2011 OFF-SEASON PRIMER

[Ryan R]

Also when will we be able to sign draft picks? that might help teams before heading into free agency see where they're at..

[Goodell]

Also when will we be able to sign draft picks? that might help teams before heading into free agency see where they're at..

It's something I still have to research and collect the rookie contracts from reality to re-shape ours. Hoping to get to that soon. Would be something else that would happen before our FA.

[Goodell]

I have turned the trade tool on now. Always a possibility that something not quite right with the code with the new year, but believe it's setup right. Please make a note of the player finances involved in a trade before accepting to ensure it all transfers as it should, and let me know if any problems.

If you want to trade a player you drafted, now would be a good time before we sign the rookie contracts with signing bonuses (which translate to guaranteed money and cap hits). First rounders will be signed by the individual teams at a time they choose this off-season, but we'll start at round 7 and work our way up to round 2 with automatic rookie contracts this weekend. The soonest I'd start that is friday night, but probably will do research then and start signing low round picks this weekend. You can also outright cut drafted players if you don't want them signed, but would have to be before they are signed to contracts.

[redsoxfan31x21]

Quick question with the exclusive franchise tag and I dont want to miss out the opprotunity. I might have missed it in a post but i've read through them a couple times now and still can't find it.

How do you extend an exclusively franchised player's (like Gates for example) contract to a 5 year deal? Or do we do that at a later time?

Might be a dumb question, just dont want to miss out here.

[Goodell]

Quick question with the exclusive franchise tag and I dont want to miss out the opprotunity. I might have missed it in a post but i've read through them a couple times now and still can't find it.

How do you extend an exclusively franchised player's (like Gates for example) contract to a 5 year deal? Or do we do that at a later time?

Might be a dumb question, just dont want to miss out here.

No dumb questions. Definitely ask any questions in PM or post, etc. We'll try to get some better documentation up now that the NFL has a set of rules to roughly generally last for the next 10 years.

It'll be at a later time. Perhaps once FA starts, I'll make a new message board forum for those decisions to be posted for number of years a team wants to do. We do that also with all franchise tagged players who don't get bids to consider matching, where we'll let those teams extend those franchise player deals at that very high salary for multiple years and they'd post that decision after free agency in a message board thread to be created for those decisions.

[Onyxgem]

When can we trade 2013 picks?

[Goodell]

When can we trade 2013 picks?

I'll try to get those in sometime today.

[Goodell]

When can we trade 2013 picks?

I'll try to get those in sometime today.

2013 picks should now be tradable. As with any new feature I turn on, make sure to watch those transactions involving a new element closely to make sure that's working fine and let me know if any problems with 2013 draft picks involved in trades. Thanks

[Goodell]

Deadline for decisions is... 8/14. After which, we'll start free agency tentatively.

Make sure to have your tag/RFA decisions in by the end of the weekend. Let me know if any questions.

If you've tagged a player and having second thoughts with the high salary, if that player hasn't been involved in any transactions otherwise this off-season, you can contact me to change that tag/rfa decision this weekend prior to the deadline.

8/14 was also going to be the date to pay roster bonuses (RB listed on team roster) but per discussion, we've decided to give teams more time to make transactions with those players before their roster bonus was permanent for this year's cap. Once we decide the meat of free agency signing has ended and we make any unsigned tagged/resticted players go back to their teams and take off the market, we'll use that same date to pay roster bonuses after the off-season officially ending.

With the salary cap difficulties for some teams this year, and us moving that artificial June 1st (8/14) date back from what I first announced, we'll also allow more cap splits after 8/14 (when they were initially going to be unlimited) if a team needs them to get under the cap. Just contact me and I can add another exemption. I'd really advise against splitting cap hits unless you have to, though, as it's just dead money for next year paying for players you no longer have and can really wreck your finances ahead.

As discussed, this is a salary cap game. Teams have to be within their caps. We'll have some flexibility during this time given many high-salary players will be moving from team-to-team, but keep in mind that you can't match any contract if you don't have cap room to do so, and you can't place bids to sign more and more players if you are already over your cap. It won't be to your advantage to be over the cap in free agency at all if you hope to match player deals or sign players and add more salary.

I'd expect free agency to start this upcoming week, but have some things to do first there and will have more details this weekend.

[Goodell]

Anybody know harddawg123 or Andrew P? Andrew's been a good GM for a long while. When
harddawg was added he mentioned having some friends in the AFFL on his waiting list post.

Don't like to replace GMs, but it's been nearly 3 months without a log in there. Had messages out to them both in all communication channels listed.