Disclaimer: if cdcox refutes any of this, his word is final as the programmer.


A match is not just a match. After the bidding ends, you can "match" by adding a final bid for a contract that is one year longer than the highest bid (or 10% more if it's a 7-year contract).

If you think you can get the guy cheaper without matching, you can also actively bid on him.

An example is shown below.

Matt Cassel's contract is up, and he hits the zero-year mark. You opt to not give him a long-term extension (5 or more years) so he hits the free agent market.

Bidding is hot and heavy for a veteran quarterback with a playoff appearance, so the bids rapidly go from 1 to 10 to 28 points and beyond, and your division rival ends up as the high bidder at 48 points.

Looking at the contract chart on your "Manage Roster" page, you see that a 48-point contract falls in the realm of a 3-year contract for a quarterback (Tier 1 position).

You can get Matt Cassel back, but you have to give him a longer contract than he is currently being offered. The minimum cost for this is a 74-point contract, which is the minimum cost for a 4-year contract.

Alternately, if you see the bidding stalling out at 48 points and you think that's low, you can actively bid on him as well. You can bid 50 points or 55 points and get him for a three-year contract as long as you're the high bidder.

So you have three ways to keep Matt Cassel.

1. Offer him a 5, 6, or 7 year contract and keep him off the market completely. (You can only do this with two players per year, max.)

2. Wait and see how the bidding goes, and then "match" with a contract that's one year longer than the high bid.

3. Actively bid and outright win the bidding process.

We're working on a rule, henceforth called the "Matt Cassel Rule" about how to handle Item 2 above if no one bids on one of your free agents. I'll post it as an update once we've finalized it.

After furious debate and negotiations, the LFC champion Anchorage Roadkill Rabbits have decided not to let Mario Williams and Haloti Ngata walk in free agency.

Both have been signed to 5 year deals.

Austin has reached long term deals with Matt Ryan and Ryan Clady.
Posted via Mobile Device

Duluth is about to let the following players enter free agency. If you want them, make an offer fast. No reasonable deal will be refused.

HB Darius Reynaud, DE Darryl Tapp, OLB Dezmon Moses, WR Eddie Royal, WR Harry Douglas, CB Javier Arenas, RT Jeremy Trueblood, HB Leon Washington, DT Peria Jerry, K Rian Lindell, FS Ronde Barber, QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, NT Terrell McClain, and P Zoltan Mesko.

So to be clear, all of these guys have 0 years remaining on their contracts. If you trade for them you will have to do one of the following to keep them: 1) sign them to a long term contract ( 5 years or more) or win the free agent bidding during the open bid phase or exersise your right to match + one year at the end of FA bidding.

I could see owners making trades of players with zero year contracts with one another to obtain an edge in free agency for certain players. Do we want this as part of the strategy?

Y'know, I was wondering about that, but it looks like I can include them in trades so I figured it was fair game.

I could see trading zero-year players for a cheap price if someone signs them immediately, but I see your point. If you trade for a guy and then let him go, you can then have the last opportunity to beat a bid and get him.

Honestly, I don't think that would be a problem. You'd have to give something up to get that right and it would seem odd to make the trade and then not sign the guy. Maybe the only abuse would be two teams trading zero-year players with no other considerations.

I can go either way on this, so if you have a preference you can make the call.

You've essentially created the Sandbox equivalent of the NHL's RFA rules at that point.

You see it fairly often in the NHL, where a team will trade someone with no time left on their deal and who they have no intention of re-signing to a team that will look to match any offers made to that player (or extend them in advance of the FA signing period).

Anything to create more activity is good, IMO.

I don’t remember if we’ve given a full explanation of how free agency works going forward on our real-time schedule, so here goes.

Free Agency


The Sandbox Offseason Free Agency system will work on two phases, as follows:

Phase 1. Sandbox Offseason Free Agency (September-December)

Phase 1 begins upon completion of the rookie draft and the signing of rookie players to contracts. Your bidding power will depend on how much money you have after signing your rookies.

NFL Weeks 1 through 16. Each week, the players currently on the opening-day roster of one or two NFL teams will be added to the free agent pool, as long as they are not on a current Sandbox roster. The teams are selected on a random basis.

Once added to the free agency pool, players will not be removed from the free agent list unless a Sandbox team wins the bid and claims them.

Once a player enters the free agent pool you may submit a bid on him if you have sufficient funds to do so. You may increase another team’s bid and vice versa. The player will be awarded to a team once a bid has been submitted and not raised for three days. If the player was previously under contract to another team, there will then be an additional 24 hours for that team to beat your bid and keep the player, if they choose to do so.

There are no roster limits during this phase. You do not have to maintain a 53-man roster.

At the end of the NFL season, we will have a roster cutdown phase to 53 players.

Phase 2. Sandbox Training Camp Free Agency (January)

We will then have a second phase of free agency where all unclaimed players will be available for bids. This pool will include the following categories of players:

1. Players already in the free agent pool for whom no bids were submitted during the Offseason Free Agency phase.
2. Players cut by teams to get to the 53-man roster.
3. Players who first appeared on an NFL team after opening day.

The same bidding and bid closing rules apply in this period. However, the 53-man rule applies. If you sign a player you have to cut a player to stay within the roster limit.

The order of entry for unclaimed players into the free agent pool for 2013 is as follows:

Week
1 Carolina Panthers
2 Seattle Seahawks
3 Kansas City Chiefs & San Francisco 49ers
4 Pittsburgh Steelers & Philadelphia Eagles
5 St. Louis Rams & New York Giants
6 New England Patriots & Minnesota Vikings
7 Atlanta Falcons & San Diego Chargers
8 Cincinnati Bengals & Houston Texans
9 Detroit Lions & Dallas Cowboys
10 New Orleans Saints & Baltimore Ravens
11 Miami Dolphins & Jacksonville Jaguars
12 New York Jets & Chicago Bears
13 Cleveland Browns & Green Bay Packers
14 Washington Redskins & Indianapolis Colts
15 Buffalo Bills & Arizona Cardinals
16 Denver Broncos & Tampa Bay Buccaneers
17 Tennessee Titans & Oakland Raiders

Wanna find that thread on the main board and bump it as a reminder that the draft starts tonight?

The draft does start tonight, yes?

yeah, 6:00. I'm working at the Royals game, so hopefully I can get out there at the right time for my 9th pick overall.

Yep, draft starts tonight.

Just for clarification:

So, 5PM if you are in the central time zone, right?

Did we ever set it up to where there's a 'punishment' for not setting your auto-draft?

As it stands, by not setting up auto-draft and letting the clock tick all the way to zeros, you pretty much leave everyone holding their dicks and you still get the top player on the board.

I guess the punishment this year will be getting saddled with Jonathan Cooper (on the IR) or DJ Fluker (who shouldn't have ever been drafted that high).

EDIT:

NM, per Rainman, it still takes the highest ranked player on your draft list, even if you don't have it locked but only after an hour of sitting stagnant. That's crap. If you don't get your auto-draft set and can't find the time to get your pick in, you should be subject to the whims of the NFL draft.

As a reminder for how the draft works,

The order is:

1. If your draft list is populated and locked on (checkbox at top), it will draft the top player on your list in one millisecond.

2. If your draft list is not locked on, you will have one hour to make your selection manually.

3. If your draft list has names but is not locked on and you do not make a selection in one hour, it will draft the top player on your draft list and other owners will frown at you for wasting an hour of their precious lives.

4. If your draft list has no names and you do not make a selection in one hour, the you will be given the highest pick in the NFL draft who remains undrafted in Sandbox.

The draft will stop at Midnight Eastern each night and resume the next morning (I think at 10 a.m. Eastern, but don't quote me on that). Have your draft list ready and locked on if your pick is coming up.

BOOOO!!!!

Make absentee owners draft from the NFL list, even if they have a populated personnel list.