2021 RULES: Suggestions

[Knighty Knight]

Troy, is there a way to calculate the first year base salary of the contract as guaranteed? I think that could be one small tweak that carries a significant impact in this situation.

[Goodell]

RE: Troy, is there a way to calculate the first year base salary of the contract as guaranteed? I think that could be one small tweak that carries a significant impact in this situation.

Sure, the math there can be tweaked and that's something to look at how that impacts things. I hope to maybe setup a test bidscore page that tries a couple different things and people can test out and find any loopholes or problems before next free agency as we keep working on those things.

I like the idea that 1 yr deal aren't eligible for LTC or trades for that matter...

On part of that, 1-year deals aren't tradable. At least in situations I think that people might be talking about with highly graded players or SBs over 10M. Those come with automatic 1-year no trade. LTCs also can't be done with deals just signed. It would have to be the next off-season with a pending free agent.

There's arguments to make that 1-year deals couldn't be eligible for future LTC, but currently that's not something we track for past deal length and arguably less realistic. Players sign 1-year "prove it" deals frequently where a team doesn't want to give them a long-term deal, but will give a nice 1-year deal and see if they earn a longer extension after seeing how the season goes.

I don't think we'd want to outlaw that as those are real deals that can happen and understandable (short-term mostly guaranteed deal to proven veteran but someone the team doesn't want to go long-term with quite yet). But I do think we'd want to make sure those kind of deals are very counterable with longer deals with more guaranteed money in total.

They can be defeated in bidding, though, even now even if more difficult than most would like. At least in one league I'm thinking about where people didn't like 1-year big SB deal counter being on top recently, a 2-year deal beat it and was setup in a way that if the player had a down season they could get out of that deal fairly easily cutting that player next year with the cap hit being close to the annual salary savings. If that player improved next off-season they'd still be under their 2-year deal and also eligible for LTC with one year left next off-season. So similar to the 1-year deal with cost this year, but longer without too much extra big risk and still LTC eligibility options next off-season or the one after that. And then after that a 4-year bid beat both of those shorter ones.

But I do want to tweak some things with bidscores and bid limits before next free agency so thanks for the feedback all.

[robroach]

This is an easy fix. Guaranteed money per year shouldn't be allowed to be more than signing bonus money per year.
Example: 5 years - 5 million dollar salary - guaranteed money cannot exceed 25 million. This is very realistic and would keep the one year inflated deals down. We should consider changing the 2 year deal minimum to 200k signing bonus - on veterans.

[Knighty Knight]

This is an easy fix. Guaranteed money per year shouldn't be allowed to be more than signing bonus money per year.
Example: 5 years - 5 million dollar salary - guaranteed money cannot exceed 25 million. This is very realistic and would keep the one year inflated deals down. We should consider changing the 2 year deal minimum to 200k signing bonus - on veterans.

Again, I think the easiest fix is to count the entire base year as guaranteed salary in the algorithm. It won't completely wipe out the issue but will stack the deck towards longer term deals.

While rare in the NFL, 100% guaranteed deals do happen. The only way for us to mimic that here is signing bonus.

[Knighty Knight]

Wanted to add one more comment re: this topic. Maybe it's time to consider setting a cap floor (I believe it's 89% in NFL) and allowing teams to roll over all unused cap space. Or simply just calculate the allowable rollover each year by multiplying the current cap by 10%. To use this year as an example, you would be allowed to carry over 10% x 182.5M, or $18.25M to apply towards next year.

[Aftermath2531]

Something else we should discuss are these RFA contract offers. Ive noticed it in previous years but would always forget to bring it up during the off-season. We have teams making offers that come well under the tender amount given to each player. The idea is to make a legit offer that forces the RFA's original team in to a tough decision to match. Ive never seen a NFL player sign a offer sheet for less money than his tender offer. Its always said here that a player wouldn't take less money as we have LTC's, Franchise, and Transition tags set up at 120% the previous years salary. I think bids on tagged players in FA should also be 120% of the tendered contract or at least a 5% increase the tender price just like any other FA in the bid score.

[lucky7jc]

Something else we should discuss are these RFA contract offers. Ive noticed it in previous years but would always forget to bring it up during the off-season. We have teams making offers that come well under the tender amount given to each player. The idea is to make a legit offer that forces the RFA's original team in to a tough decision to match. Ive never seen a NFL player sign a offer sheet for less money than his tender offer. Its always said here that a player wouldn't take less money as we have LTC's, Franchise, and Transition tags set up at 120% the previous years salary. I think bids on tagged players in FA should also be 120% of the tendered contract or at least a 5% increase the tender price just like any other FA in the bid score.

I think the argument there would be what if the team offering the RFA is offering him 4 years with a drawn out signing bonus, but adds up to be more than the one year tender? It would end up being more guaranteed money long term, and most players want to think long term. IRL players hate the Franchise and RFA tags because while they do get paid for one season, it limits their shelf life on getting a possible long term deal after another season of getting beat up.

I'm not sure there's a way to do it where if the RFA/Franchise that's getting bid on has a different bid sheet than all other players. If feasible, you'd make the RFA 120% minimum on a one year deal as the minimum, or require multi year deals that are 1.3x/1.5x/1.7x or whatever of the one year deal value. Then on the franchise player, you'd submit your bid and select the draft picks you are committing to that players bid. May be a lot of back logged work for Goodell there.

[Aftermath2531]

Here's a example of a player that just signed. Now when Chicago matches, they have a good player on the cheap for 3 years while saving $2.6 mil against the cap this year. No player would ever sign that offer sheet.

• CHI Ward, Charvarius |CB| Restricted FA 2nd Round Compensation $3.384mil
Signed a 3-yr 1,000,000/yr | RB:0 SB:50,000

[jerrydlux]

Here's a example of a player that just signed. Now when Chicago matches, they have a good player on the cheap for 3 years while saving $2.6 mil against the cap this year. No player would ever sign that offer sheet.

• CHI Ward, Charvarius |CB| Restricted FA 2nd Round Compensation $3.384mil
Signed a 3-yr 1,000,000/yr | RB:0 SB:50,000

Is the RFA tender a guaranteed contract once they sign it in the NFL? If not a contract like this (obviously with more actual guaranteed money) could be possibly more enticing. So maybe there need to be some type of required SB for RFA (if the one year tender isnt guaranteed in real life). Because otherwise, that team could cut him prior to camp with no penalty.

[bpboguta1483]

I like the part where it was suggested to match or exceed the rfa tender makes the owner think about how valuable a player is to him