2023 Off-Season Update

[Goodell]

I have updated league finances on the team rosters pages for the 2023 season. Take a look and let me know if any issues. I'll work next on league check-ins, tagging, cuts and LTCs before free agency. More updates coming this week.

[Goodell]

We are ready to turn on some league activity now. Little by little, we'll continue to add some functionality in the coming days heading into peak free agency hopefully later this month.

Here's what you should be able to do now:

• Check-in on your team roster page
• Long-term contract extensions
• Contract restructuring
• Franchise or Transition tags
• Restricted free agent (RFA) tenders
• Pick up 5th year options and offer immediate extensions
• Player cuts

Check the top and bottom of your team roster page for those options.

It is important to check-in on your team roster page so we know who is here and ready to play. Getting teams checked-in lets us know which teams we need to find replacement GMs and when we're all ready to go to start free agency. If you don't check-in, it's possible your team will be at-risk for GM replacement.

For new players, teams get 2 long-term contract extensions (LTC) each year. You want to check those prior to tagging players. The LTC price given to you by the sim player's sim agent is based upon calculations of players of similar grade and position. The intention is that if a team is willing to pay a fair price for a homegrown player, that they can sign them to an extension -- but in some cases depending upon various factors of what players at that position in your league are being paid, you may have to pay a little more to keep them from testing the market. You can sign pending free agents or players with 1 year left under contract to LTCs. You have all year to use your LTCs if you want and it's the same price all year (no discount or partial salary for signing later during the season it's the same price all year no matter when you sign LTC).

Franchise and transition tags are designed to be similar to the NFL. Because of their high cost, you shouldn't tag a player unless they are elite (top 5 or top 10 at their position). If you have interest in tagging and trading a player, you need to accept the 1-year franchise tag option where the player signs their tender immediately and is under a 1-year contract that you can deal like any active roster player. That's the only way to trade a pending free agent is to sign them to that 1-year tender. You can't deal the rights to a player not under contract with anyone. If you do a non-exclusive franchise tag, you can match any offer or get 2 first round picks. If you transition tag a player, you don't get any compensation but can match any offer.

Teams have UNLIMITED bidding on their own unrestricted free agents (UFA), so if you are hesitant to pay high LTC or tag prices just know that you still have advantages in re-signing your own players with unlimited bids on them while other teams are limited to 5 bids per day on other teams' players.

Don't cut players who are UFA free agents. Even if you don't care to sign them, if other teams do and they are associated with your team it helps with possible compensatory picks to lose more UFAs than you sign. If you do cut a player in the off-season, their unguaranteed salary goes away but you owe the remaining guaranteed signing bonus left as a cap hit.

For restricted free agents (RFAs) who have less than 4 years experience and were on your active roster to end last season (not practice squad), you can chose to give them a 1st, 2nd or original round tender. You have the option to match any contract given to a restricted free agent. For 1st/2nd round tenders, you get those draft picks if you don't match. For original round tenders, we use the ACTUAL NFL round of the player in real life (not sim draft). If they were drafted in the 7th round in reality and you give them an original round tender, you could get a 7th rounder if you don't match. If they were undrafted in reality, you'd get no compensation unless you offer them a 1st/2nd round tender. If the RFA isn't worth the tender amounts, you can choose to turn them into unrestricted free agents also where you'd have unlimited bidding to try to keep but no matching rights or compensation.

Send me a PM if you have any questions or are confused. Better to ask than make mistakes, and I'm glad to help (especially new GMs).

If no problems with these activities being turned on, we'll move onto the next set of functions like trades in the days/weeks ahead as we start to fill in empty team openings and give all teams a shot for cross-team activities. Right now you're just making decisions for your own team prior to free agency.

Keep an eye on this thread for any off-season announcements.

[Goodell]

The league homepages with transaction lists have been updated a bit. It'll also now list out all the players in one place that are currently on the waiver wire.

I had some work situation changes recently, so currently hoping to take advantage of more free time currently to revamp some things. Send me a PM or reply if things you've noticed that could be enhanced. I have a long list of stuff already that has been discussed and some things in mind to work on in terms of making some use of the historic data saved, but always open to ideas.

[thunder23]

Under the franchise tag and LTC sections, I think clicking "submit" gives a breakdown of the offer, and doesn't actually sign the player yet? Am I right? I'm scared to submit. If so, is it possible to change the name of the button to "see offer" or "see details"?

[Heffay72]

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[Goodell]

Under the franchise tag and LTC sections, I think clicking "submit" gives a breakdown of the offer, and doesn't actually sign the player yet? Am I right? I'm scared to submit. If so, is it possible to change the name of the button to "see offer" or "see details"?

Good thought on that, thanks!

[Zapotek]

If I franchise tag a player, then sign him to a long term contract, does that use one of my two LTCs for the year?

[Goodell]

If I franchise tag a player, then sign him to a long term contract, does that use one of my two LTCs for the year?

If you're choosing one of the franchise tag options that includes a longer extension when making that choice to apply the tag, that doesn't go against the LTC limit. Same with the extension from picking up 5th year options if a longer extension choice is selected. There were issues in the past related to 5th year options being picked up creating LTC problems because raises required which made it less logical to pick up 5th year options so we included extension options as part of those to resolve that. Some issues with franchise tags in the past also with people wanting to manipulate those situations to their advantage or collude with other teams on contact offers or get something for their rights, so we simplified all that previously to give more options for teams with franchise players at tag prices as they decide to apply that tag (ranging from doing it in a way where the tender immediately signed and they'd be an active player that could be traded as has happened in NFL situations before or a tag becoming a longer extension in most cases). So if you choose the longer extensions as part of those off-season decisions for 5th year option or tagged players, it's separate from clicking LTC and the limits there otherwise.

[Goodell]

Free Agency starts Sunday at noon ET as noted in the date vote poll. Teams have to make decisions about tagged players, restricted free agents, and LTCs for any pending free agents prior to noon ET once the markets open and bids begin.

Trading is turned on in all leagues now.

Draft orders are also set now and they'll show up now as the exact overall pick on your team roster list of draft picks as well as the trade tool now. Later today we'll have the estimated cost of draft pick contracts so teams will know roughly how much their draftees may cost before they start spending their free agent money tomorrow.

[Goodell]

Team rosters now show estimated values for draft picks. That's based upon slight increase from last year and just an estimate as we'll sign the draft picks in the summer after seeing what rookie contracts are in reality. Keep those in mind before spending free agent money, as you'll need to sign draft picks too with available cap space. Of course teams can always move down or trade picks to next year to reduce costs this season. The overall estimate is at the top after draft picks listed with a more detailed breakdown of that total at the bottom.