2018 Free Agency Tweaks

[Fish]

Thought it was sarcasm

[lucky7jc]

What about an idea of per say once a GM bids on a player, they may bid on said player throughout negotiations but never more than a certain number of players at a time for the first week of FA. Once they bid it would essentially be like bidding on a player lost to UFA.
- E.G. 5 players that were not original members of their team and now UFA. Once a GM bids on 5 new players, they may participate in that bidding process the entire time until signed.
- Player A had 3 bids from managers on day 1, 24 hour clock starts.
- Same player had 2 new high bids from managers on day 2, extending clock
- All 5 managers would have bidding rights if no new GM entered the bidding market within the first 48 hours until the player is signed.
- All GMs would be limited on bidding on up to 5 players concurrently that are non roster players
- Once the first week is over, it goes back to the current system.

Another alternative would be go to 7 or maybe 8 players total bids, but possibly take away the unlimited bids on current players lost to UFA.

I too hate the idea of tiered bids as I believe that will drive up the lower tiers as opposed to the upper tiers. I think once teams commit their money to the "A" players and see what's left, they then are left to address specific needs for positions/backups. I think if a team then hits on a upper tiered player, he's left with a specific amount he knows he can spend and may only need 2 holes filled, and will spend a stupid amount of money for 1 year deals.

No problem with that idea as it's the GMs/players rights, but the player based on our system will auto accept a 1 yr deal at $3M per w/ $5M bonus = $8M guaranteed & total. Versus a 3 year deal at $3M per w/ $3M bonus = $4M per year / $12M total, but only $6M is guaranteed, yet they would make $4M more in the second deal. Obviously I get that they could be cut, etc and guaranteed money is guaranteed money. The point is I believe you aren't going to combat the steeper prices or cheap rates by tiering it.

[Aftermath2531]

There is currently 160 bids flooding the market every 24 hours and that's not counting the unlimited bids on each teams own UFA's. Do we really need more bids available? Free agency is already crazy enough! If a player slips through the cracks with a team friendly deal then this means 31 other teams said no 5 times. I would like to know who these pro bowlers are signing for the minimum because I don't see any in DFFL.

I also think the free agency process is perfectly fine but would also like to see the bidscore tweaked. Would it be possible to incorporate winning percentage?

[Fish]

I think Jason Witten was the first FA signed and received $900k annual with a $2m SB. Definition of Pro Bowl caliber player may vary, but that is a pretty damn good player at a rate I think he would laugh at considering he just signed a 4 year, $30m deal.

[Ben C.]

I think Jason Witten was the first FA signed and received $900k annual with a $2m SB. Definition of Pro Bowl caliber player may vary, but that is a pretty damn good player at a rate I think he would laugh at considering he just signed a 4 year, $30m deal.

Witten is a 34 year old tight end who has already shown signs of decline the last two years (according to PFF). I suspect he won't make it through all 4 years of that contract.

The deal you've mentioned is certainly on the low end for him (I put his value at about $3.25 million/year), but I wouldn't consider it an outrageous steal. And as has been mentioned, the issue here may be more to do with inexperienced GMs. I doubt Witten would make it through free agency in the AFFL with a deal that low.

[VinolinaPanthers]

I think Jason Witten was the first FA signed and received $900k annual with a $2m SB. Definition of Pro Bowl caliber player may vary, but that is a pretty damn good player at a rate I think he would laugh at considering he just signed a 4 year, $30m deal.

Doubt Witten makes it through two seasons let alone 4 but if you saw it as such a low deal, why didn't you offer? Even if just to run up the cost? Less talk, more action gets the job done.

[Knighty Knight]

Doubt Witten makes it through two seasons let alone 4 but if you saw it as such a low deal, why didn't you offer? Even if just to run up the cost? Less talk, more action gets the job done.

Can we stop this type of logic. Asking a rhetorical question is not constructive and you are not proving your point by doing so. The answer to why, it's because we are limited to 5 bids.

I don't think these types of deals are the biggest issue with free agency though.

[Troy S]

There's never going to be a perfect system. I think ours is just fine, and for the most part, has been good at creating competitive balance.

It will overpay the allstars, and it will underpay the fringe players. There's no doubt about that.

That being said... the way our sim is calculated, allstars are worth more. An A+ player can make you an incredible grade! They are game changing! Role players or reserves are not really important... unless injuries happen. This isn't like the real NFL where in any give game almost every player plays (even if on special teams). Somewhere around HALF of the players on our rosters do not have their grades ever count.

I wanted to bring this point up because it may be an option frustrated teams should look at more.
Going back to advise that commish guy was giving earlier, sometimes teams that struggle with free agency and not winning against highly demanded players might want to think about some of the underappreciated values out there instead. There are arguably lots of them.

Thinking like "Moneyball" when you don't have as many funds or opportunities to easily win as other teams, you have to sometimes look at things differently to find your competitive advantage. See what values the current market is under-appreciating.

Maybe those kinds of players mentioned will never get comparable demand here in the sim as they do in reality, or maybe our sim should be tweaked a little to better value them. But if I was constantly striking out on big name free agent signings, instead of being frustrated about that I'd shift my target to these other values out there. Not super stars, not even stars but good quality player with much less sim demand and lower sim prices than they get in reality. Bargain free agent shopping is some of the best shopping a well managed team can do I'd think.

If you load up your team with dozens of bargain decent quality depth players, say in the high 70s or low 80s, perhaps you can't be an elite team that way but you've built a quality depth base that does make you much less injury-dependent with a solid grade awaiting any injuries that happen at any position. Maybe some of those guys improve in the future to become more of the star players, or maybe they just save you cash against the cap to go out and trade for that super star or not have as many holes to fill next year where you can put all your free agency funds into that one missing star piece and overpay for that one difference maker because you have a lot of affordable bargains for depth otherwise and very few holes to fill otherwise.

[Ben C.]

If you load up your team with dozens of bargain decent quality depth players, say in the high 70s or low 80s, perhaps you can't be an elite team that way but you've built a quality depth base that does make you much less injury-dependent with a solid grade awaiting any injuries that happen at any position. Maybe some of those guys improve in the future to become more of the star players, or maybe they just save you cash against the cap to go out and trade for that super star or not have as many holes to fill next year where you can put all your free agency funds into that one missing star piece and overpay for that one difference maker because you have a lot of affordable bargains for depth otherwise and very few holes to fill otherwise.

This is basically the strategy I've used most of the time, and it's turned out pretty well. Build a team from the bottom up, looking for 53 solid players. Then hope that some of those turn into stars while you have them under contract.

[Fish]

Since you asked, because I have 2 ~B TEs already on the roster. Why bid and risk having 3? Particularly when I'm saving money for LTCs and the draft. I am new to this, but wasting your cap on players you don't need sounds like the kind of thing an inexperienced GM may do.

As for Witten, maybe he plays 4 years, maybe not. He isn't 40 yet and the games I saw he was still the most dependable target the Cowboys have when they need a big catch. I seriously doubt Cowboy fans think he is expendable and washed up. Declining? Sure he isn't in his prime, but if he retires anytime soon I doubt it is due to lack of ability. As for the money, I'm more familiar with baseball evaluation, but at least we seem to agree he should not be signed to such a deal.

As for why it happened, I'm sure there are several reasons why, but at the end of the day it happened because the system is designed in such a way it can happen. Personally I think the leagues would be better off by removing the artificial limit on the number of players a team can talk with and focusing on how to value the bids, how to better simulate the market, adding a bit of randomness so every bid war isn't the same 24-hour clock with a counter at the last second with a minimum increase, etc. Troy has the automation down which is the hard part, now how can you leverage it to make FA more realistic and overall a better process.