Suggestion: Do away with the draft.

[Direckshun]

I've started coming around to this line of thinking in the past year or so.

These are guys that, like NFL free agents, should get to capitalize on their play in the past couple years to choose the most advantageous position for themselves that they can get.

I don't see why this idea is controversial. It'd be an insane cluster****, sure, but no worse than free agency is anyway.

I suppose the only argument that I can think of against it are:

1. If we do this, the "less popular teams" (i.e. the Jags, the Chiefs, the Bills) will have trouble bringing on top shelf talent.

and

2. The draft is designed to give all teams a fair shot, and to enforce parity upon the NFL.

I think both of these arguments are defunct.

When it comes to NFL free agency, "lesser" teams have zero trouble bringing on premier talent if they offer the most money. It's less about where the best opportunity is (with rare exceptions), and more about where the best $$$ is.

And that deflates the 2nd argument, too. The salary cap is what keeps parity in the league, not the draft. The Patriots can't scoop up the best talent at every position in a non-draft NFL, because they wouldn't have the cap space to rake in the best talent. Like everybody else, they'd have to pick which rookies they want to pursue for the +++ money, then like everybody else try to find the bargain talents and so on.

What say you?

[RealSNR]

Half of the draft season isn't just talking about player prospects. It's about identifying good-fit players for your favorite team and identifying risk when opportunity comes up.

The draft is superior because for 98% or so of the players in a rookie class, there are multiple teams who have opportunities to select you, and EVERY SINGLE PICK is a decision to make. As a fan, you keep track of what lies ahead and who might be available where to assess if you think your team would make a good selection or not.

God, we can recall the sheer excitement as fans of watching a team that was supposed to take a highly ranked player pass on him for somebody else, and the Chiefs' selection is only a handful of spots away. Every pick alert is a heart attack because you think that guy is going to get snatched away from you. When he continues to fall, you feel elated. It's the best kind of high, and closer to anything resembling happiness than I've felt watching the sorry ****ing Chiefs suck during the regular season.

Free agency is a cluster ****, but that's not the same thing. It's not even close to the draft high. The draft is an organized story. It's reality TV. It's really exciting shit to watch, because it's 100% digestible to any fan with a TV.

The free agency thing would suck ass. There'd be alerts going everywhere and you wouldn't have a ****ing clue what was going on. The big time prospects wouldn't always be the first ones to go, so if you were trying to soak in the coverage, you'd have to sit through Herm Edwards ****ing himself raw talking about why Dildo Baggins needs to go to the New York Jets.

WORST OF ALL, the coverage talk would be all about money. Free agency is only tolerable because you don't have to sit there and listen to it for hours on end. The draft does it, but they turn it into something delightful and wonderful.

That's why a "rookie free agency show" could never hold a candle to what the NFL Draft is on TV.

[Direckshun]

Originally Posted by ptlyon

Some days this place is better than watching the events in a crack house

Some days.

[bevischief]

I see the crack smoking is still happening...

[RealSNR]

I don't think it's any coincidence that Direckshun started this thread on 4/20.

Yep. That's definitely it. Direckshun wanted to honor his lost Führer by writing an homage to Mein Kampf in the form of this thread.

[Rain Man]

11. Geocache system. Geocache players all over the world, and give teams the coordinates as well as hints about who's there. Follow them on their worldwide quest to add to their teams.

[Rain Man]

12. High school draft system. Instead of drafting college players, NFL teams draft high school players and then we have the fun of watching them develop in college.

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by Direckshun

The NBA is stupid, however, and has "max contracts."

The NFL does not.

If LeBron had to choose between the Heat and $100m or the Cavs and $150m, he'd go to Cleveland.

completely missing the point

[Mr. Laz]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

10. Combined rookie/veteran draft. Each team puts up a protected list of 7 players. Whenever a team drafts a rookie, the team next in line can choose to draft a rookie or they can roll the dice and select a veteran from the previous team. If that player is on the protected list, the choosing team loses the pick. Otherwise, they get the player.

just change it to the NFKL

National Football Keeper League

[RealSNR]

With no draft, how would the NFL do trades? They'd obviously still have player-for-player deals, but you can't possibly expect them to latch on to that like the NBA does.

And they'd have money. Then we'd get into all the bullshit of "buying out" contracts or whatever the **** the NBA does. It's something the NBA has to do because of the limited number of positions on the average roster and the fact that draft picks in the NBA simply don't have the same success rate that they do in the NFL, therefore the picks aren't as valuable.

The NFL has the luxury due to the nature of the sport of creating far higher demand for their draft choices. It makes no sense to take that advantage that they have over other sports and flush it down the toilet.

[listopencil]

[Discuss Thrower]

1) SNR fixed the one problem the NFL draft has already.

2) Goddamnit, Direck this is ****ing idiotic.

3) Perhaps a better, but of course less exciting solution that *could* alleviate kids leaving college early and could balance out big market FA is changing the draft into a silent auction system that's tied in with free agency that I'm coming up with in a hurry so I can go and jack off immediately after:

The draft is changed from seven rounds of all 32 clubs making selections based on previous season finish to one where all teams are given anywhere from 12 to 20 "player acquisition slots" (PAS) for the next league year depending on what the clubs and NFLPA deem to be acceptable in each and every following year. PASes of 1 are valued the highest with bigger PASes descending in value from that point in a corresponding fashion. For sake of example, let's say there are 16 PASes per year for the CBA extending from 2015 to 2026, and for rookie contracts, PASes brackets 1-2 will have the highest contract value, 3-6 slightly lower, 8-10 lower still, 11-13 even lower, 14-16 at what would be the equivalent to the rookie minimum at this moment.

The difference between the current system and this one is that these rookie deals are all four year contracts with a team option for a fifth season which would entail a raise to what is closer in equivalency to a veteran salary for that fifth year, AND where these salaries are only partially accounted for in each team's salary cap with this cap hit increasing each year they are with their first club.

Veterans acquired prior to the '15 CBA being enacted will have PAS values assigned for reasons which I will make clear. RFAs will have their PAS value determined by their current club. For example, Sanders Commings with KC. The Chiefs decide he's worth a PAS value of 8, which means any of the other club can offer to sign him from KC in exchange for their current #8 PAS if and only if Commings expresses an interest in signing with that club. In essence, it's the same mechanism that currently applies to RFAs.

For unrestricted free agents that were acquired prior to 2015, however, their individual PAS values are decided as an average of the 20 highest PAS bids from each club. Once the list of UFAs have had their PAS values are assigned, one of four things may happen (using Justin Houston as an example this time who has been assigned a PAS value of 3):

A) KC has the amount of time from when PAS values are determined to the beginning of free agency to negotiate a long term deal with Houston if they so desire without losing their #3 PAS in 2015, or;

B) KC can forfeit the PAS value assigned to Houston in that year to retain his services at a one year contract that would pay that player the average of the top five players at his position or position corresponding most with his playing time and production on the field (this is a sticking point with contracts as it is) if they cannot negotiate a long term deal at the beginning of free agency, or;

C) Another club can offer to exchange their #3 PAS to KC in order to get his services for at least one year at a contract that is the average of contracts of the top five players at Houston's position and will have the rights to negotiate a longer contract with Houston before 2017. KC may choose to take another club's PAS or forfeit their own in accordance with the previous section, or;

D) Kansas City lets Houston engage in free agency with any team as he may desire with no corresponding loss of a PAS.

Once this is settled, rookies will have also have been informed that they are either in the top or bottom half of PAS values depending on what each club informs the Commissioner's Office once the collegiate and other leagues' seasons end. If a player receives no such notice of whether or not he's in the top or bottom half of PAS values, it is assumed that no NFL franchise will be looking for his services in that year.

The rookie (and maybe veteran's?...) Combine proceeds as normal but perhaps later in the year where clubs will then inform the Commissioner's Office of what PAS value they deem each rookie prospect with the added change that there will be an agreement with the NCAA (or its successor organization) that an invite and workout at the Combine and the assignment of a PAS value does not necessarily mean an intent to become a professional. Rookies are informed of the highest PAS "bracket" they have been valued at and will then be asked if they are ready to void their amateur status.

Here's where I'm less sure this is a better solution to the draft, using Jameis Winston and Mariota as examples.

Winston has been valued as a #1 PAS by Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, Tennessee, St. Louis, Buffalo, New York Jets, Oakland, Only these five clubs will be informed fact of this by the Commissioner's Office. From there these clubs can negotiate with Winston and/or his representatives for additional money that must be fit into their veteran salary cap, WITH the stipulation that going over specific dollar amounts in years with Winston under contract will trigger the forfeiture of future PASes in those five years (as it will be inevitable that these negotiations will make most sought-after rookies will cause teams to offer guarantees for five years). For the '16-'26 CBA, the highest a #1 PAS rookie can receive from the veteran cap would be $10m guaranteed per year (adjusted in accordance with cap increases or decreases) with the forfeiture of a #1 PAS for each year the rookie is at this max contract cap at that $10m cap. These figures lower corresponding to lower PAS values.

Once Winston signs with a Tampa, their 2015 PAS is "forfeited" along with their '16, '17, and '18 PASes (because they offered him the $10m of veteran money guaranteed in those years and other clubs would not) and cannot be used to negotiate for another player's services who are rated at that same PAS value, such as Marcus Mariota (who was valued as a #1 PAS by Tampa, Jacksonville, Tennessee, St. Louis, Buffalo and Philadelphia). These clubs will have the same rights of negotiating a contract with Mariota with the same stipulations on salaries as were applied to teams negotiating for Winston (and let's say Philly wins the rights to Mariota at a similar contract as Winston's too and their #1 PAS in 2015 is "forfeited").

Now I've used a smaller number of clubs for these guys that are likely "valued" as #1 PASes for the sake of simplicity. Most teams will value guys like Winston, Mariota or Cooper as #1 PASes so it'll naturally become a race to the "max" contract ceiling. However it does give valuable rookies such as an Andrew Luck their choice of team to play for (at least for five years) and allows lesser prospects a choice of where to go.

To give less desirable teams an edge (say, Jacksonville, for example), if all of the players they have valued at #1 PASes opt to sign elsewhere, the Jaguars are awarded the option of elevating a player at lower PAS value to #1 and have the right to negotiate a contract with said player without competition from the other 31 clubs, OR can choose to receive an additional 2016 #1 PAS and will have the ability to roll over the rookie cap money that was allocated for a 2015 #1 PAS as guaranteed money in negotiations for either of their two 2016 #1 PASes if and only if they made negotiations with each player they had valued as a #1 in 2015.

This process repeats down the line all they way to guys who are valued as nothing more than UDFAs currently, and also dovetails into a system where RFAs are moved into the next highest PAS bracket automatically for tendering considerations, while UFAs are subject to what a supermajority of clubs determine their value to be in comparison to the ability to select rookie players while having the option to essentially franchise tag some valuable players, like KC with Justin Houston.

4) Or, you can just realize that SNR has the solution to the one problem with the draft and go with that.

5) **** you Direckshun for having such a shitty idea in the first place to get rid of the draft, causing me to type out this long response and delay my masturbatory actions.