2013 Off-Season Update

[Goodell]

2015 draft picks should be visible on the team rosters and tradable now. Let me know if any problems with that.

I also have the bottom of the team roster page printing out a list of estimated costs for 2013 draftee contracts (same as showed during the draft from your draft page).

Still enjoying a little down time, but once training camps get going we'll start signing our rookie contracts as well. I'll sign all draft picks for all teams (whether cap space or not) from rounds 2 through 7 in July. We won't have 7th round holdouts or anything, or give teams with no cap space additional advantage not signing a draftee until after camps over and avoiding signing bonuses as discussed during off-season rules changes. All 2nd - 7th rounders will be automatically signed to standard rookie deals similar to past years in July (should be around the estimated figure with slight adjustment with rookie minimum salaries increase and if any perceived NFL changes in rookie contracts when we start to analyze those and try to keep up with the times). After that, teams with first rounders will be able to click to sign their own first rounders once they have cap space to do so. If your draft pick contract estimates are much higher than your available cap space, probably should think about how you'll fit everyone under the cap and start maneuvering to create that cap space.

July's right around the corner...

[Goodell]

We'll sign all drafted rookies to rookie contracts around July 31st. As mentioned earlier this off-season, all picks from 2nd - 7th round will be signed automatically no matter team cap space at that time. That will push many teams over their 90 man roster limit and possibly salary cap when we make those signings (although many low-round rookie deals may not be above the 51st highest paid player on a specific team and wouldn't count against the total cap number during the off-season in that case for now).

So this is the more than 2 week warning. All your 2nd-7th round draft picks will be signed and active players soon, raising your total number of players by however many draft picks you have on your squad. If that pushes you over 90, you'll have the standard 48 hours to correct infractions.

May be a good idea to plan ahead and make sure you'll have roster room under 90 man limit for all draft picks by July 31st. You have some time to think about that.

If it's a major problem, we'll have to look at just making draftees count as "active" toward the 90 man roster limit at all times to ensure teams will have space for them.

Thanks. Once training camps get going, things are going to start picking up here soon also with rookies signed to deals, training camp stories generating bidding wars, new Madden grades coming out, and teams needing to start preparing to get down to the 53 man roster limit by the start of the regular season.

[RebelFan]

The way I'm seeing it, those unsigned drafted players are already counted in the 90. Is that not supposed to be the case?

[Goodell]

The way I'm seeing it, those unsigned drafted players are already counted in the 90. Is that not supposed to be the case?

Actually, I guess they do now that I look at it again. I was thinking they didn't until they were signed (and switched from drafted to active) and I was concerned about teams having roster spots for them once signed, but seems I might have had that same concern in the past and as such included draftees amongst the roster totals already after all. Thanks for the note there. You're right, looks liked drafted players already counting toward the overall roster total.

[RebelFan]

You're quite welcome Goodell.
I would add that my concern in this part of the process is more in the area of money than roster spots. Ideally, I, as GM, would be able to look at the contract of each player individually and then make an individual decision on each player based on that contract information (mainly sb) & my perception of said player's performance & potential.
I understand that would probably create more work for you, so I'm fine with the way it is done now. Just a suggestion for future reference.
Thanks for all your hard work Goodell!

[Goodell]

I was recently looking over information for signing our recent draft picks to their rookie contracts. On first glance the rookie contracts for the 3rd-7th rounds seem similar to last year's figures we used here. Here's a site with real draft contract info: http://www.spotrac.com/draft-tracker/nfl/round-7/

This should give you a good idea of what your draft pick contacts will look like, pending any alterations discussed/announced later. There is the usual bump in rookie base salaries:
Year 1 - 2013 : $405,000
Year 2 - 2014 : $495,000
Year 3 - 2015 : $585,000
Year 4 - 2016 : $675,000

Signing Bonus ranges seem about the same as last year with couple slight adjustments:
7TH: 4-year SB from 45896-70000
6TH: 4-year SB from 79000-140000
5TH: 4-year SB from 144500-215500
4TH: 4-year SB from 300500-500000
3RD: 4-year SB from 515000-703000

Looking back at this now, looks like we started teams could sign 1st and 2nd rounders themselves last year. 1st and 2nd round contracts were less standardized than 3rd-7th.

My plan would be to automatically sign ALL 3rd through 7th round picks to their teams this week (regardless of cap space as no late-round holdouts), as well as turning on the ability for teams to sign their own 1st and 2nd rounders to contracts (if that team has cap space to sign those higher picks who more reasonably could be holdouts). I have to still go through the 1st and 2nd round contracts more, but I expect similar to what was done last year with some slight adjustments. If no objections or comments on these 3rd - 7th round values, we'll pop them into the system and sign all 3rd-7th rounders by this weekend.

All sim teams need to cut down to 53 man rosters by the first NFL game on 9/5. Our sim games will start after all NFL week 1 games completed and stats loaded into our system, usually a couple days after the last NFL game of the week.

NFL teams have to cut down to 75 on August 27, then down to 53 man rosters only 4 days later on August 31. As usual, we'll give our teams an extra couple of days after that to react to the flurry of NFL transactions and get their own 53 man roster in shape before the NFL games start on 9/5.

We'll treat that first NFL cut-down date to 75 as a soft deadline this year, where I'll survey league roster totals and start contacting teams well over to ensure they know about the upcoming firm league deadline for 53 man roster about a week away at that time. This is also one of those times when we again see which GMs are active and who hasn't signed in for months to ensure they're coming back for the new season or see if we need to make replacements.

Let me know if any questions or concerns, and we'll get these rookies signed soon as teams prepare for the regular season.

[Goodell]

Also, to help teams prepare for the 53 man roster cut downs and trying to manage that against the overall cap, I've created a link at the bottom of your team roster (Rule of 51) where it lists the entire team sorted by cap figures so you can see where the top 51 cuts off. Any rookie draft signing that has a total cap impact lower than your 51st highest cap figure wouldn't count against your off-season cap yet. Once we flip the switch to regular season, everyone on the final 53 man roster will count against the cap this year. Hopefully this list and possible additional information we can add will help teams manage that if they are close to their caps as we switch from Rule of 51 to all players counting as the season begins. Ex. http://www.fangm.com/football/51.php?le ... l&team=ATL

[Goodell]

Some have already figured this out, but draft picks are now either signed (if rounds 3-7) or signable if you click on the sign pick link. You have to sign your lowest 1st or 2nd rounder before it lets you sign someone drafted higher, and you must be able to fit them under the cap to sign your higher picks or they'll be holdouts (no holdouts for 3rd - 7th rounders). Holdouts who aren't signed risk being lost and back into the draft next year if you cannot sign this season.

Let me know if any questions or problems.

Head's up that I am headed out to the west coast for the family for the rest of this week soon, catching a last bit of summer before my daughter heads back to school. May have some internet access from time to time but probably won't check in too much until Sunday after tomorrow.

[Goodell]

Just a reminder...

Deadline 9/5 for 53 man roster cut-downs.

The NFL's 53 man cutdown is 8/31. We'll turn on the practice squads at that time, where teams can either waive players to their p-squad (if they clear waivers) or add players to p-squad who are not on rosters at the time. The NFL doesn't have practice squads during training camp, only once they move into 53 man roster mode. We'll also allow teams to put guys on PUP soon, so long as the player is going to be on PUP list for the start of the season and not be eligible to play until later in the season. Teams will be able to send me a PM if one of their PUP guys is later activated in real life and they want him activated in sim also (and have roster room for him).

We'll also shift from the off-season Rule of 51 salary cap to where all players on the roster (53 players) will count against the cap on 9/5 so keep that in mind if you're close to the cap limit.

[RebelFan]

Will players on the NFI (Non-Football Injury) list be PUP list eligible for us?
My understanding is it works the same way, player is ineligible for first 6 weeks. It seems like there are a lot more NFI designations this year.
Thanks commish!