2014 Off-Season Update

[sportznut]

Will you be updating the options to sign franchise players for those teams who didn't get bids?

Thanks in advance.

[Goodell]

Will you be updating the options to sign franchise players for those teams who didn't get bids?

Thanks in advance.

In the past we've had people post it to a message board thread and I did those manually. Wanting to switch over to automating that this year. Now that the draft is done, looking to finish that up and have those options available soon.

Part of that is I'm doing it with a shift in mind for new leagues this summer and future seasons here where tags are more realistic and more in line with NFL rules after more research there. We did some things in the past with more flexibility there to allow for some of the rare cases in a way our setup could handle, but can make that more realistic ahead where teams no longer trading the franchise tag rights but doing what's done in reality in those rare cases of having a tender signed and player traded and new contract extension options going over with player to new acquiring team instead of just trading matching rights (which can't be traded in NFL).

[Goodell]

EXTENSIONS FOR TAGGED PLAYERS WITH NO BIDS:
For teams who had franchise/transition tagged players in free agency who DIDN'T receive any bids to match, you can now sign those players to extensions (same contract structure as exclusive franchise tags or LTCs based upon top 5/10 at position salary) from the bottom of your team roster page.

In the past people would post to a message board thread and I'd manually add those, so this is new and let me know if you have any problems doing this. I believe in the past we gave teams to June 1st to post extension but since late adding that new functionality this year we'll make the deadline for that July 1st. After that, those players will be on 1-year contract at listed salary as if signed 1-year tender.

CHANGES TO TAGS IN THE FUTURE:
How we've been doing franchise tags wasn't exactly in line with NFL rules, but we had a little flexibility there to most easily allow for situations like Matt Cassel, Tebucky Jones, or Jared Allen where players tagged and then traded to a new team. We allowed teams to tag-and-trade to approximate those kinds of situations (Cassel's tag and trade was big news around the time of league founding which impacted those decisions then). However, that can create some inconsistencies with NFL rules, confusion, and complex grey areas involving tagged players and what teams try to do with them. So we've made some tweaks to the system to bring it in line with NFL rules in that regard (where teams can't trade matching rights and can only trade a tagged player once they've signed a 1-year tender), as well as automating this process we have every year of unbid tagged players getting extension options.

Most things about tagging will be the same as before except for tag-and-trades, having to wait for bids to match, or if willing to accept less compensation.

No longer will teams trade the rights to a franchise tag player to another team. Instead of being marked 'f' for franchise tag on the team roster, once a player is traded (or free agency ends and no bids) we'll change that 'f' to a 'ft' for franchise tender (or 'tt' for transition) which will remove the player from free agency (as he's no longer without a contract as he's signed to that 1-year tender in order to be traded). Matching rights will no longer apply in those trade cases, but the new team will get those same options to extend the player's 1-year contract at franchise/transition tag levels as if the player was given an exclusive tag and kept out of free agency.

If you have a tagged player not getting bids and willing to accept less for him (as the Patriots didn't get 2 first rounders for Cassell) then you'd just outright trade the tagged player for that something less (not just trading his matching rights as happens now). He'd go to new team as a player on 1-year tender at tag amount (which needs to happen to be traded by NFL rules) and have those same options for multi-year extension on his new team. No matching rights traded, as player would be removed from free agency once traded as he's no longer on the market with his signed 1-year tender allowing for a trade. Only tagged players without bids (no current offer-sheets) could be traded in this manner, so we don't jack around with bidding teams by suddenly taking him off market before signing offer-sheet for match considerations. Only the original owning team would have any kind of matching right to tagged player, and if no bids and player traded, he's signed to 1-year tender automatically and removed from free agency and new team has options to give extension as original team did when deciding to tag. So it should be very much like those rare NFL tag and trade scenarios ahead now.

Also like reality and removing some of the artificial limitations, for teams with tagged players with no current free agency bids or offer-sheets could decide to stop waiting and just sign an extension at any time (so long as no current offer-sheet bids) instead of having to wait until after free agency over, similar to the exclusive franchise tags they could have done before free agency started.

I think that will simplify some of the process and hopefully clean up some of the franchise tag situations with no bids or teams trying to get bids and lowering compensation or scheming arrangements, etc.

Let me know if any questions or concerns about that, but as working up a rules document and polishing some things up for possible new leagues this summer, I've long wanted to clean up some of the tag messiness and differences from NFL rules. None of these things will come into play in existing leagues this year as we've already had our free agency, but would impact how tags and tag-and-trades work next year to be more in line with reality.

[paulco]

I tried to sign a 2-year extension for Wilfork in AFFL JAX, but his salary seemed to have cleared out.

[JonC]

For some reason, I'm unable to even sign them to the one year tag.

*ETA* - All fixed now, thanks!

[Goodell]

Reminder for the deadline of July 1st for players who were tagged but received no offers in free agency to match. I contacted the teams in those situations posting reminder also.

[charlie813brown]

I am curious, why do we rush to do the draft every year right away and then basically have like 3 months of silence? I feel this benefits the teams that can do crazy amounts of research in a short time and for what purpose?

[Goodell]

I am curious, why do we rush to do the draft every year right away and then basically have like 3 months of silence? I feel this benefits the teams that can do crazy amounts of research in a short time and for what purpose?

It's something that can be discussed. In my mind, we're not really rushing it. I often run a poll of what date people want the draft with some of the options being weeks later. That's never a popular choice. Most want it right around the real draft in previous polls. We used to have it also be slower like 1 round per day. That was too slow in the view of many also so move a little faster than that now. Most of those decisions were driven by user feedback over the years.

[sportznut]

Troy is right. One thing to also keep in mind, is many people are much busier in the summer than winter. I know I am, so I'd hate to have important dates fabricated in the summer just for the sake of it.

[charlie813brown]

I know. guess, I am just venting that I am in the minority. it's just hard to keep up with you guys somedays.