Re: 2017 Off-Season Update
Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2017 5:02 am
As previously announced, Free Agency gets started Monday 4/17 morning at 9 AM ET. For those new to the leagues or forgot how things go, here are a couple reminders. New GMs can also refer to previously send welcoming messages with details on league activities.
Teams get UNLIMITED bidding toward their own UFAs on the market, and 5 bids per 24 hours to put toward other players. After 24 hours, a used bid becomes available again. There's nothing more frustrating than putting in your 5 bids immediately first thing only to see them all countered and no longer leading bids by mid morning with no other bids until the next day. Some have different strategies probably, but sometimes it can be effective to space your bids out a bit after seeing how the market is going, what players are in crazy demand, and being the team that gets out of the first day on top instead of the team that had an all their early bids countered.
A UFA is signed when he goes without a counter bid for 24 hours. Restricted free agents (RFA) or tagged players are signed to offersheets after 24 hours without a counter bid, but their home team has a chance to match or receive compensation in some cases. Always read the bid page completely, especially in cases of RFA or tagged players that have certain conditions and compensation required for bidding that is listed on their page. Often in those cases you may have to give up a draft pick if you sign a restricted/tagged player. If a player has an original round tender, check their actual NFL draft round for the required compensation (not sim draft round). I'll try to get around to updating those as time allows.
Once turned on, free agency will never be turned off until the end of the regular season in January. It's always available to shop players throughout the off-season and regular season. During peak free agency starting tomorrow you'll be able to see what players have bids and rough signing time deadlines before they'll sign, as we do that in peak free agency to try to ensure players get their fair market price. Some things change after peak free agency is over when free agency becomes much more secretive for the rest of the season to reward teams that do their research on training camp gems instead of just cherry-picking other team bids.
Depending upon your situation, you may want to pay close attention to the UFA gain/loss chart on the front of the league homepages (and on your team roster page). That determines which lost UFAs get compensatory picks in the 2018 draft or not. Only teams with more UFA losses listed than gains are even eligible for picks, and only the top 32 UFA losses whose team didn't have a similarly graded UFA gain to balance that out will get picks. Street free agents without teams, RFAs, and tagged players DO NOT factor into compensatory picks -- only UFAs from other teams with unlimited bidding rights. So it helps you with compensatory picks in next year's draft to let some of your UFAs sign with other teams (despite your unlimited bidding rights) and sign street free agents without home team unlimited bidding affiliations.
There are no do-overs in free agency. Especially if you are giving a player GUARANTEED signing bonus money, make sure you do your research. Check their rotoworld page, do a google news search. There's no hurry, take your time and enter wisely. Make sure you're bidding on the right player and not someone with the same name. We honor real NFL retirements, suspensions, injuries, etc. Grades listed are grades from last year, and madden grades can sometimes change significantly from year to year plus grades are updated weekly throughout the season with performance. Be smart with your money, and careful with guaranteed signing bonuses especially as there is no way out of those at all. You're going to pay 100% of that one way or another and cannot transfer signing bonuses to anyone else.
It's a good idea probably to save yourself about $2M+ under the cap for in-season transactions as it's more difficult to clear cap space during the season when injuries happen. I'll also be adding estimated draft pick values, but in the meantime you can research a player drafted in that slot last year and look at their contract. Don't over spend in free agency or you won't be able to afford your draft picks.
We also carry over some unused cap space from year to year, this year increasing to a max of 10M. So if you're 10M under the cap at the end of this season, you'll get that 10M next year. If your 50M under the cap, you still only get 10M carried over.
If you are unsure about something, please send me a PM. Better to ask than make a mistake that can't be undone. Thanks and happy hunting!
Teams get UNLIMITED bidding toward their own UFAs on the market, and 5 bids per 24 hours to put toward other players. After 24 hours, a used bid becomes available again. There's nothing more frustrating than putting in your 5 bids immediately first thing only to see them all countered and no longer leading bids by mid morning with no other bids until the next day. Some have different strategies probably, but sometimes it can be effective to space your bids out a bit after seeing how the market is going, what players are in crazy demand, and being the team that gets out of the first day on top instead of the team that had an all their early bids countered.
A UFA is signed when he goes without a counter bid for 24 hours. Restricted free agents (RFA) or tagged players are signed to offersheets after 24 hours without a counter bid, but their home team has a chance to match or receive compensation in some cases. Always read the bid page completely, especially in cases of RFA or tagged players that have certain conditions and compensation required for bidding that is listed on their page. Often in those cases you may have to give up a draft pick if you sign a restricted/tagged player. If a player has an original round tender, check their actual NFL draft round for the required compensation (not sim draft round). I'll try to get around to updating those as time allows.
Once turned on, free agency will never be turned off until the end of the regular season in January. It's always available to shop players throughout the off-season and regular season. During peak free agency starting tomorrow you'll be able to see what players have bids and rough signing time deadlines before they'll sign, as we do that in peak free agency to try to ensure players get their fair market price. Some things change after peak free agency is over when free agency becomes much more secretive for the rest of the season to reward teams that do their research on training camp gems instead of just cherry-picking other team bids.
Depending upon your situation, you may want to pay close attention to the UFA gain/loss chart on the front of the league homepages (and on your team roster page). That determines which lost UFAs get compensatory picks in the 2018 draft or not. Only teams with more UFA losses listed than gains are even eligible for picks, and only the top 32 UFA losses whose team didn't have a similarly graded UFA gain to balance that out will get picks. Street free agents without teams, RFAs, and tagged players DO NOT factor into compensatory picks -- only UFAs from other teams with unlimited bidding rights. So it helps you with compensatory picks in next year's draft to let some of your UFAs sign with other teams (despite your unlimited bidding rights) and sign street free agents without home team unlimited bidding affiliations.
There are no do-overs in free agency. Especially if you are giving a player GUARANTEED signing bonus money, make sure you do your research. Check their rotoworld page, do a google news search. There's no hurry, take your time and enter wisely. Make sure you're bidding on the right player and not someone with the same name. We honor real NFL retirements, suspensions, injuries, etc. Grades listed are grades from last year, and madden grades can sometimes change significantly from year to year plus grades are updated weekly throughout the season with performance. Be smart with your money, and careful with guaranteed signing bonuses especially as there is no way out of those at all. You're going to pay 100% of that one way or another and cannot transfer signing bonuses to anyone else.
It's a good idea probably to save yourself about $2M+ under the cap for in-season transactions as it's more difficult to clear cap space during the season when injuries happen. I'll also be adding estimated draft pick values, but in the meantime you can research a player drafted in that slot last year and look at their contract. Don't over spend in free agency or you won't be able to afford your draft picks.
We also carry over some unused cap space from year to year, this year increasing to a max of 10M. So if you're 10M under the cap at the end of this season, you'll get that 10M next year. If your 50M under the cap, you still only get 10M carried over.
If you are unsure about something, please send me a PM. Better to ask than make a mistake that can't be undone. Thanks and happy hunting!