difficult to do last year but if not too involved will try to get it generated going off grades for participants. I could also just delay that until sometime this summer and make it part of testing some simulator changes if not a quick thing to do this weekend.

2010 Rules Discussions - As usual, we'll try to create some topics for rules change discussion and some GM polls to get a general idea of what most think of possible rule changes. That usually goes goes for a week or two or more depending. Could be a longer rules discussion period this year with all the NFL changes and figuring out what we're going to do with that or figuring out our own boundries without the NFL as much of a guide this year if their reality is temporarily much different than how it's been in the past for them and us.

Database and Scripts preparation for 2010 season - It takes a bit of time to adjust everything for a new season and get all the scripts going off 2010 year figures for stats (in roster, trades, cuts, draft, etc.) instead of 2009. The roster management tools are a bit off in their estimated cost of transactions that I need to fix across different points of the season. We'll try to get to simulator enhancements some point this off-season too, as well as any rules changes discussed to be implemented.

2010 NFL Schedule Key Offseason Dates - Not ours but real NFL dates for a guide
February 25 - Deadline for team's to use the franchise tag
March 5 - Start of NFL Free Agency
April 22-24 - NFL Draft

For the first time in the NFL Draft's history, the draft will begin on Thursday at primetime, and continue into Friday and will conclude on Saturday.

The full draft schedule is:
April 22 7:30 pm ET
April 23 6:30 pm ET
April 24 10:00 am ET

[Ben C.]

Is there a chance we could get a list of 2010 Restricted free agents?

Really, I'd like to know if Miles Austin will be an RFA or a UFA this year. It sort of influences my planning for the franchise/transition tags.

[Goodell]

Is there a chance we could get a list of 2010 Restricted free agents?

Really, I'd like to know if Miles Austin will be an RFA or a UFA this year. It sort of influences my planning for the franchise/transition tags.

I think that would be undecided currently until we have a discussion about how much of the new NFL rules we'll also go along with and see where most GMs are on that subject. I imagine some things will be carried over and some things not.

We could set up a poll about that now, but I believe the real NFL story isn't written yet as I believe league management and players association have until 3/5 to figure something out. After that day (unless some delay) we'll probably know a lot more about the state of real NFL free agency in 2010, and can then talk with more certainty about impacts for us. Hopefully we know something sooner than later, but I don't think we'd have our official rules for 2010 on that set before the NFL does theirs hopefully by 3/5.

I think I've said before that whether someone is a RFA or UFA isn't really built into our systems at all. It's something that I update in the data as part of getting things ready for a new year. Thus, it wouldn't take any additional work to alter scripts to go along with RFA rules changes. That makes it more likely to be incorporated here, but it's certainly something we'll have to all talk about and see where most GMs are on that subject. Because it's helpful to team management and not so much for players (who are all simulated here) I'd imagine more support for going along with that change by most GMs, but for those looking to go on big spending sprees with bigger UFA markets perhaps not.

[Onyxgem]

I guess I always thought that RFA's were mainly players coming off that first rookie contract?

[Goodell]

I guess I always thought that RFA's were mainly players coming off that first rookie contract?

Primarily as things were in the past, but lots of guys who would have been UFAs under the old system are likely going to be RFAs in reality as the uncapped year and triggered rule changes shifted those year of service requirements from 4 to 6 for free agency.

If that's really the case for sure with hundreds of UFAs to be actually being just RFAs this year (we'll know by 3/5 unless free agency delayed in reality) we'll have to decide if we go along with that rule change on RFA/UFA requirements also or not.

[Joe]

Are rosters still going to be frozen tonight?

[Goodell]

Just FYI reminder for everyone since it's been a while since the trading deadline passed...

To post your trade block message, go to your ROSTER page and click the link there. New trade block messages appear on the upper right column of recent blocks.

[Goodell]

Lots of news today about teams tendering players. I like chicken tenders myself.

But for the new GMs, we'll also allow teams to do that with their Restricted Free Agents at the same set compensation levels and salary amounts as real teams. That'll probably be a week or two before we start up our own free agency, and teams will do that themselves from their roster pages once I have it setup for 2010.

I was kind of waiting til we got closer to 3/5 and saw how free agency really was going to play out before doing our detailed discussions on it specifically, but looks like those 212 players who were going to be UFAs under the old deal will indeed be RFAs now and many getting tenders recently and we can really start to dig in on how much of this change we'll incorporate in discussions this week.

Here are the tender amounts I found online...

Veterans with 3 accrued seasons:
3.043 - 1st & 3rd round compensation*
2.396 - 1st round compensation*
1.684 - 2nd round compensation*
1.101 - original round compensation*
1.101 - right of first refusal

Veterans with 4 accrued seasons:
3.168 - 1st & 3rd round compensation*
2.521 - 1st round compensation*
1.759 - 2nd round compensation*
1.176 - original round compensation*
1.176 - right of first refusal

Veterans with 5 accrued seasons:
3.268 - 1st & 3rd round compensation*
2.621 - 1st round compensation*
1.809 - 2nd round compensation*
1.226 - original round compensation*
1.226 - right of first refusal

* or 110% of the previous year's pay (whichever is higher)

Not sure if that's legit or not, or if there is another list of tender amounts out there that differs.

It's always been 1 amount per level in the past I believe, and don't know that we'd alter our existing systems for that 100-200K difference or making sure we got the service time right for every player in the league. I would guess that if there are different amounts this year based upon experience that we might just stick with one of those levels (maybe the middle) or an average.

But let know if you found a good link with official tender amounts. I was looking on NFL.com for an article on that but didn't find.

I did find the Franchise and Transition tag amounts there for 2010, though, here:
http://www.nfl.com/news/story?id=09000d ... nfirm=true

Later this month on the roster pages you'll be able to set the RFA tender amounts for eligible players as well as designate any tagged players.

[Jared A]

4 and 5 year guys were never RFA's in the past.

So, those other rates might not even come into play (depending on what is decided)

[Bryan H]

There hasn't been a roll call yet right? Just wanted to make sure I'm not missing the link somewhere. I definitely want to keep playing.