2014 RULES: Free Agency Changes

[Goodell]

I'm going to tighten some things up regarding free agency bids as discussed before I believe to close loopholes and ensure counter-bid raises actually are higher value against cap, clean up the lists, etc.

Now's the time to think about other changes too before we gear up for free agency again. Did you like switch to anonymous bidding? Are there things we could do to improve free agency process or actions to help limit certain behavior or do some things just come with the territory?

Would you like to see higher requirements for counter bids, so a team couldn't just increase the signing bonus on a bid by the smallest allowed amount? Maybe adding 1000 signing bonus is a good enough raise on a minimum contract bid, but not on a 10M player as it isn't a bid enough percentage increase on overall cap value. Things like that would be slight increase requirement changes we could make.

Do you think we need to go even further for counter-offers needing to be higher? How about giving first bidders any extra "finders" advantages such as the intial counter-offer needing to be even higher than multiple counters after.

During the peak free agency period teams need lots of bids, and we give 5 per day (plus unlimited bidding on your own). But once that peak period ends, most teams won't use 5 bids per day on free agency later in the off-season and into regular season. Would it help if we reduced the number of daily bids (say to 3/day) during the less busy time to make those bids more precious to thoughtfully use during those other times instead of having the usual 5 despite bidding on far fewer players of interest?

If last minute counter offers just before the 24-hour window expires bothers many, how about limits on that such as a 3 strikes and you're out policy where the system notes when a team makes a bid within the last hour on the clock and only will allow a GM to do that 3 times (or whatever) before it locks them out of being able to submit counter-offers on players with just an hour left or less? Is that something to legislate against, or just something to expect that's fine to keep things as they have been?

Always looking to improve in ways that make sense and better the game ahead.

[Nathan S.]

If last minute counter offers just before the 24-hour window expires bothers many, how about limits on that such as a 3 strikes and you're out policy where the system notes when a team makes a bid within the last hour on the clock and only will allow a GM to do that 3 times (or whatever) before it locks them out of being able to submit counter-offers on players with just an hour left or less? Is that something to legislate against, or just something to expect that's fine to keep things as they have been?

We have all been screwed by this but with the limited number of bids I think it's necessary. There's many times where I feel I have to get up at 4 am or early to make my bids so if I get outbid I have time to get in my new, refreshed bids before the person who bids a little later in the morning can lock him up before I get my 5 new bids.

[Ben C.]

During the peak free agency period teams need lots of bids, and we give 5 per day (plus unlimited bidding on your own). But once that peak period ends, most teams won't use 5 bids per day on free agency later in the off-season and into regular season. Would it help if we reduced the number of daily bids (say to 3/day) during the less busy time to make those bids more precious to thoughtfully use during those other times instead of having the usual 5 despite bidding on far fewer players of interest?

An alternative approach to this issue may be to reduce the number of bids to 3/day during the first couple of weeks of free agency, then increase to 5/day later on. This may simulate a little bit of the real world in that GMs can only spend so much time with so many free agent prospects in the beginning, but can bring in multiple lesser-known prospects later on. It also may spread out the excitement over a little bit longer.

Note: I'm not convinced I like either idea, but thought I'd throw this out there.

[Strategist]

If last minute counter offers just before the 24-hour window expires bothers many, how about limits on that such as a 3 strikes and you're out policy where the system notes when a team makes a bid within the last hour on the clock and only will allow a GM to do that 3 times (or whatever) before it locks them out of being able to submit counter-offers on players with just an hour left or less? Is that something to legislate against, or just something to expect that's fine to keep things as they have been?

We have all been screwed by this but with the limited number of bids I think it's necessary. There's many times where I feel I have to get up at 4 am or early to make my bids so if I get outbid I have time to get in my new, refreshed bids before the person who bids a little later in the morning can lock him up before I get my 5 new bids.

What I would say to this is what if you have 5 targets that all get countered within an hour of you bidding... Now to counter all 5 offers it would have to be in the final hour if no one else counters. I know it may suck to get countered in the last hour but hey its the rules and it happens.

[Ulrich82]

I am not really in favor of limiting last minute bids. It can be used as a weapon (a home team can tie up one of a competitor's bids by extending an offer at the last minute), but it really only helps when two teams are going after the same 2 players and one of the teams has a home team advantage on one of them. With anonymous bidding, this isn't so much an issue. You can still use this tactic, but there is no guarantee of any benefit. On the other hand, there are a lot of reasons for last minute bids. You may be waiting for another bid to expire or you may be debating if you want to risk tieing up one of your 5 bids on a specific player. This isn't ebay where you can put in a last minute bid and win without anyone having a chance to better it. The last minute bid still has 24 hours to be beaten. It's just part of the game.

I am much more concerned about improving the requirements to outbid someone. $1000 increases in SB or RB are practically irrelevant on a $100+ million dollar cap (and even on a $500k contract offer), and in my mind, such increases are disrespectful of the GMs you are competing against. It is an arbitrary number, but requiring a 5% increase seems more reasonable. This would be something like a $25k bonus added onto a $500k contract or a half a million increase on a $10million contract offer.

[Onyxgem]

I am not really in favor of limiting last minute bids. It can be used as a weapon (a home team can tie up one of a competitor's bids by extending an offer at the last minute), but it really only helps when two teams are going after the same 2 players and one of the teams has a home team advantage on one of them. With anonymous bidding, this isn't so much an issue. You can still use this tactic, but there is no guarantee of any benefit. On the other hand, there are a lot of reasons for last minute bids. You may be waiting for another bid to expire or you may be debating if you want to risk tieing up one of your 5 bids on a specific player. This isn't ebay where you can put in a last minute bid and win without anyone having a chance to better it. The last minute bid still has 24 hours to be beaten. It's just part of the game.

I am much more concerned about improving the requirements to outbid someone. $1000 increases in SB or RB are practically irrelevant on a $100+ million dollar cap (and even on a $500k contract offer), and in my mind, such increases are disrespectful of the GMs you are competing against. It is an arbitrary number, but requiring a 5% increase seems more reasonable. This would be something like a $25k bonus added onto a $500k contract or a half a million increase on a $10million contract offer.

Yeah but it also can be used by somebody who really doesn't want the guy they just don't want the other team getting him for that price. That doesn't usually happen in the NFL cause if a team doesn't want a guy they are not going to be making him offers just to up his asking price.

[larry linke]

I like the five bids but I don't like the anonymous bidding. A couple of times someone countered a fairly large bid with a $1,000 signing bonus. I wonder if they would do that if their name was attached to the bid.

As for last hour bids, I have done that. If there are two players at the same position, a last hour bid helps to ensure that you are still in the running and don't have "all your eggs in one basket".

Larry
Minnesota AFFL

[Nathan S.]

Yeah but it also can be used by somebody who really doesn't want the guy they just don't want the other team getting him for that price. That doesn't usually happen in the NFL cause if a team doesn't want a guy they are not going to be making him offers just to up his asking price.

Not sure how often this happens though, Onyx. I always wish I had more bids at the beginning of FA rather than wasting one to bid someone else up. I also think that even if that does happen, it's actually realistic. Player's agents lie to push price's up similarly and without agents in the sim, there's no way to do that.

[JonC]

Anonymous bidding is great. If we increase the minimum by which you can raise a bid and limit the ability of teams to do last second raises to three times (if possible), that would solve a lot of issues.

[Jared A]

Not sure how often this happens though, Onyx. I always wish I had more bids at the beginning of FA rather than wasting one to bid someone else up. I also think that even if that does happen, it's actually realistic. Player's agents lie to push price's up similarly and without agents in the sim, there's no way to do that.

I will be the first to say, if I have extra bids... they're going to raise the teams' bids I feel are rivals.

I don't feel that's the right way, but I feel it happens to me. (turn about is fair play)