2010 RULES: RFA/UFA

[TylerW]

To say this hasnt been brought up before is incorrect. Ive been asking about what we were going to do since they decided to move it back to 6 years.

[Royce R]

To say this hasnt been brought up before is incorrect. Ive been asking about what we were going to do since they decided to move it back to 6 years.

who said it wasn't brought up before?

[Goodell]

Just FYI on the team rosters updated today for 2010. All free agents are listed as UFA right now. By early next week we'll try to have the RFA's noted and teams able to set compensation levels on their roster pages. So going to need to reach a conclusion on this poll issue this weekend. Looks like most want to keep the old RFA rules for only young players under 4 years instead of the new NFL free agent landscape in reality this year with 200+ more RFAs because everyone under 6 years a RFA there.

[Onyxgem]

Just FYI on the team rosters updated today for 2010. All free agents are listed as UFA right now. By early next week we'll try to have the RFA's noted and teams able to set compensation levels on their roster pages. So going to need to reach a conclusion on this poll issue this weekend. Looks like most want to keep the old RFA rules for only young players under 4 years instead of the new NFL free agent landscape in reality this year with 200+ more RFAs because everyone under 6 years a RFA there.

Do you need any help with finding which guys should be the RFA guys?

[Goodell]

Do you need any help with finding which guys should be the RFA guys?

Thanks, but that'll be part of a bigger comparison of our current player data to NFL rosters at the moment to make sure we have everybody and that their service time updated. Hopefully that'll be done today, and teams able to designate tagged players and RFA compensation levels tomorrow.

I contacted a lot of people who'd previously registered on the site to let them know about open teams and hopefully will also have all those filled by the end of the week. Those who were interested in adding another team, we'll see what's left after new guys get their squads.

I do want to utilize help more often, and appreciate the offers, but updating the main player database to find anybody we don't have in the system yet (who's on an NFL roster now) plus updating service time I'll probably have to do and then rely on help to double-check if any problems after I upload that. Thanks!

[Goodell]

Actually kind of having a difficult time finding a current NFL roster resource.

- Yahoo still 2009 based it looks like with rookies as "R" instead of 2nd year players this upcoming season.

- NFL.com has quick stats as part of their roster listings now instead of the height/weight experience college, etc. Each team has their own site and their own rosters but different formats and inconsistent inclusion of RFA/UFA, etc.

- CBS Sports rosters would be good to go and updated for experience, except for RFA/UFAs not listed on the rosters (logically) but didn't find a place to list those guys and their updated information in that same format.

- ESPN also had updated info but missing the free agents also. They had a free agency tracker that had some of the experience info but seemed to be missing players (like Orton, Marshall not on Denver's roster or free agent tracker updated info).


So may just assume one extra year from the player experience in the database now in general when setting RFA's, and then try to update our player database again next year closer to the season when rosters won't be in so much flux. If anybody has a good resource beyond those that had all the players listed using a consistent format (and especially including updated player experience -- last year's rookies being 2nd year now) let me know. Thanks!

[Goodell]

Preliminary RFA's noted on your roster pages. As per the poll results (I voted the other way) we'll stick with the old rule about RFA status being 3 years or younger instead of the NFL's new reality of under 6 years this off-season. Let me know if any issues noted.

In previous off-season we just turned practice squad players loose on the market as unaffiliated UFAs, but this year we kept the team designation to give home teams more power to retain their practice squad players from last year. We did that to try to bring in some of the "future's contracts" that get signed for young p-squad type players at the start of the off-season in reality. That recognizes some of the real associations to p-squad players and the franchises they are practicing with (although they can sign elsewhere at any time too). We aren't making all those inexperienced players RFAs (unless someone has a good arguement for that) as that wouldn't be realistic but they are UFAs with your team associated still giving you unlimited bidding for them if you choose.

[Onyxgem]

I guess i thought anybody who was coming off their rookie contracts were actually guys who got the RFA option??

[Jared A]

It depends what kind of contract they signed.

[Goodell]

I guess i thought anybody who was coming off their rookie contracts were actually guys who got the RFA option??

It's always been determined in NFL (and here trying to mirror that) I believe by the years of experience. The vote was for to continue with 3 years experience and younger being RFA.

Brandon Marshall is coming off his rookie contract in the NFL. He wouldn't have been RFA under the old NFL rules, but was set to be a UFA until the uncapped year happened. He's only a RFA this year because of the uncapped changes which this league voted to not go along with. Otherwise we would have had more RFAs just like the NFL (anyone under 6 years) but that was voted down.