Draft Day

[Royce R]

being a farmer/rancher I work all the time.

But only chores on Sunday. So I do get some rest/relaxation on Sunday and since I actually have picks this year, I am voting for Sunday to be the day.

[Bryan H]

If starting on Sunday, has the start time been determined? Here's a vote for afternoon, or at least late morning (11ish).

[sportznut]

If starting on Sunday, has the start time been determined? Here's a vote for afternoon, or at least late morning (11ish).

10 AM to 10 PM.

[Goodell]

If starting on Sunday, has the start time been determined? Here's a vote for afternoon, or at least late morning (11ish).

10 AM to 10 PM.

They have been 10a-10p in the past but now with the time windows that doesn't matter so much.

First round can't start too late or won't get in all the picks with set windows. There's also time-zone issues to account for with some one the east coast and some on the west or middle, etc.

I was thinking sticking with our previous 10am ET usual start for each day (really only the top 3 picks will be picking that first hour by window) and 20 minutes per each pick for 3 an hour (just under 11 hours for round of 32). To get in all the compensatory ones without it going too late with the windows probably 15 minutes per pick from the 3rd round down when those start.

For example...

Pick 1-1 on clock from 10:00AM ET due 10:20AM ET Sunday (20min)
Pick 1-2 on clock from 10:20AM ET due 10:40AM ET
Pick 1-3 on clock from 10:40AM ET dur 11:00AM ET...

Pick 2-1 on clock from 10:00AM ET due 10:20AM ET Monday (20min)
Pick 2-2 on clock from 10:20AM ET due 10:40AM ET

Pick 3-1 on clock from 10:00AM ET due 10:15AM ET Tuesday (15min)
Pick 3-2 on clock from 10:15AM ET due 10:30AM ET
Pick 3-3 on clock from 10:30AM ET due 10:45AM ET...

If you have pick 3-1, you can select anytime once it is your pick on Monday night once 2nd round completed. Same with 3-2, 3-3, etc. But the new draft setup would no move past a pick until it was past the time window so GMs know exactly when they are scheduled to pick and hopefully plan a little around that.

As it is now in AFFL, one round will have 44 picks with the compensatory selections so need to go to 15 minutes instead of 20 once we get into additional picks each round to squeeze each in per day.

I won't remove any of the old draft scripts with clock starting once pick in as before in case most want to switch back next year, but am building in the specific time windows for this year.

[Bryan H]

I must have missed the slotted times. That definitely works for me. Good to know that my window won't pop up and I'll miss if I have to be away from the computer. Thanks.

[paulco]

Hey Troy, when will the queue be set up for the draft? I would love to get mine set up before the weekend in case I am not around at my time

[Goodell]

Hey Troy, when will the queue be set up for the draft? I would love to get mine set up before the weekend in case I am not around at my time

In progress, should finish tonight. Hoping to be earlier today but ran into a snag or two for how it worked before and had to be changed in new setup in some ways. Good news is that compensatory picks added now for both leagues and exact draft order established. Potential draftees have also been loaded into our database for when draft tools come online from NFL.com listings for their draft tracker: http://www.nfl.com/draft/2009/tracker#d ... n-input:qb

They may add more names as the weekend approaches as we had more in our draft pool last year than this year, but if you don't see a name at their site you want and is eligible send me a message and I'll investigate to add. Thanks

[Goodell]

The Draft queue's should be ready to go. There are new things in mind not completed yet (including the exact draft windows and estimated cost per pick for teams to see where they are in budget as well as additional player research) but the basic functionality from before should be back functional now.

AFFL
http://www.fangm.com/football/draft.php?league=affl

CFFL
http://www.fangm.com/football/draft.php?league=cffl

Full Draft Order:
http://www.fangm.com/football/draft-picks.php

[Goodell]

The exact draft windows are also now loaded in the system. You should see your team's exact times for existing picks by clicking on your draft page. If you view all picks you'll see the full draft order with times assigned for each selection.

The times listed are all in Eastern time so do whatever time zone adjustment needed. This weekend it should start a countdown for each team to tell you how many hours and minutes until you are on the clock that'll be on the draft page and perhaps in header news through all pages.

The times listed are not the time to show up, but the deadline time at which point the system will make a pick for you (based upon your preferences if queue filled or highest available by NFL draft slotting) if you don't pick yourself while on the clock. That's the due date.

Your time window when you will be on the clock is between the due date of the pick ahead of you and your due date. It's 20 minutes for round 1-2 and 15 minutes per pick for rounds 3-7 with compensatory picks at the end of those rounds making them longer.

Basically, make note of your due dates for your picks and show up 15 minutes ahead of that time if you want to be online while on the clock. And make sure to load up your queue to players you prefer just in case something happens where you can't be online at that time to still get the player you want most if available.

From your draft page, if you click the ^ or V move arrows next to your picks you can let other teams know if you want to move up or down from there. All are seen on the full draft order list to try to find a trade match. You can trade picks up until your time runs out on the clock, but the deadline for that pick never changes even if transferred to a new team. I'll try to work the pick movement preferences into the trade block messages like we have the player availability.

I am also planning on having a rough estimate of the cap value for each pick be calculated for each team from their roster and draft pages so teams can make those movement choices better if they know they can't afford to pay for a rookie contract at a high position. For now, there are links to previous season rookie salaries. http://www.fangm.com/affl/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=490

Let me know if any questions.

[Goodell]

The GM directory has also been updated to show which teams have players in their draft queues. This will be helpful to me in trying to contact GMs this weekend if they have first rounders but no players in queue and haven't visted in a bit, but also useful for other GMs potentially to see which teams could be autopicked and have the highest available player by NFL slot given to them if they don't have anyone in queue and aren't online to pick manually before time up.

http://www.fangm.com/football/directory.php