Thoughts

[The King]

I just messed with my roster for a bit and came up with a depth chart of guys I KNOW I am keeping. There maybe some additions of a a few guys I consider to be pending.

I came out at about 45.4M for 31 players.

I am not sure how contracts and FA are going to play out but is 40M enough for the offseason?

[Devin]

well i have been thinking about this myself. This cap is going to be a lot tougher then most think.

IF its under 4 years they get 1 mil raise per season, but if the contract is over 4 seasons its 1.5 million.

So if you got a guy for 100K last season and extend him 4 seasons. Next season his salary is 1.6 Mil. So best case if you have 35 players at 100K that comes out to 56 mil. Add in your franchise player and your at 66 Mil.

Im not sure how this can work.

[The King]

Some one should create a spread sheet or something. I am friggin clueless.

[Devin]

basically its this:

4 years or under = 1 Mil per season (100K, 1.1mil, 2.1 Mil, 3.1 Mil)
5 years or more = 1.5 Mil per season (100K 1.6 Mil, 3.1 Mil, 4.6Mil...etc)

Which means the primary players everyone will keep will be 500K-100K players. And that almost all players selected in rounds 1-6 will be FA. Most people will only be able to keep 1 MAYBE 2 of their 3Mil or better players.

[L.A. Playa]

if I get a chance i could create a spreadsheet but the sheet EB sent us will also work if you plug in your #'s over 5 years

[Devin]

Yeah its going to be tough for anyone to keep 2 or more players from the first 5-6 rounds.

[L.A. Playa]

this is where things will end up evening out on teams I doubt anyone will consistently be in the playoffs every year

[The King]

so the first pick in the stocking draft is 10 million too?

[L.A. Playa]

yep $10 Mil I will probably be skipping that round cant imagine too many good players being available

[The King]

I probably wont make an aquisition until the 10th round or so.

[R. Rich]

I'm glad you brought this up.

I may have to bow out of this league, as this was not what I intended to happen. If I have to give back 5 or 6 of my top players, then last year was for nothing. I sent a PM to Eb and once he gets back, I'll discuss it w/ him.

[L.A. Playa]

This is why I feel if you have to increase salaries $1 mil a year if you sign players to long term contracts that the salary cap must increase each year otherwise we have to sign a bunch of 1 year contracts or keep a few players long term which really isnt realistic I guess we really didnt understand this in the inaugraul draft or otherwise alot of us would have been wiser in that draft

[Devin]

I'm glad you brought this up.

I may have to bow out of this league, as this was not what I intended to happen. If I have to give back 5 or 6 of my top players, then last year was for nothing. I sent a PM to Eb and once he gets back, I'll discuss it w/ him.

:(

[L.A. Playa]

rich you can expose your players to the FA draft and bring them back at lower prices, trust me Daunte Culpepper will not be paid $10 mil next year but I would consider bringin him back for a lower amt

[Forward_Lateral]

I tend to agree with the general concensus. Increasing salaries by 1 million is a bit much. My whole point of drafting a bunch of later round guys was so they'd be cheap down the road. However, a 100K guy's salary is 1.1 million next year, which is ridiculous. I think the salary increases need to be adjusted somehow.

[Devin]

Well its a catch 22. If you lower it then everyone gets anyone cheap.

It will force you to be a bit more creative cap wise. And im not sure but this may not impact team til the 2007 season. I.e

If you have a 100K player ad you sign him to a 4 year deal this year, he may still be at 100K this coming season THEN 1.1 mil the followng season.

But there are stipulations of what your future cap can be at as well.

[The King]

I might adopt a win now mentality. As Rich said its going to be tough to keep a young core of guys together. I will say this Ed Reed is worth 10M.

[Forward_Lateral]

Well its a catch 22. If you lower it then everyone gets anyone cheap.

It will force you to be a bit more creative cap wise. And im not sure but this may not impact team til the 2007 season. I.e

If you have a 100K player ad you sign him to a 4 year deal this year, he may still be at 100K this coming season THEN 1.1 mil the followng season.

But there are stipulations of what your future cap can be at as well.

I think the salary increases this upcoming year.

[The King]

I think the salary increases this upcoming year.

except rookies

[R. Rich]

rich you can expose your players to the FA draft and bring them back at lower prices, trust me Daunte Culpepper will not be paid $10 mil next year but I would consider bringin him back for a lower amt

My point is that I shouldn't have to do that. And even if I do, I'll probably lose a few of them. That shouldn't be the case. I spent a lot of time evaluating the team I wanted, and considering this news, I should've just gone into this w/ a fantasy football "win now/draft the best players" mentality, since for this game, you can't do anything other than that. It's just not what I signed up for.

It's okay though. I do have the software Eb's using for the sims, and I may join an already established league where they actually do head to head games over the internet. I may also try to form a league like our BZFL, but where the salary cap isn't as ridiculous. I mean, you couldn't even draft a player per round and stay w/in the cap restrictions (going by the free agent scale of how players' salaries were slotted per round). That's crazy.

[L.A. Playa]

Rich if you start another league I own the game and would be interested in being in another league as well as long as I can have the LA coliseum as my home stadium that is LOL

[Devin]

I really like this sim league, so while I certainly would be open to join another my Outlaws will be pushing hard for the BZFL championship in year 2.

[R. Rich]

I really like this sim league, so while I certainly would be open to join another my Outlaws will be pushing hard for the BZFL championship in year 2.

I'd like to be here for Year 2 as well, Devin, especially since I built my team on a 3 year plan. As long as that plan can be carried out, I'm here.

[R. Rich]

Rich if you start another league I own the game and would be interested in being in another league as well as long as I can have the LA coliseum as my home stadium that is LOL


I'm still not sure if I'll start up a league or just join one. Then again, if I can work something out here, I may not do either one.

If I do start up a league, you can have that crappy stadium. I'll take RICH Stadium, of course.

[The King]

Rich I am in the same boat. Except worse off

[L.A. Playa]

Hey Rich gotta be close to home LOL I wouldnt mind being in 2 leagues as long as one is head to head because that makes it that much better I wish this league would go head to head but I dont see that happening

[Sportsuser101]

yep $10 Mil I will probably be skipping that round cant imagine too many good players being available

I think some will be suprised how many good players are going to be available.

[Devin]

Hey Rich gotta be close to home LOL I wouldnt mind being in 2 leagues as long as one is head to head because that makes it that much better I wish this league would go head to head but I dont see that happening

I like this league the way it is, absolutley no chance we can get 20+ people here all willing to buy the game, learn it, and then have time to sim each week.

[Forward_Lateral]

I think some will be suprised how many good players are going to be available.

Yeah, but who's going to pay 10 million for them? A few might, while the others who can't afford to, lose out. Either the salary increases have to change, or the FA draft values have to change. Something has to give. As it stands now, with the formulas I created in the Excel file, if every team kept their entire roster next season, I think the lowest team was still 35 million OVER the cap. That's almost 50 % of your roster you have to cut, just to get to the cap. Then, you have no money to fill in your holes. So essentially, you'll probably be able to afford to keep a handful of players worth more than 1 million, draft maybe one or two, the rest will be worthless scrubs. I think it sucks that I wasted my time scouting a bunch of guys worth 500K to 100K and now I have to pay those guys 1.5 and 1.1 million. Some of those guys will be good in a few years, but I can't afford to keep them at that price.

[Devin]

Well no one throw in the towel yet, I am sure there is a logical way about this. I sort of assumed this was how it was from the start, but I am sure Eb will explain it clearly when he is back.

[R. Rich]

Yeah, but who's going to pay 10 million for them? A few might, while the others who can't afford to, lose out. Either the salary increases have to change, or the FA draft values have to change. Something has to give. As it stands now, with the formulas I created in the Excel file, if every team kept their entire roster next season, I think the lowest team was still 35 million OVER the cap. That's almost 50 % of your roster you have to cut, just to get to the cap. Then, you have no money to fill in your holes. So essentially, you'll probably be able to afford to keep a handful of players worth more than 1 million, draft maybe one or two, the rest will be worthless scrubs. I think it sucks that I wasted my time scouting a bunch of guys worth 500K to 100K and now I have to pay those guys 1.5 and 1.1 million. Some of those guys will be good in a few years, but I can't afford to keep them at that price.

I agree. I still want to participate in the league, I just don't want to have to gut my entire team year after year to stay. I think that's ridiculous; even the NFL doesn't force teams to rebuild on a yearly basis.

[R. Rich]

Well no one throw in the towel yet, I am sure there is a logical way about this. I sort of assumed this was how it was from the start, but I am sure Eb will explain it clearly when he is back.

I haven't, but as F_L said, something needs to change for us to continue.

[MikeInRoch]

This is why I had such little concern for how old some of the players I drafted were. Based on the constitution, I realized there is going to be heavy, heavy turnover in these teams. Any player who is kept more than two years is going to cause major cap issues. So I decided to always play for the moment. :D

[Devin]

Well the trick is satisfying the cap as well as keeping teams competitive. I dont believe a team should have to break up their "core" but at the same time something has to be done to keep the league competitive (i.e cap restrictions...etc).

[R. Rich]

This is why I had such little concern for how old some of the players I drafted were. Based on the constitution, I realized there is going to be heavy, heavy turnover in these teams. Any player who is kept more than two years is going to cause major cap issues. So I decided to always play for the moment. :D

I have fun playing in those leagues. They're called 'fantasy football' leagues.

This was supposed to be different, or so I thought.

[R. Rich]

Well the trick is satisfying the cap as well as keeping teams competitive. I dont believe a team should have to break up their "core" but at the same time something has to be done to keep the league competitive (i.e cap restrictions...etc).

I like keeping things competitive also, but if it means gutting my team year after year, that's a bit much. It appears that the rules will have owners in this league doing something that happens just every so often in the actual NFL: a salary cap purge. It's just not necessary to have to do that every year.

[L.A. Playa]

Im my opinion if you cant keep a core of 25-35 guys over a 3-5 year period because it is not cost effective then it undercuts this being a NFL style league you can have turnover of 11-15 guys a year which usually should include 1-5 starters and the rest backup players that is what realistically happens in the NFL and if this is gonna be similar should happen here

[L.A. Playa]

I understand the FA draft this year but being that we can protect only 35 players including rookies I think kinda sucks too, we should be able to protect 35 currently on our roster and as many rookies as we wish, alot of rookies dont develop in one year and since taht is the case why should we even have a 7 round rookie draft it should be only a 3 rd draft considering you are only gonna keep 3-4 rookies out of 7 if you have to choose between a a rookie who saw limited action compared to a veteran who made some contributions

[L.A. Playa]

Here is my proposal, let me know waht you guys think. I beleive we should be able to protect 35 players on our current teams and our rookie draft class. If we sign players to long term contracts they max out at $10 mil still but lets say you havea 100k player that became an all pro this year you can sign him to a 3 year contract starting at lets say $2 mil for the first year and increasing 10% the second year and 20% the third year and so on if longer contract. This way if a player is eligible for FA then you offer a qualifing offer knowing if someone offers more you can match but must pay for same length of contract with amnt going up 10%after 1 year 20% after 2, 30% after 3 and so on.

What ya guys think any feedback??

[The King]

I def believe some work needs to be done. Perhaps when can schedule a chat in like an Instant Messager chat room and we can brainstorm.

[R. Rich]

I def believe some work needs to be done. Perhaps when can schedule a chat in like an Instant Messager chat room and we can brainstorm.

Not a bad idea. Well, @ the very least, I know that Devin, Eb, and I have MSN Messenger, so we could have a meeting of the BZFL execs once Eb's back.

[Canadian'eh!]

I do see an issue witht he 1mill/year increase.... this REALLY should be on a %.... jumping from 5 to 6 mill is one thing... but 100k to 1.1 mill is insanity....

[Michael82]

Not a bad idea. Well, @ the very least, I know that Devin, Eb, and I have MSN Messenger, so we could have a meeting of the BZFL execs once Eb's back.
I have MSN too. So I can also be a part of it when it is time.

[Ebenezer]

OK...there is a lot here to address...let me start with this and then I will address other issues as needed.

When you first sign a player you sign him to a one year contract. A players salary does not increase until year three. For example, I drafted Jake Delhomme at $5 mil. If I choose to resign him to a one year contract next season he will get a contract for $5 mil. However, if I choose to give him a long term deal, then his salary goes up. Let's say I give him a 3 year deal. He contract numbers would then be: $5mil, $6mil, $7mil. Hence, whenever you sign a free agent he plays at the same salary for two years in a row.

I am also not against increasing the salary cap each year. But I don't want to go crazy. If we went up $3-5 mil a year I would go along with that. I am also in favor of decreasing the number of players that need to be kept, if needed.

Does these points help at all?

[Ebenezer]

I also like the idea of a conference call using MSN.

[L.A. Playa]

what are the benefits of long term contracts if you can just sign players to one year contracts

[Ebenezer]

what are the benefits of long term contracts if you can just sign players to one year contracts
you can't. you can sign a player to a 1 year deal only once.

[Dozerdog]

What about doubling the contract each year ?

[Ebenezer]

What about doubling the contract each year ?
:huh:

[Devin]

That would only work for the 500K and below players.