SCHEDULE 2010 OFF-SEASON

[Goodell]

Just FYI there was more to this in a multi-part trade that was brought to me previously and I tried to discourage at the time but nothing technically in the rules arguably if the first part of it wasn't outrageous enough to void on it's own. Also an arguement that this second part wasn't outrageous enough in itself to void since it involved a player's rights instead of a player under contract where it might indeed be a draft pick sent for nothing.

But mentioned then (and again today) that we ideally shouldn't have multi-part deals like that generally because GMs may change, GMs may get sick or hit by buses, or forget or leave. And could also be abused unfairly. And that the league wouldn't itself enforce a second part as that's not part of our operations to keep track of future considerations or possibly force a replacement GMs taking over to previous arrangements, but probably couldn't do much about if neither trade was voidable on it's own.

But in some cases an uneven trade might need to be posted that looks a little odd as part of correcting some other trade or moving an agreed lower compensation amount from one team to another.

Over the years there probably has been a lot of "messy" private creative agreements in trades and free agent tagging trying to work the lowest contract possible or trying to get value for free agents no longer under contract or get teams to stop bidding or whatever.

Maybe having an automated trade tool instead of posts on a message board like most sim leagues contributes to some of that trying to be more creative, but there's no way I'd want to manually update spreadsheets and I think that's what eventually drives most sim leagues under at some point when the work gets to be too much for the volunteers as their life gets busier -- so trying to make something sustainable here with automated systems.

One thing that I wanted to institute that hasn't been brought up directly this off-season because i wasn't sure I'd have time is to put in more feedback or protest options as part of a posted trade.

This domain FanGM.com actually was a functional site I created a long time ago where originally fans of teams could post their rumor mill trade ideas for real sports teams and have polls on whether the trade was fair, realistic, and who it favored, etc. I'd like to bring some of that to our actual sim trades here to maybe put more attention on each trade and get more interactivity too. And could be useful education for newer GMs getting feedback or reading what others thought of different deals.

That might put more focus on each trade going through and all GMs knowing that it'll be evaluated and possibly flagged to be looked at for possible voiding if enough negative reaction from fellow GMs protesting it.

[Goodell]

April 15th is the last day to enter a bid for a tagged or restricted player. After that day, all unbidded players will return to their original teams at their tagged figure. That is also the last day we'll count UFA losses/gains toward compensatory picks in 2011 draft and all UFAs will lose their team association after 4/15.

My home computer went a little haywire this weeekend and still trying to fix, but also have the draft order of all 3 leagues now posted (including compensatories) if you click draft and then overall picks by order.
http://www.fangm.com/football/draft-pic ... eague=affl

I also have the overall number appearing on the team pages now in the draft pick list, as well as the estimated cap impact when we get to signing those players in July (based upon last year's rookie contract figures and a slight rise in the minimum salary for 2010 to 325K). We may adjust those further when we get to signing players (based upon how signings go in reality) but hopefully this gives teams a good idea how much their picks cost to sign. A note at the bottom of the roster page from the start mentions looking up previous pick salaries for your draft slots, but this gives you an estimated total of the picks you have listed for this year.

If you have a pick that doesn't have an overall number next to it or appear in the draft order let me know. I tried to catch a few mistakes along the way but let me know if you see anything that shouldn't be with your draft picks so we can sort out before draft time.

We'll get some discussion going on sim draft date or any changes this year based upon the new way the NFL is doing it this year, but typically we start ours around the next day after the NFL draft and it lasts a few days.

If you didn't plan on paying your draft picks so much while free agency shopping, now's a good time to look to perhaps trade 2010 picks for 2011 ones or plan on some cuts or something. Picks don't get signed until around training camp time in July so you have some time. Draft picks that don't have room to sign under the cap become holdouts and could eventually be unsigned and return to the draft the next year.

[Goodell]

All the restricted and tagged players are off the market after 4/15 now. They essentially signed their 1-year tender at the designated salary. If you have some RFAs who you think are not worth that tender amount (or franchised players for that matter), you can cut them with no cap implications since no signing bonus and have them hit the market as UFA if they clear waivers if eligible and try to re-sign on the market for a lesser amount against other bidders.

Now that nobody should have players they are having to think about matching an offer or not, time to ensure your team is under their salary cap as we move out of free agency and toward the draft (Saturday 4/24 is looking like the popular choice for our draft start date). I'll be contacting those who aren't under their caps this weekend. Under the rules, teams can temporarily be over but must move to quickly correct within 48 hours technically.

I'm going to have to replace my home PC so have had limited access recently but still hope to have the draft functionality going soon for teams to start to look at preparing their draft queue for next weekend.

[Goodell]

Reminder that if you don't want to get stuck with a roster bonus that you must cut/trade a player before June 1st. On that day the roster bonus (RB) will permanently go against your cap this year as money you've paid this year no matter what. If the player later cut or traded, that RB expense stays all year.

June 1st is also the deadline to post an extension decision for teams with franchise tagged players who didn't receive any bids to match.