Your Chance To Participate In A New Football Phenomenon (Sandbox Simulations) - Page 168

**Rain Man** · 09:15 AM

I apologize if the mods think this is soliciting, and I guess it is, but at the same time it's beta testing a new product developed by long-time planeteers, and it's free.

cdcox and I have been developing a new football game for the thoughtful fan, where players build franchises and compete against each other. A description is below.

If you're interested, we're offering the game for free in Year 1 to Chiefsplanet members, with the goal of both giving the system a dry run and also hooking you like Phillip Morris. You can go to www.sandboxsimulations.com to sign up, and use the access code 6Lanier3.

Here's the overview:

Build and manage a full 53-player roster over multiple seasons, as an offseason activity to give you year-round football

Select your personnel to match your offensive and defensive scheme. Every position matters – even your blocking tight end.

Realistic and accurate simulations of league games based on head-to-head matchups against other teams in your league.

This is essentially a new concept in fantasy football that attempts to simulate as closely as possible the management of a real NFL franchise over a multi-year period. Unlike regular fantasy football, every position on the offense and defense contributes to your success or failure. On special teams, the punter, kicker, and kick returners matter.

In Sandbox Football you will build a team – an entire 53-man football team – via an initial draft, and will maintain it year after year in annual rookie drafts, trading periods, and free agency. You compete against teams in your league. In the first year of the game, before the start of the NFL season, you will build your roster by drafting veterans and rookies through separate drafts, and through trades with other teams in the league. Your roster is frozen at the beginning of the NFL season. During the real regular NFL season, you can focus on your traditional fantasy games and perhaps keep on eye on your Sandbox roster as our statistical models build the data on player performances. At the end of the regular NFL season, the Sandbox season begins. There will be 16 games in the season. In real time, the season will run about 8 weeks (2 alternate reality games per week).

Game outcomes will be simulated based on the performance of individual players during the just-completed NFL regular season. The simulations, developed by a PhD statistical expert, estimate how individual players will perform in the context of your alternate reality team competing head-to-head against other teams in the league and with the specific team that you have built. The simulations will consider the offensive and defensive schemes that you select. So you can build your roster to support a power running game or a high-flying passing attack. You can run a 3-4 or 4-3 base defense. You can run nickel formations or four-wide receiver sets. You can rotate your DL to keep them fresh.

The game is more about building a team than playing video games. So this isn't Madden, but you will have the ability to tweak your game plan to take the best advantage of your roster and the weaknesses of your opponent. Injuries are a factor in the game. If a player is unavailable during weeks 3 through 6 in the NFL, he is also unavailable during the same weeks in the alternate reality season. So roster depth matters. The game simulations are based on the most advanced statistics and the latest research regarding what matters in winning an NFL game. But, the outcomes of the games have a random component, just like real NFL games.

The calendar for the alternate reality league year will look something like this:
• Jan to Mid March: Alternate Reality regular season and playoffs.
• Mid-March to the beginning of NFL season: Roster building through trades, veteran draft (first year), free agent drafts (2nd year and beyond), and rookie draft.
• Beginning of NFL season to end of regular NFL season: Alternate reality league is dormant, but the NFL players are generating their performance stats for the up-coming AR league.
• Rinse and repeat.

Copyright Sandbox Simulations, all rights reserved.

We're still finalizing the cost structure, but this won't be an expensive game to play at all. It might range from a few bucks a year to $50 per year, depending on a few factors.

Year 1 will require a couple of days of drafting with rather high intensity, but we've got it set up where you can put your draft list together and do customized and automated drafting if you like.

So...go! Now! Time to get ready for the draft!

Note that we are still in beta testing, so things could change if we find problems in the system.

How Free Agency Works:

Free Agency will begin before the 2012 season after the rookie draft.

Our process is as follows for the 2012 season. In 2013 and beyond there will be minor changes as noted later.

1. We will unveil the list of available free agents so you can check out the talent pool.

2. If you look in "Standings", you will see that you have a salary account value of $1,300. You will use this to sign your veterans to contracts, sign your rookies to contracts, and (in a competitive bidding process) sign free agents to contracts.

The cost of a contract is as follows for players already on your roster (both veterans and rookies).

$0 - 1 season contract
$10 - 2 season contract
$22 - 3 season contract
$37 - 4 season contract
$55 - 5 season contract
$76 - 6 season contract
$100 - 7 season contract

You will sign your existing players to contracts using an interface that we will unveil shortly. If your 53-man roster is set you can spend your $1,300 on your current roster. However, it may be worthwhile to hold some money back so you can compete for free agents.

3. The free agency period begins.

Bidding for free agents will be open and competitive. As players come available, teams will be allowed to sign them if they are the high bidder. The contract length is automatically calculated by rounding down the bid to the chart below.

Contract Length (Seasons) Salary Points Bid
1 0 to 9
2 10 to 21
3 22 to 36
4 37 to 54
5 55 to 75
6 76 to 99
7 100 or more

For example, if you submit the winning bid for a player at a price of 25 salary points, that player becomes yours under a 3-year contract. If you submit a bid for 35 points and win, it’s also a 3-year contract. If you submit a bid for 38 points, it’s a 4-year contract. If you submit a bid for 120 points, it’s a 7-year contract.

For the 2012 free agency period, we will enforce the 53-man rule. You will need to cut down to 53 players before the free agency period starts, and if you sign a player to go above 53, you will need to cut a player to stay within the roster limit. NOTE: DON'T CUT YET UNLESS YOU WANT TO. WE'RE STILL FINALIZING THE SYSTEM AND WANT TO BE SURE THAT THIS RULE WORKS IN 2012.

4. Ending Bidding and Ending Free Agency.

Bids on an individual player will begin once the first player places a bid. For the 2012 season that bid must be $1 or more. Bidding ends when the existing high bid had not been raised for 72 hours. At that point, the high-bid team is awarded the player under the contract terms described in Step 3.

The free agency period in 2012 will end once there have been no bids on any players for 72 hours.

5. Unused Salary Points

If you do not use all of your salary points in a given year, they will roll over from year to year. This is experimental and we'll have to see how it works. If it doesn't work, they'll expire each year, or maybe a portion of the points can roll over. Right now, assume they all roll over.

6. Salary Points and Roster Management

In the Sandbox system, salary points and the salary cap are used only for acquiring players. You will never have to track the number of salary points “on your roster” and you will never have to cut a player for salary cap reasons.

Additionally, you are not obligated to keep a player for the full length of his contract. You can cut him or trade him at any time. However, recognize that it’s a waste of salary points to cut or trade a player before the end of his contract. But it doesn't hamstring you going forward - it's just past money that you wasted.

7. Free Agency and Contract Length - Retaining Your Current Players

When a player reaches the end of their contract, they go back into the free agency pool and teams will bid for their services. You are eligible to bid on them to get them back, just like you can bid on any free agents.

There is one exception to the rule of free agents going into the free agency pool, as follows:

• At the end of the bidding process, you have the opportunity to re-sign your own players by outbidding the high bidder. Your bid must be the minimum points to increase their contract period by a year over the high bid. (Example: your player goes to free agency, and another team bids 50 points for him, which equates to a 4-year contract. You can keep the player by paying 55 points for him, which is the minimum amount for a 5-year contract.) If the high bidder offered a contract of 100 points or more (7-years), you can keep the player by bidding 10% more points than the high bid.

8. Free Agency and Trades

If you trade for a player, their contract length is a consideration. Trading for a player with 6 years left on his contract will give you his services for that amount of time (unless you cut him or trade him, or he retires). Trading for a player with 1 year left on his contract means that he’ll go back into the free agency pool at the end of the season. (Of course, you can still retain him via Step 7.)

9. Future Years

In future years, the process will be identical to that shown above, with the following exceptions.

a. Because you will have a lot of veteran players under contract, you won't need $1,300. You'll get a new annual allotment of signing dollars. We're still working on the exact amount, but it looks like it'll be between $500 and $600.

b. In the 2012 season, we will introduce all free agents at once to catch up. In the 2013 season and beyond, the free agency period will occur during the actual NFL season. We will sprinkle the free agents in one division at a time over the course of the season. (The divisions may be randomly selected or we may release a calendar. It doesn't matter that much.) This system should be interesting because some free agents will come available early in the season when you don't know their performance for the year - greater risk, greater reward - while other free agents will come available later in the season when you know what their performance will be, but so does everyone else.

c. In the 2013 season and beyond, you will be able to retain more than 53 players through the rookie draft and the main free agency period. You will then have a cutdown period to get to 53 and we will have a final free agency period where you can sign any players who have been cut. In that final period you will have to enforce a 53-man roster, so if you sign a player you have to cut one.

10. When you think about the schedule in 2013 and beyond, it will go like this:

a. Sandbox season goes from February through April.
b. Rookie draft in May. No 53-man limit.
c. Free agency from (likely) September through December, with free agents sprinkled in throughout that period.
d. January. Roster cuts to 53.
e. Late January. Final free agency period to flesh out rosters and sign players cut in Step d.
f. New Sandbox season begins.

**Rain Man** · 07-26-2012, 08:50 AM

This is purely anecdotal, but I see more passes for negative yards than I would expect. I realize that screens and swings can lose yardage, so it may not be a problem, but it just seems like it happens more frequently than I would think. Same with runs, though it's not as obvious.

**Rain Man** · 07-26-2012, 08:54 AM

One thing I've been noticing for a while is that spikes seem to be used before time outs in many situations, and I think timeouts would be used first. Here's an example:

Dallas is leading 6-0 and there are three minutes left in the half. They have three time outs. But driving with 3:12 left, they spike the ball on first down. I think in real life you'd use the first time out here instead of spiking.

You may have more advanced logic, but it seems to me like you'd do something like this:

If you have 2 or 3 timeouts and and there's more than 2 minutes left, you call a timeout.

If you have 2 timeouts and there's more than 1 minute left, you call a timeout.

If you have 1 timeout, you don't use it unless you're in the last minute and can't spike it.

Dallas
2nd Q 4:30 1st and 10 Dallas 30 free agent scrambles for 10 yards.
2nd Q 3:48 2nd and inches Dallas 40 free agent (pressured) passes complete to Dustin Keller for a gain of -4 yards.
2nd Q 3:26 3rd and 4 Dallas 36 free agent passes complete to Lee Evans for a gain of 8 yards.
2nd Q 3:12 1st and 10 Dallas 44 free agent spikes the ball to kill the clock.
2nd Q 3:10 2nd and 10 Dallas 44 free agent (pressured) passes incomplete to Dustin Keller. PENALTY. Neutral Zone Infraction on Kevin Williams. 5 yards.
2nd Q 3:02 2nd and 5 Dallas 49 free agent passes complete to Steve Breaston for a gain of 34 yards.
2nd Q 2:17 1st and 10 Duluth 17 Brandon Jacobs rushes for -4 yards. Fumble, recovered by Dallas Two minute warning.
2nd Q 2:00 2nd and 14 Duluth 21 free agent passes incomplete to Jerome Simpson.
2nd Q 1:53 3rd and 14 Duluth 21 free agent passes incomplete to Steve Breaston.
2nd Q 1:46 4th and 14 Duluth 21 Stephen Gostkowski field goal attempt from 38 yards. Good.
Dallas 9, Duluth 0

**Rain Man** · 07-26-2012, 08:56 AM

In this situation, I think I'd punt it. It's a hard first down and the opponent needed little progress to make an end-of-half field goal. Perhaps the rule would be that if you're in your own territory at the end of the first half and it's fourth down, you punt (unless you're Fat Elvis).

Duluth
2nd Q 1:41 Duluth -1 Stephen Gostkowski kicks 70 yards. No return. Touchback
2nd Q 1:33 1st and 10 Duluth 20 Philip Rivers passes complete to Hakeem Nicks for a gain of 9 yards.
2nd Q 0:48 2nd and 1 Duluth 29 Philip Rivers passes incomplete, dropped by DeSean Jackson.
2nd Q 0:41 3rd and 1 Duluth 29 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for -1 yards. time out Dallas
2nd Q 0:33 4th and 2 Duluth 28 Philip Rivers passes incomplete to Greg Olsen.
Dallas 9, Duluth 0

Dallas
2nd Q 0:23 1st and 10 Duluth 28 free agent (pressured) passes incomplete to Lee Evans.
2nd Q 0:15 2nd and 10 Duluth 28 free agent (pressured) passes complete to Jerome Simpson for a gain of 10 yards. time out Dallas
2nd Q 0:07 3rd and inches Duluth 18 Stephen Gostkowski field goal attempt from 35 yards. Good.
Dallas 12, Duluth 0

**Rain Man** · 07-26-2012, 08:59 AM

Oh, and you may have built this in already and it was just a random draw, but I noticed in one of my Week 13 games that my kicker made 4 FGs of 50+ yards. That's great, but if the random draw is based on just his kicking percentage, and if he went 1 for 1 at 50+, it might make him a little too strong and it might be somehow possible to game the system on that. (I'm not sure how, but if it's possible, someone will do it.)

Would you take the kicker's real-life percentage and put a random variation around it? Or perhaps cap a FG percentage at 97% or something?

**Rain Man** · 07-26-2012, 09:08 AM

This is a very low-priority wish list item, in a situation like this where it's obviously the last play of the half, a hail mary is often in order. I don't care, but a future customer might fire off an angry e-mail if they see a pass for -1 yards. Can we override in that situation and make it incomplete if it's less than a 5 yard completion? I wince when I saw that because it might not be a good solution, but I'm not sure how else to address it.

Not a big deal either way.

(Edit: this was a 4th down with a few seconds left in the half. I forgot to paste the play by play and don't remember the game now.)

**Rain Man** · 07-26-2012, 09:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Oh, and you may have built this in already and it was just a random draw, but I noticed in one of my Week 13 games that my kicker made 4 FGs of 50+ yards. That's great, but if the random draw is based on just his kicking percentage, and if he went 1 for 1 at 50+, it might make him a little too strong and it might be somehow possible to game the system on that. (I'm not sure how, but if it's possible, someone will do it.)

Would you take the kicker's real-life percentage and put a random variation around it? Or perhaps cap a FG percentage at 97% or something?

The same kicker made two more 50+ yard kicks this week.

**Rain Man** · 07-26-2012, 09:17 AM

Another situation where I would probably punt it if there was a chance that the other team could pull off a play. However, with 6 seconds left it may have been the smart play to just run the ball. Depending on how you do the timing and clock countdown, this may not be a problem.

Austin
2nd Q 1:03 1st and 10 Austin 25 Matt Ryan passes complete to Darrel Young for a gain of 10 yards. time out Austin
2nd Q 0:55 2nd and inches Austin 34 Matt Ryan passes incomplete, dropped by James Jones.
2nd Q 0:48 3rd and inches Austin 34 Mike Tolbert rushes for 0 yards.
2nd Q 0:06 4th and inches Austin 34 Roy Helu rushes for -3 yards. Turned over on downs
Austin 3, High Point 6

**Rain Man** · 07-26-2012, 09:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rain Man

This is purely anecdotal, but I see more passes for negative yards than I would expect. I realize that screens and swings can lose yardage, so it may not be a problem, but it just seems like it happens more frequently than I would think. Same with runs, though it's not as obvious.

In looking at a couple of random games, there were 6 completions for negative yards in the Austin-High Point game, 6 in the Fort Wayne-Clearwater game, 5 in the Springfield-Chula Vista game, 2 in the St. Joseph-Ventura game, and 2 in the Portland-Independence game. Maybe it's not a problem. How common are negative pass completions?

**Rain Man** · 07-26-2012, 09:25 AM

Not a big deal, but if a team kicks a field goal in this situation, the odds are that they ran the clock down before doing it. The other team probably shouldn't be able to run a play.

Independence
2nd Q 0:06 1st and 10 Portland 44 Josh Brown field goal attempt from 61 yards. No good.

Independence 20, Portland 6
Portland
2nd Q 0:01 1st and 10 Independence 49 Jake Locker (pressured) passes complete to Demaryius Thomas for a gain of 10 yards.
Independence 20, Portland 6

**Rain Man** · 07-26-2012, 09:28 AM

Not a big deal, but most teams would likely take a knee in this situation. However, fixing this would create a vulnerability at some point for an error, so probably not worth fixing.

Anchorage
4th Q 2:13 4th and -11 Anchorage 49 Onside kick failed, recovered by the receiving team on Anchorage 49 yardline.
4th Q 2:05 1st and 10 Anchorage 49 Alex D. Smith sacked by Jason Babin for a loss of -6 yards. Two minute warning.
4th Q 1:57 2nd and 16 Anchorage 43 Alex D. Smith passes complete to Nate Burleson for a gain of 21 yards. time out Fort Worth
4th Q 1:49 1st and 10 Fort Worth 36 Jonathan Stewart rushes for 3 yards. time out Fort Worth
4th Q 1:41 2nd and 7 Fort Worth 33 Jonathan Stewart rushes for -5 yards.
4th Q 0:51 3rd and 12 Fort Worth 38 Jonathan Stewart rushes for 3 yards.
4th Q 0:01 4th and 8 Fort Worth 35 David Akers field goal attempt from 52 yards. Good.
Fort Worth 10, Anchorage 55

**noa** · 07-26-2012, 09:35 AM

At the end of my game (Austin) against High Point, I had a chance to kick a game-tying field goal. On third down at the 33 yard line a threw a negative four yard pass. I know that this stuff happens in real life, but it seems that a QB (other than Mitch Crassle) should know its better to just go out of bounds there than risk negative yards.
Posted via Mobile Device

**Rain Man** · 07-26-2012, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by noa

At the end of my game (Austin) against High Point, I had a chance to kick a game-tying field goal. On third down at the 33 yard line a threw a negative four yard pass. I know that this stuff happens in real life, but it seems that a QB (other than Mitch Crassle) should know its better to just go out of bounds there than risk negative yards.
Posted via Mobile Device

Yeah, I was torn on that one. It does happen, but it should be rare.

**cdcox** · 07-26-2012, 10:12 AM

On the long FGs, I do use a cap in max FG accuracy as a function of distance. So no one is 100% efficient in long FGs, even if they made them all during the season. I'l send you (RM) the caps I used for a sanity check later.

brorth · 07-26-2012, 06:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Not a big deal, but most teams would likely take a knee in this situation. However, fixing this would create a vulnerability at some point for an error, so probably not worth fixing.

Anchorage
4th Q 2:13 4th and -11 Anchorage 49 Onside kick failed, recovered by the receiving team on Anchorage 49 yardline.
4th Q 2:05 1st and 10 Anchorage 49 Alex D. Smith sacked by Jason Babin for a loss of -6 yards. Two minute warning.
4th Q 1:57 2nd and 16 Anchorage 43 Alex D. Smith passes complete to Nate Burleson for a gain of 21 yards. time out Fort Worth
4th Q 1:49 1st and 10 Fort Worth 36 Jonathan Stewart rushes for 3 yards. time out Fort Worth
4th Q 1:41 2nd and 7 Fort Worth 33 Jonathan Stewart rushes for -5 yards.
4th Q 0:51 3rd and 12 Fort Worth 38 Jonathan Stewart rushes for 3 yards.
4th Q 0:01 4th and 8 Fort Worth 35 David Akers field goal attempt from 52 yards. Good.
Fort Worth 10, Anchorage 55

On 4th and negative 11 from the Anchorage 49 with 2:13 left, Fort Worth, down by 42 points, attempted an onside kick that traveled 0 yards that was recovered by the receiving team?
Huh?

**Rain Man** · 07-26-2012, 06:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brorth

On 4th and negative 11 from the Anchorage 49 with 2:13 left, Fort Worth, down by 42 points, attempted an onside kick that traveled 0 yards that was recovered by the receiving team?
Huh?

Oh, weird. I never even noticed that.

08-08-2011, 02:01 PM
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3348491 VARSITY	Your Chance To Participate In A New Football Phenomenon (Sandbox Simulations) I apologize if the mods think this is soliciting, and I guess it is, but at the same time it's beta testing a new product developed by long-time planeteers, and it's free. cdcox and I have been developing a new football game for the thoughtful fan, where players build franchises and compete against each other. A description is below. If you're interested, we're offering the game for free in Year 1 to Chiefsplanet members, with the goal of both giving the system a dry run and also hooking you like Phillip Morris. You can go to www.sandboxsimulations.com to sign up, and use the access code 6Lanier3. Here's the overview: Build and manage a full 53-player roster over multiple seasons, as an offseason activity to give you year-round football Select your personnel to match your offensive and defensive scheme. Every position matters – even your blocking tight end. Realistic and accurate simulations of league games based on head-to-head matchups against other teams in your league. This is essentially a new concept in fantasy football that attempts to simulate as closely as possible the management of a real NFL franchise over a multi-year period. Unlike regular fantasy football, every position on the offense and defense contributes to your success or failure. On special teams, the punter, kicker, and kick returners matter. In Sandbox Football you will build a team – an entire 53-man football team – via an initial draft, and will maintain it year after year in annual rookie drafts, trading periods, and free agency. You compete against teams in your league. In the first year of the game, before the start of the NFL season, you will build your roster by drafting veterans and rookies through separate drafts, and through trades with other teams in the league. Your roster is frozen at the beginning of the NFL season. During the real regular NFL season, you can focus on your traditional fantasy games and perhaps keep on eye on your Sandbox roster as our statistical models build the data on player performances. At the end of the regular NFL season, the Sandbox season begins. There will be 16 games in the season. In real time, the season will run about 8 weeks (2 alternate reality games per week). Game outcomes will be simulated based on the performance of individual players during the just-completed NFL regular season. The simulations, developed by a PhD statistical expert, estimate how individual players will perform in the context of your alternate reality team competing head-to-head against other teams in the league and with the specific team that you have built. The simulations will consider the offensive and defensive schemes that you select. So you can build your roster to support a power running game or a high-flying passing attack. You can run a 3-4 or 4-3 base defense. You can run nickel formations or four-wide receiver sets. You can rotate your DL to keep them fresh. The game is more about building a team than playing video games. So this isn't Madden, but you will have the ability to tweak your game plan to take the best advantage of your roster and the weaknesses of your opponent. Injuries are a factor in the game. If a player is unavailable during weeks 3 through 6 in the NFL, he is also unavailable during the same weeks in the alternate reality season. So roster depth matters. The game simulations are based on the most advanced statistics and the latest research regarding what matters in winning an NFL game. But, the outcomes of the games have a random component, just like real NFL games. The calendar for the alternate reality league year will look something like this: • Jan to Mid March: Alternate Reality regular season and playoffs. • Mid-March to the beginning of NFL season: Roster building through trades, veteran draft (first year), free agent drafts (2nd year and beyond), and rookie draft. • Beginning of NFL season to end of regular NFL season: Alternate reality league is dormant, but the NFL players are generating their performance stats for the up-coming AR league. • Rinse and repeat. Copyright Sandbox Simulations, all rights reserved. We're still finalizing the cost structure, but this won't be an expensive game to play at all. It might range from a few bucks a year to $50 per year, depending on a few factors. Year 1 will require a couple of days of drafting with rather high intensity, but we've got it set up where you can put your draft list together and do customized and automated drafting if you like. So...go! Now! Time to get ready for the draft! Note that we are still in beta testing, so things could change if we find problems in the system. How Free Agency Works: Free Agency will begin before the 2012 season after the rookie draft. Our process is as follows for the 2012 season. In 2013 and beyond there will be minor changes as noted later. 1. We will unveil the list of available free agents so you can check out the talent pool. 2. If you look in "Standings", you will see that you have a salary account value of $1,300. You will use this to sign your veterans to contracts, sign your rookies to contracts, and (in a competitive bidding process) sign free agents to contracts. The cost of a contract is as follows for players already on your roster (both veterans and rookies). $0 - 1 season contract $10 - 2 season contract $22 - 3 season contract $37 - 4 season contract $55 - 5 season contract $76 - 6 season contract $100 - 7 season contract You will sign your existing players to contracts using an interface that we will unveil shortly. If your 53-man roster is set you can spend your $1,300 on your current roster. However, it may be worthwhile to hold some money back so you can compete for free agents. 3. The free agency period begins. Bidding for free agents will be open and competitive. As players come available, teams will be allowed to sign them if they are the high bidder. The contract length is automatically calculated by rounding down the bid to the chart below. Contract Length (Seasons) Salary Points Bid 1 0 to 9 2 10 to 21 3 22 to 36 4 37 to 54 5 55 to 75 6 76 to 99 7 100 or more For example, if you submit the winning bid for a player at a price of 25 salary points, that player becomes yours under a 3-year contract. If you submit a bid for 35 points and win, it’s also a 3-year contract. If you submit a bid for 38 points, it’s a 4-year contract. If you submit a bid for 120 points, it’s a 7-year contract. For the 2012 free agency period, we will enforce the 53-man rule. You will need to cut down to 53 players before the free agency period starts, and if you sign a player to go above 53, you will need to cut a player to stay within the roster limit. NOTE: DON'T CUT YET UNLESS YOU WANT TO. WE'RE STILL FINALIZING THE SYSTEM AND WANT TO BE SURE THAT THIS RULE WORKS IN 2012. 4. Ending Bidding and Ending Free Agency. Bids on an individual player will begin once the first player places a bid. For the 2012 season that bid must be $1 or more. Bidding ends when the existing high bid had not been raised for 72 hours. At that point, the high-bid team is awarded the player under the contract terms described in Step 3. The free agency period in 2012 will end once there have been no bids on any players for 72 hours. 5. Unused Salary Points If you do not use all of your salary points in a given year, they will roll over from year to year. This is experimental and we'll have to see how it works. If it doesn't work, they'll expire each year, or maybe a portion of the points can roll over. Right now, assume they all roll over. 6. Salary Points and Roster Management In the Sandbox system, salary points and the salary cap are used only for acquiring players. You will never have to track the number of salary points “on your roster” and you will never have to cut a player for salary cap reasons. Additionally, you are not obligated to keep a player for the full length of his contract. You can cut him or trade him at any time. However, recognize that it’s a waste of salary points to cut or trade a player before the end of his contract. But it doesn't hamstring you going forward - it's just past money that you wasted. 7. Free Agency and Contract Length - Retaining Your Current Players When a player reaches the end of their contract, they go back into the free agency pool and teams will bid for their services. You are eligible to bid on them to get them back, just like you can bid on any free agents. There is one exception to the rule of free agents going into the free agency pool, as follows: • At the end of the bidding process, you have the opportunity to re-sign your own players by outbidding the high bidder. Your bid must be the minimum points to increase their contract period by a year over the high bid. (Example: your player goes to free agency, and another team bids 50 points for him, which equates to a 4-year contract. You can keep the player by paying 55 points for him, which is the minimum amount for a 5-year contract.) If the high bidder offered a contract of 100 points or more (7-years), you can keep the player by bidding 10% more points than the high bid. 8. Free Agency and Trades If you trade for a player, their contract length is a consideration. Trading for a player with 6 years left on his contract will give you his services for that amount of time (unless you cut him or trade him, or he retires). Trading for a player with 1 year left on his contract means that he’ll go back into the free agency pool at the end of the season. (Of course, you can still retain him via Step 7.) 9. Future Years In future years, the process will be identical to that shown above, with the following exceptions. a. Because you will have a lot of veteran players under contract, you won't need $1,300. You'll get a new annual allotment of signing dollars. We're still working on the exact amount, but it looks like it'll be between $500 and $600. b. In the 2012 season, we will introduce all free agents at once to catch up. In the 2013 season and beyond, the free agency period will occur during the actual NFL season. We will sprinkle the free agents in one division at a time over the course of the season. (The divisions may be randomly selected or we may release a calendar. It doesn't matter that much.) This system should be interesting because some free agents will come available early in the season when you don't know their performance for the year - greater risk, greater reward - while other free agents will come available later in the season when you know what their performance will be, but so does everyone else. c. In the 2013 season and beyond, you will be able to retain more than 53 players through the rookie draft and the main free agency period. You will then have a cutdown period to get to 53 and we will have a final free agency period where you can sign any players who have been cut. In that final period you will have to enforce a 53-man roster, so if you sign a player you have to cut one. 10. When you think about the schedule in 2013 and beyond, it will go like this: a. Sandbox season goes from February through April. b. Rookie draft in May. No 53-man limit. c. Free agency from (likely) September through December, with free agents sprinkled in throughout that period. d. January. Roster cuts to 53. e. Late January. Final free agency period to flesh out rosters and sign players cut in Step d. f. New Sandbox season begins. Last edited by Rain Man; 05-27-2013 at 09:15 AM..
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07-26-2012, 08:50 AM	#2506
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3348491 VARSITY	This is purely anecdotal, but I see more passes for negative yards than I would expect. I realize that screens and swings can lose yardage, so it may not be a problem, but it just seems like it happens more frequently than I would think. Same with runs, though it's not as obvious. __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
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07-26-2012, 08:54 AM	#2507
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3348491 VARSITY	One thing I've been noticing for a while is that spikes seem to be used before time outs in many situations, and I think timeouts would be used first. Here's an example: Dallas is leading 6-0 and there are three minutes left in the half. They have three time outs. But driving with 3:12 left, they spike the ball on first down. I think in real life you'd use the first time out here instead of spiking. You may have more advanced logic, but it seems to me like you'd do something like this: If you have 2 or 3 timeouts and and there's more than 2 minutes left, you call a timeout. If you have 2 timeouts and there's more than 1 minute left, you call a timeout. If you have 1 timeout, you don't use it unless you're in the last minute and can't spike it. Dallas 2nd Q 4:30 1st and 10 Dallas 30 free agent scrambles for 10 yards. 2nd Q 3:48 2nd and inches Dallas 40 free agent (pressured) passes complete to Dustin Keller for a gain of -4 yards. 2nd Q 3:26 3rd and 4 Dallas 36 free agent passes complete to Lee Evans for a gain of 8 yards. 2nd Q 3:12 1st and 10 Dallas 44 free agent spikes the ball to kill the clock. 2nd Q 3:10 2nd and 10 Dallas 44 free agent (pressured) passes incomplete to Dustin Keller. PENALTY. Neutral Zone Infraction on Kevin Williams. 5 yards. 2nd Q 3:02 2nd and 5 Dallas 49 free agent passes complete to Steve Breaston for a gain of 34 yards. 2nd Q 2:17 1st and 10 Duluth 17 Brandon Jacobs rushes for -4 yards. Fumble, recovered by Dallas Two minute warning. 2nd Q 2:00 2nd and 14 Duluth 21 free agent passes incomplete to Jerome Simpson. 2nd Q 1:53 3rd and 14 Duluth 21 free agent passes incomplete to Steve Breaston. 2nd Q 1:46 4th and 14 Duluth 21 Stephen Gostkowski field goal attempt from 38 yards. Good. Dallas 9, Duluth 0 __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
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07-26-2012, 08:56 AM	#2508
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3348491 VARSITY	In this situation, I think I'd punt it. It's a hard first down and the opponent needed little progress to make an end-of-half field goal. Perhaps the rule would be that if you're in your own territory at the end of the first half and it's fourth down, you punt (unless you're Fat Elvis). Duluth 2nd Q 1:41 Duluth -1 Stephen Gostkowski kicks 70 yards. No return. Touchback 2nd Q 1:33 1st and 10 Duluth 20 Philip Rivers passes complete to Hakeem Nicks for a gain of 9 yards. 2nd Q 0:48 2nd and 1 Duluth 29 Philip Rivers passes incomplete, dropped by DeSean Jackson. 2nd Q 0:41 3rd and 1 Duluth 29 Rashard Mendenhall rushes for -1 yards. time out Dallas 2nd Q 0:33 4th and 2 Duluth 28 Philip Rivers passes incomplete to Greg Olsen. Dallas 9, Duluth 0 Dallas 2nd Q 0:23 1st and 10 Duluth 28 free agent (pressured) passes incomplete to Lee Evans. 2nd Q 0:15 2nd and 10 Duluth 28 free agent (pressured) passes complete to Jerome Simpson for a gain of 10 yards. time out Dallas 2nd Q 0:07 3rd and inches Duluth 18 Stephen Gostkowski field goal attempt from 35 yards. Good. Dallas 12, Duluth 0 __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
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07-26-2012, 08:59 AM	#2509
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3348491 VARSITY	Oh, and you may have built this in already and it was just a random draw, but I noticed in one of my Week 13 games that my kicker made 4 FGs of 50+ yards. That's great, but if the random draw is based on just his kicking percentage, and if he went 1 for 1 at 50+, it might make him a little too strong and it might be somehow possible to game the system on that. (I'm not sure how, but if it's possible, someone will do it.) Would you take the kicker's real-life percentage and put a random variation around it? Or perhaps cap a FG percentage at 97% or something? __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
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07-26-2012, 09:08 AM	#2510
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3348491 VARSITY	This is a very low-priority wish list item, in a situation like this where it's obviously the last play of the half, a hail mary is often in order. I don't care, but a future customer might fire off an angry e-mail if they see a pass for -1 yards. Can we override in that situation and make it incomplete if it's less than a 5 yard completion? I wince when I saw that because it might not be a good solution, but I'm not sure how else to address it. Not a big deal either way. (Edit: this was a 4th down with a few seconds left in the half. I forgot to paste the play by play and don't remember the game now.) __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit. Last edited by Rain Man; 07-26-2012 at 12:39 PM..
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07-26-2012, 09:17 AM	#2512
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3348491 VARSITY	Another situation where I would probably punt it if there was a chance that the other team could pull off a play. However, with 6 seconds left it may have been the smart play to just run the ball. Depending on how you do the timing and clock countdown, this may not be a problem. Austin 2nd Q 1:03 1st and 10 Austin 25 Matt Ryan passes complete to Darrel Young for a gain of 10 yards. time out Austin 2nd Q 0:55 2nd and inches Austin 34 Matt Ryan passes incomplete, dropped by James Jones. 2nd Q 0:48 3rd and inches Austin 34 Mike Tolbert rushes for 0 yards. 2nd Q 0:06 4th and inches Austin 34 Roy Helu rushes for -3 yards. Turned over on downs Austin 3, High Point 6 __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
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07-26-2012, 09:25 AM	#2514
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3348491 VARSITY	Not a big deal, but if a team kicks a field goal in this situation, the odds are that they ran the clock down before doing it. The other team probably shouldn't be able to run a play. Independence 2nd Q 0:06 1st and 10 Portland 44 Josh Brown field goal attempt from 61 yards. No good. Independence 20, Portland 6 Portland 2nd Q 0:01 1st and 10 Independence 49 Jake Locker (pressured) passes complete to Demaryius Thomas for a gain of 10 yards. Independence 20, Portland 6 __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
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07-26-2012, 09:28 AM	#2515
Rain Man NFL's #1 Ermines Fan Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: My house Casino cash: $3348491 VARSITY	Not a big deal, but most teams would likely take a knee in this situation. However, fixing this would create a vulnerability at some point for an error, so probably not worth fixing. Anchorage 4th Q 2:13 4th and -11 Anchorage 49 Onside kick failed, recovered by the receiving team on Anchorage 49 yardline. 4th Q 2:05 1st and 10 Anchorage 49 Alex D. Smith sacked by Jason Babin for a loss of -6 yards. Two minute warning. 4th Q 1:57 2nd and 16 Anchorage 43 Alex D. Smith passes complete to Nate Burleson for a gain of 21 yards. time out Fort Worth 4th Q 1:49 1st and 10 Fort Worth 36 Jonathan Stewart rushes for 3 yards. time out Fort Worth 4th Q 1:41 2nd and 7 Fort Worth 33 Jonathan Stewart rushes for -5 yards. 4th Q 0:51 3rd and 12 Fort Worth 38 Jonathan Stewart rushes for 3 yards. 4th Q 0:01 4th and 8 Fort Worth 35 David Akers field goal attempt from 52 yards. Good. Fort Worth 10, Anchorage 55 __________________ I'm putting random letters here as a celebration of free speech: xigrakgrah misorojeq rkemeseit.
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07-26-2012, 09:35 AM	#2516
noa Band Join Date: Sep 2005 Casino cash: $1625453	At the end of my game (Austin) against High Point, I had a chance to kick a game-tying field goal. On third down at the 33 yard line a threw a negative four yard pass. I know that this stuff happens in real life, but it seems that a QB (other than Mitch Crassle) should know its better to just go out of bounds there than risk negative yards. Posted via Mobile Device
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07-26-2012, 10:12 AM	#2518
cdcox www.nfl-forecast.com Join Date: Sep 2000 Casino cash: $2361769	On the long FGs, I do use a cap in max FG accuracy as a function of distance. So no one is 100% efficient in long FGs, even if they made them all during the season. I'l send you (RM) the caps I used for a sanity check later.
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