2018 Off-Season Update

[Goodell]

that is the signing bonus budget only, correct?

Yes

[Goodell]

Undrafted free agents have been added. Just click UDFA in free agency. If you have a player not listed who you'd like to sign who qualifies, just send me a PM and I'll add them and let you know when they are in the UDFA pool.

For UDFA as it'll state on the free agency bid page... Prior to July 1st, our teams have a 100K signing bonus cap — similar to the NFL — for signing undrafted free agents. You can sign as many undrafted free agents (UDFA) as you want (up to 90 man roster limit during off-season) but can only spend up to 100K total for all signing bonuses for UDFAs total. Once you sign UDFAs totaling 100K in SB, you will not be able place further UDFA bids with signing bonuses until after July 1st. At that time all UDFAs will become regular unrestricted free agents. Typical UDFA contracts might be 450K salary for 3 years with whatever signing bonus (typically 3K-30K in reality). Bidded unguaranteed annual salary for UDFA cannot exceed veteran salary of 760K, so 760K salary with 100K SB is the highest any UDFA could receive.

[soonertf]

So it becomes a bit of a time race? First one to offer 760K + 100K wins. Correct?

[Ben C.]

So it becomes a bit of a time race? First one to offer 760K + 100K wins. Correct?

Seems like it, but the winning team would be out of signing bonus budget for any other players.

[Goodell]

So it becomes a bit of a time race? First one to offer 760K + 100K wins. Correct?

Seems like it, but the winning team would be out of signing bonus budget for any other players.

Exactly. It's that way if you only want to sign one player for the next month while lots of other UDFAs are signed by others. It's a strategic decision there, do you go all out to win one or two players of most interest, or spread your odds around to more players with more chances.

[Goodell]

A reminder to contact me if you wish a player to be added to the UDFA pool. I need to do some special designation on UDFAs so they cannot be added by GMs through the system. Will keep my eye out for players added otherwise until I can possibly disable that functionality temporarily during this time. Thanks

[Nathan S.]

Hey Troy, you can’t top a 760,000 and 95K SB bid with 100K due to the increase being too small.

[Goodell]

Hey Troy, you can’t top a 760,000 and 95K SB bid with 100K due to the increase being too small.

Per the posts above, if someone does spend the max (or close to the max in this case that can't be raised under the max), that's part of it. Yes they'd get the player going all out or nearly all out for all their budget on one player, but then no SB left for any other UDFA signings. Some go the all on one person while other teams spread their SB budget over dozens of players to increase their odds and not just put all eggs into one player. It's a strategic choice for players. But yes, with limits there are cases where a bid couldn't be raised because it's at or near the limit.

[RyanM]

Hey Troy, you can’t top a 760,000 and 95K SB bid with 100K due to the increase being too small.

You stole enough of my draft picks, Nathan - give me a freakin' UDFA!!

[Nathan S.]

Hey Troy, you can’t top a 760,000 and 95K SB bid with 100K due to the increase being too small.

Per the posts above, if someone does spend the max (or close to the max in this case that can't be raised under the max), that's part of it. Yes they'd get the player going all out or nearly all out for all their budget on one player, but then no SB left for any other UDFA signings. Some go the all on one person while other teams spread their SB budget over dozens of players to increase their odds and not just put all eggs into one player. It's a strategic choice for players. But yes, with limits there are cases where a bid couldn't be raised because it's at or near the limit.

Well that’s a bummer, thanks for the quick reply!