I think this is a pretty good solution. It addresses most of the concerns that were brought up without making the process overly complicated.

I'll be honest, when I first glanced at the tables Rain Man posted my eyes started to glaze over a little bit, but once I read through it it's pretty straightforward.

:bravo:

This is very good. I know it's more complicated that you would have liked.
I do think it will simulate the constraints of a salary cap more realistically, while also putting good players in the FA market.

Bless you beautiful bastards for this game it's going eat up many an hour from my life

Excellent job guys... this is amazing.

Question - When you retain 2 players - is that when you have to give them a 5 year contract? Or/and do they have to be on an original 5 year contract to be retained?

Thank you.

You have to give them a five-year contract (or longer). It doesn't matter what their first contract was.

We're hoping the fun part of this is that you have to make a decision with an ascending player about locking him down or letting him go in hopes that you can re-sign him cheaper after he tests the market. I suspect we may have to tweak the signing dollars everyone gets each year until we get the right balance, so we're hoping nothing goes wonky the first year or two with hyperinflation or deflation or something.

I think this is very smart because it makes you think and hesitate on some players that are a bit older and or who have a breakout year the year you have to decide... (contract year). LOL - pretty realistic in my opinion... the 5 year contracts acts like a franchise tag for the 2 retained players...

Okay, cdcox is making the necessary changes to implement these revisions. Stand down for a bit and he'll have the new and improved system (now with "fresh summer breeze smell") up shortly.

A first run through my roster suggests that my roster and the contracts therein are going to cost me about $150 more than they used to, putting me pretty far above the $1,300 threshhold.

I assume all previous contracts are going to be nullified by the changeover?

Yeah, we'll do a reset for anyone who asks. Want one?

Unless I can just leave it as is and keep my present FA balance...

If I'm going to get a retroactive kick to the gonads, yeah, that's gonna need to be re-set.

Brace yourself. This is going to hurt a little when cdcox does it.

For my own edification, can I go ahead and give you the go ahead when I want the re-set?

I'd like to see the impact the 'restructured' FA setup has. I think it would be instructive to know how things have changed.

Additionally, do we really think HBs should be a tier 2 category?

I know they're traditionally quite valuable, but they're also largely quite fungible. The market doesn't really support that a HB is as valuable as a LT or even WR at this point. It seems to me that HBs are treated more like Tier 3 players.

I don't really care that much; MJD and his bum wheel isn't going to get a massive LTC from me so the difference isn't that drastic, but it still stood out to me.

Yea HB dont last long either and are normally replaced. Whats the franchise tag on a HB? I dont remember the last one that had one - yet I could name Qb, Wr, LT's that have...

I think HBs tend to get good money, but perhaps shorter contracts. At least, in the modern world. So in the Sandbox world it'll be interesting to see if they get shorter contracts for less money or if some people would rather pay more for a longer contract.

I'll try to reset the whole thing tonight but it will be very late. I have a bunch of other stuff to do first.

Yes.

Figure I'll ask before you go offering contracts again - I sent you a PM with a few thoughts to kick around, any of them interest you?

If the old guys the only one you want to give up, I'd still be interested in finding a way to make a deal for him even though the draft is over.

Oh, yeah I'd like a reset, too.

Everyone will be reset. No choice.

The new contract system is ready to go. You can start signing your players to contracts now. If you already entered them, you need to repeat the process (sorry). Bidding opens June 9th.

Woohoo!

Duluth enters free agency with 53 players on our roster and $193 in free agent money.

We have:

0 7 year contracts
2 6 year contracts (Hakeem Nicks and Randall Cobb)
5 5 year contracts (Alex Boone, Bruce Carter, Courtney Upshaw, Desean Jackson, and Ryan Kalil
9 4 year contracts
13 3 year contracts
8 2 year contracts
16 1 yea contracts

I wish I would have paid more attention to how I had my contracts structured before the reset. I went from about $400 in leftover FA money to more like $300. And I'm relatively certain that a lot of my contract lengths are shorter.

Only 50 guys on my roster, so I have some definite needs in FA.

The FA market for 4-3 LBs (especially Mike backers) is pretty thin. I'm looking for depth at OLB and I really need a starting caliber MLB.

Pieces I could move include Muhammad Wilkerson (2nd rated 3-4 DE on PFF), 3DE Darnell Dockett, RT Winston Justice and FS Kurt Coleman. I'm also pretty deep at CB, but there's no stars there, just depth.

Draft picks are also on the table.

I completely tore apart my contracts and their structures. It's a pretty drastic change.

Just to make sure, it's 2 'franchise tags' per year, as long as I'm willing to give them 5+ year deals - correct?

Yep. You can keep up to two people per year from entering free agency as long as you give them a 5+ year contract before they exit the building.

Trade bait:
Does your high dollar qb need protection for the next couple of years? Then look no further:

Bryant McKinnie LT - started 0 games in 2012 for the Ravens, but played in all 16 and had no injuries. Just resigned with Baltimore to be their starting LT for 2013 & 2014.

is on the block for a 2013 draft pick.

Vision trade block:

DE3 - Corey Luegert (no contract at the moment), Anthony D. Smith (no contract at the moment)

Need help at HB or ILB or SLB

SS - Daniel Manning (no contract at the moment) -- will trade for FS, otherwise I might play Manning there.

Contract length can be part of trade negotiation.

I had a horrible ****ing dream last night that I was getting outbid on free agents and the clock was running out and all I got from free agency was a fullback and a tight end.

I could literally see the sandbox FA screen in my dream.

It was horrible.

All your FAs are belong to me.

In part the dream is because I have worked so hard at preparing for FA.

I have a very precise strategy, and I intend to claim 90 percent of my targets.

I will not be denied.

I don't have a strategy yet. But I do have 114 players ranked by position. I probably have 3 to 4 that I absolutely must have, and then the rest are luxury upgrades.

You won't get them. I'm getting all the best players.

Most positions I'll be ok with my 2nd or even 3rd choice.

You won't get them. I'm getting all the second and third best players.

Depending on how free agency goes, I'm thinking of flipping my 1st round pick + POSSIBLY more picks for an elite RB. Don't care how old he is.

Any takers?

Zeke! Goddammit - check your PMs. I know you've been on the board recently.

I'm ready to start finalizing my contract already.

I have my list ready to go with more then one target per position of need.

I'm just going to target whoever everyone else targets. Yolo.

(Clearing throat and shuffling feet.)

Hopefully this isn't a problem, but I need to confess something.

This is the first offseason we've had, and we're still learning the process. If you go to your roster and see all those 1's and 0's that indicate availability by week, those are from the 2011 season. We should've cleared them out once the season ended. We're working on the new table now and just realized the old table is still in there and could have misled somebody. So don't assume that's your player availability by week.

(Flinch.) Don't yell at me, okay?

UNACCEPTABLE!!!

I built my season around having MJD available for 16 weeks. This is totally unfair.

As a compromise, I'll gladly take MJD for merely 12 weeks, so long as the last seven weeks are at the end of the season. Deal?

Deal. It's up to you about how much he plays, though, since he'll be on crutches.

He'll still be a better option than Jason Snelling.

I don't meant to be a nag, but are more punters gonna be added to FA?

Yeah, kickers and punters are a pain and we have to put them in manually.

AustinChief is going to get Richard Sherman. LMAO

You know, Sherman brings up an interesting point. Will people pay more for him or his teammate Brandon Browner? Sherman may have the gaudy stats, but Browner was ranked the #22 cb by PFF last year. So who do you think gets the higher contract?

A guess...and only a guess, mind you:

The guy that was ranked the #1 cb by PFF last year will probably get the higher contract...

Browner had a good year. Browner's a good player (he's a little limited in coverage, but a good player nontheless). But c'mon - you really wonder which one of them is going to get the bigger deal?

If you'd like to bid $200 on Brandon Browner, be my guest.

This is going to be exciting.

huh?

Just a reminder that you cannot bid on free agents until your roster is at 53 or lower AND all players on your roster are under contract. Go to the "Manage Roster" menu under your team name in the menu bar to sign all of your players.

Your strategy is obvious. I congratulate you on winning the 2012 Richard Sherman sweepstakes.

Chiefs fans are and always will be CB crazy.

Richard Sherman is going to get at LEAST $300.

I'm glad one of us has a clue what my strategy is!

Seriously, I have no set game plan I'm just playing it by gut. I haven't invested much research into this at all.

Ah, I see what you are thinking... no I am more D overall but my free agent targets are almost exclusively offense since I think I have taken care of the other side well enough for now.

Oh nevermind. I see you've blown a bunch of cap space.

I'd pick Cedar Rapids but they have a pretty good secondary.

I like how everyone is puffing up Sherman, hoping that there'll be a bidding war while they go pluck up the other free agents. Devious plannng, people. Devious planning

Nah, I'm going to go sea kayaking in Seward and leave all the free agents and bidding to you guys. :)

It doesn't really matter for you anyway, does it? You've got 10 games of Alex Smith and then it's curtains.

IIRC, Smith only lost a week or two due to injry.

Alex D. Smith will ride again.

:cuss:

I'll make my first rounder next year available for the right WR or MLB.

I would also be willing to move Heath Miller for the same personnel.

There's this !@#$ing guy in our league that literally logs on to this site every goddamn day and has had PMs from me for a week because he has a spare damn MLB and has expressed an interest in a TE, but seeing as how he militantly refuses to either check his PMs or send me a middle finger, I'm tired of waiting for him.

Jesus Tapdancing Christ, how ****ing hard is it to be even nominally responsive?

This kind of reminds me of John Tait's rookie signing process with Carl Peterson.

Zeke?

I've made him about 3 different offers for Spikes, so you're not alone.

Dannelle Ellerby
Paul Posluszny
Stephen Tulloch

AJ Jenkins
Aldrick Robinson
Stephen Hill
Travis Benjamin

Make a fair offer that includes a 1st and take your pick of one from each list.
All are ascending starters, none are encumbered by contracts.

I wouldn't object if they came encumbered with a 6 or 7 year contract.

Is this a freakin' joke?

I would maybe give a 3rd for Ellerby, and that is pushing it.

FA bidding open.

First!

As far as I know, I've fixed all known issues related to bidding and trades. Let me know if anyone is still seeing problems.

Holy shit, the bidding war on Vontaze Burfict and JoLonn Dunbar is INSANE. Over $100 for these guys? LMAO

What is Sherman at? I think ours is 251

$228

I'm getting this error when I click 'Propose a Trade':

An Error Was Encountered

There is no such team

Kickers and Punters now available in FA. PM me if you are aware of one that isn't on my list.

Dang -- I thought i fixed that so it wouldn't occur again.

Give me a few minutes. I'll probably have to take over your team for a few minutes.

Riddle me this, design team.... How can my team have $-44?

After I signed all my contracts I had $3 left.
This morning I placed a single $1 bid on a player. Then I went to work.
When I returned home, the player had a higher bid on him and I had a $-44 balance.

edit: didn't see this was already raised in the other thread.

OK noa, you're good to go, but the problem will pop up for you others again. Need to give that one some more thought.

Thanks a lot. You're doing awesome work.