2016 Off-Season Update

[soonertf]

Ok wasn't aware the links were up and available. I was just trying to do some pre-planning. Thanks for the clarification.

[Goodell]

Ok wasn't aware the links were up and available. I was just trying to do some pre-planning. Thanks for the clarification.

Finished some of that late last night and going to let people know this morning. I'll still be working in the scripts today getting free agency ready for the new year so you may see things as work-in-progress or changing, but the player links in free agency should be working now to where you could click on a player and bookmark them or read about their status and associated requirements. Some of the new bidding requirements are also listed there from a recent poll so they'll be more visible when entering bids this year.

[Goodell]

Freshman2255 has taken controls of DFFL HOU.

[Goodell]

If you look at your team roster page, you'll see draft pick cost estimates now. You'll see that both at the top (near the draft pick list) as well as the bottom. As usual, those are based upon last year's cap values at those slots for the first year contracts of draft picks.

The intent here is to give you an idea of how much cap space you need to save for your draft picks before spending it all in free agency. Or if you need to trade picks away if no cap space for them.

[Goodell]

As previously announced, Free Agency gets started Wednesday 4/27 morning at 9 AM ET. For those new to the leagues or forgot how things go, here are a couple reminders.

Teams get UNLIMITED bidding toward their own UFAs on the market, and 5 bids per 24 hours to put toward other players. After 24 hours, a used bid becomes available again. There's nothing more frustrating than putting in your 5 bids immediately first thing only to see them all countered and no longer leading bids by mid morning with no other bids until the next day. Some have different strategies probably, but sometimes it can be effective to space your bids out a bit after seeing how the market is going, what players are in crazy demand, and being the team that gets out of the first day on top instead of the team that had an all their early bids countered.

A UFA is signed when he goes without a counter bid for 24 hours. Restricted free agents (RFA) or tagged players are signed to offersheets after 24 hours without a counter bid, but their home team has a chance to match or receive compensation in some cases. Always read the bid page completely, especially in cases of RFA or tagged players that have certain conditions and compensation required for bidding that is listed on their page. Often in those cases you may have to give up a draft pick if you sign a restricted/tagged player.

Once turned on, free agency will never be turned off until the end of the regular season in January 2017. It's always available to shop players throughout the off-season and regular season. During peak free agency starting tomorrow you'll be able to see what players have bids and rough signing time deadlines before they'll sign, as we do that in peak free agency to try to ensure players get their fair market price. Some things change after peak free agency is over, and after June 1st free agency becomes much more secretive for the rest of the season to reward teams that do their research on training camp gems instead of just cherry-picking other team bids.

Depending upon your situation, you may want to pay close attention to the UFA gain/loss chart on the front of the league homepages (and on your team roster page). That determines which lost UFAs get compensatory picks in the 2017 draft or not. Only teams with more UFA losses listed than gains are even eligible for picks, and only the top 32 UFA losses whose team didn't have a similarly graded UFA gain to balance that out will get picks. Street free agents without teams, RFAs, and tagged players do not factor into compensatory picks -- only UFAs from other teams with unlimited bidding rights.

Some of the recently discussed modifications to bid requirements (particularly for longer-term deals) are listed on the bid page just below the bid submission form.

There are no do-overs in free agency. Especially if you are giving a player GUARANTEED signing bonus money, make sure you do your research. Check their rotoworld page, do a google news search. Make sure you're bidding on the right player and not someone with the same name. We honor real NFL retirements, suspensions, injuries, etc. Grades listed are grades from last year, and madden grades can sometimes change significantly from year to year plus grades are updated weekly throughout the season with performance. Be smart with your money, and careful with guaranteed signing bonuses especially as there is no way out of those at all. You're going to pay 100% of that one way or another and cannot transfer signing bonuses to anyone else.

I put a note on the team roster pages about it being a good idea probably to save yourself about $2M+ under the cap for in-season transactions as it's more difficult to clear cap space during the season when injuries happen. Team roster pages also now show the estimated cost for your current draft picks so you can budget for their signing later this off-season. Don't over spend in free agency or you won't be able to afford your draft picks.

We also carry over some unused cap space from year to year, with a max of 5M. So if you're 5M under the cap at the end of this season, you'll get that 5M next year. If your 50M under the cap, you still only get 5M carried over.

If you are unsure about something, please send me a PM. Better to ask than make a mistake that can't be undone. Thanks and happy hunting!

[RyanM]

Teams get UNLIMITED bidding toward their own UFAs on the market

I think next year we need to consider getting rid of this rule. UFAs are going to sign for WELL below market value because there aren't enough free bids to catch all the ridiculously low initial team offers. I'd suggest either limiting a team to 5 bids for other UFAs and an additional 5 bids for their own player, or perhaps pushing a minimum value in the initial offer based on their grade.

[Onyxgem]

Teams get UNLIMITED bidding toward their own UFAs on the market

I think next year we need to consider getting rid of this rule. UFAs are going to sign for WELL below market value because there aren't enough free bids to catch all the ridiculously low initial team offers. I'd suggest either limiting a team to 5 bids for other UFAs and an additional 5 bids for their own player, or perhaps pushing a minimum value in the initial offer based on their grade.

Or just make it unlimited offers for all teams...should fix any low deals real fast

[whteshark]

Teams get UNLIMITED bidding toward their own UFAs on the market

I think next year we need to consider getting rid of this rule. UFAs are going to sign for WELL below market value because there aren't enough free bids to catch all the ridiculously low initial team offers. I'd suggest either limiting a team to 5 bids for other UFAs and an additional 5 bids for their own player, or perhaps pushing a minimum value in the initial offer based on their grade.

I have to disagree.

I think a hometown discount is in the realm of realism.

Plus, you have snipers like Jared and Oynx, our self recruited AFFL vigilante moral police force, who save a few bids to keep the rest of us honest.

[RyanM]

Or just make it unlimited offers for all teams...should fix any low deals real fast

I could get on board with that as well. Only potential problem is it could really string out FA.

[Jared A]

I think we should do away with unlimited bids also. Switch it to that you can place bids on your players prior to the start of FA. (So, you get the first offer in)