Question about Guaranteed contracts

[Jared A]

Ok, what happens to vet players who do not play in a game? Guys like Ohara in CFFL... who have no rating, but have contracts. They aren't playing in real life.


Are those contracts guaranteed, or can they be cut?

[Ben C.]

My understanding is the contract is guaranteed if the vet is on the active roster of the AFFL/CFFL/DFFL team the first week of the season. So if Ohara was on the roster during that week's games, then his contract would be guaranteed. It doesn't matter if he plays in the NFL or what his rating is.

[Jared A]

I guess the problem is we don't have an inactive roster. I'm not disagreeing, just noticing some teams need that money.


I don't really care for the vets getting guaranteed contracts. But, if we're going to do it, we MUST have a lot more options available to GM's to get under the cap.

[Ben C.]

I guess the problem is we don't have an inactive roster. I'm not disagreeing, just noticing some teams need that money.


I don't really care for the vets getting guaranteed contracts. But, if we're going to do it, we MUST have a lot more options available to GM's to get under the cap.

Actually, I don't think the distinction is between active/inactive roster. I think the vet only needs to be on the 53-man roster. Whether or not they are active is irrelevant. But I could be wrong.

My view is that if a guy doesn't deserve the salary you might guarantee him by keeping him on the roster for the first game, then you should cut him before the first game. The point of the rule in the NFL is to give those guys a chance to land a spot on a roster before the season starts. For us it's about having another way to mimic reality.

[Jared A]

I understand what the reasons for is, but in reality, what does it create?


It makes it very difficult for teams to manage their caps in fanGM, that's not the reason that reality has the rule. I understand the idea of trying to mimic reality, but my point would be that unless we open other avenues for teams to manage their cap spaces, this causes a lot more problems than benefits (which are basically none).

[Goodell]

After digging into this player, I believe he's retired. He didn't show up I don't think in the usual place I find retirements listed at nfl.com transactions, but found lots of articles about him retiring on 9/3 and now an NFL Network analyst. He's been added to retirement eligibility.

[Goodell]

To the general point, I don't think there are a lot of cap-friendly lists in reality that we don't have. The biggest lists we don't have are PUP and injury related, and those guys still get paid in reality so no cap difference there. Players don't get paid in reality for suspensions (which we have) or holding out (which we don't have them hold out here when holding out in reality if a contract here). In this case here, it was a retired player so the list he'd go to would be Reserve/Retired, which we've done. Maybe I'm missing another list as the NFL can get complicated, but I think that covers the majority of situations. I don't think there are a lot of cases where NFL teams don't pay their players salary other than suspensions, holdouts, or retirement all of which we deal with. At least I think that covers most of them, but if there are other ways, definitely open to consideration for the future.

My aim would be to keep adding some of the ones we don't have for next year such as PUP and IR with ability to return, but most of those don't impact salary cap I don't believe. If there are other lists we should consider adding, everyone should feel free to suggest for off-season rules considerations.

I'm not sure the exact meaning, but when you say "inactive roster" I think the list of players each team gives 15 minutes before the game who aren't going to be suited up. I don't think that has any impact on the salary cap, though, and would be a huge complication that's largely unnecessary for us because most of the handful of guys marked inactive are backup types who wouldn't have any impact on our sim games with their low grades anyway.

There might be other lists we don't incorporate that we could consider. GMs interested in adding new lists or rules beyond the ones mentioned I'd like to add for next year above would send the suggestion to me via PM to discuss prior to adding into off-season rules posts or posting in the forum themselves, ideally with a link or further info about it. Thanks

[ctnreds]

Yea I was curious about Nick Collins. He hasn't officially retired, but people say his career is likely over. I have a lot of money invested into him. He was trying to get on a team at the beginning of the year, but no NFL team will take a chance on him cause of his neck injury. I was wondering how that would work.

[Goodell]

Yea I was curious about Nick Collins. He hasn't officially retired, but people say his career is likely over. I have a lot of money invested into him. He was trying to get on a team at the beginning of the year, but no NFL team will take a chance on him cause of his neck injury. I was wondering how that would work.

Those things can get very complicated and subjective. The best standard we can use in all fairness, and have from the start, is retired in NFL = retired here. In the NFL, it's not on the team to list a guy as retired, but on the player to decide if he's retired or not. If the player hasn't filed as retired, he'd be active. If he was without a contract, as he is in the NFL after being cut in the off-season, he'd just be a free agent looking for a team that wanted to sign him. As in the NFL, for us I think it would be on the team to decide if they wanted to keep him on the roster or cut him loose. NFL team cut him. Sim team could keep him on the roster, but keeping him would be deciding to still pay him (as guys hurt still get paid if still on the roster -- IR or not).

There are lots of situations that have a lot of grey area. We can look at them to some degree on a case-by-case basis when there are odd circumstances, but most efficient to overall apply an overall standard and process. Such as when a player listed as retired on NFL.com list of transactions, we make them eligible for retirement here.

[Jared A]

One flaw that Nick Collins causes is this. We have to risk an entire year's salary hoping an NFL team picks up the player. If they don't, his grade goes down drastically by like week 4, right? We're basically stuck with that player, and their salary.

I just think we need to establish some rules that makes this more manageable for teams and in-season trading. Just something I was thinking though.

If a player is on the PUP list, and never put on the active roster, is their salary guaranteed in the NFL?