2010 RULES: Alternate Compensation

[Goodell]

After much debate, I'll have a way during free agency on a team's roster page to be able to LOWER the compensation required if they change their mind from their original designation and decide later that they'd be willing to take less of a draft pick to encourage more bids. The announcement of that to all teams to open up the process will just appear on that player's free agency listing and have a different compensation noted when changed.

[Goodell]

As discussed in this thread previously at great length this off-season, we're going to try to keep the free agent markets as open as we can and introduced new tools for teams to lower the compensation requirement so that it's known to all teams to help keep the market fair so that it's not just one other team that knows the compensation less and able to put in a winning bid much lower against little or not competition scared off by the advertised higher compensation.

The new tools for changing that can be accessed by clicking on your own player in free agency, then you'll get a list of lower compensation options to post. I got off to a slow start on that working for everybody because all the RFAs who didn't get a higher tender at the start were just labeled "original" draft pick and it didn't give teams options because it didn't know itself what the original pick was until I entered it later. Every RFA above a C grade should now have their RFA compensation default put in. I'll try to get to all the lower grades too, but if you want to change an RFA still listed as "original" round compensation let me know and I'll get to that sooner.

Now that the tool is in place for most players of significance, and the UFA markets are really starting to wind down, more focus usually shifts to teams trying to work something out otherwise for the RFA and tagged players remaining without bids, and not as much activity flying we are going to really crack down the stretch on keeping with these open market intentions.

For a down the stretch refresher course when a lot of teams are going to start looking more at restricted players as the few left of value, keep these in mind...

- You can trade a player's RIGHTS for whatever you want. But that player's rights are not a signed contract, and the player remains on the market with the same protections/compensation transfered to the acquiring team.

- If you have something worked out with another team for a restricted player, it has to be identical to the draft pick (or similar if a player) as the listed draft compensation published to the rest of the league to avoid price fixing possibilities where high compensation posted to scare bidders away but one team secretly knows they can bid less without giving up that compensation.

- To make this work, we're going to have to void bid offersheets that are inconsistent with the compensation posted to other teams.

- Teams must have the posted compensation or higher to place a bid on that player. Bids without that could be voided as not having sufficiently met the posted requirement and possibly an attempt to get around the system.

- Click on your player's name in free agency to modify their compensation requirement if you are willing to accept something less now, or to something less that more accurately reflects other trade discussions for alternative compensation.


- The NFL's deadline for signing an RFA to an offer-sheet is 4/15. That may be too far away for us if free agency really starts to thin out this week, but that's the latest we'll have a cut off for RFA and tagged player bids. After that date, all RFAs and tagged players will return to their teams for that 1-year tendered amount, and franchise tagged players without bids will be eligible for contract extension as in the past. After that date, we'll also remove any team association to UFAs and there will be no more unlimited bidding on your own UFAs after that time, so if you want to sign some of your own UFAs and utilize that advantage, you must do so before then or else they are just unassociated UFAs later where no team has any advantage in signing.

- I made some progress getting an automated offer-sheet matching tool where we'd get away from posts on message boards, and hope to have that up sometime this week for testing the rest of the way to have it perfected for a smoother free agency next year. thanks

[Jared A]

More options for compensation are needed...

a 1st and a 2nd...

Similarly rated player at XX position


It's very limiting to only be allowed to go from 2-1sts to 1st and 3rd

[Goodell]

More options for compensation are needed...

a 1st and a 2nd...

Similarly rated player at XX position


It's very limiting to only be allowed to go from 2-1sts to 1st and 3rd

I can add more draft pick options such as the 1st and 2nd, but we must remember that these aren't players under contract to trade for a very specific position of need. These are free agents. They are not under contract with any body.

The MOST you can have over them if designated is the "rights" to first refusal (match a deal), as well as possibly get compensated if you really would like to keep the player but the market sets them at a price you don't want to pay but don't go away empty handed. That's not really intended to be the same power as dealing a player as if they were under contract with you and you can get whatever specifically you want. This is just a consolation prize if the bidding gets too crazy that the NFL franchises have to fall back on if they can't retain their franchise player, not an extension of their contract under a team that they can deal for specific players or positions only. They are free agents and the team just has their "rights" not them under contract any longer.

If you want a very specific need in trading a player, they have to be traded while they are under contract where you have complete control over them. When they are free agents, the table should be turned.

[soonertf]

I have a question along these lines. If a team has a Transition player that they neither matched his contact offer, nor received any compensation from the new team; will the player count as a FA lost for dtermining next year's compensation picks?

[Goodell]

"Similarly rated player", as mentioned during those off-season rules discussions, is okay. We wouldn't have an option to set it as has to be a player instead of draft pick, but it is the VALUE of the compensation of interest here and that every team knows what value they have to give up. Teams have the option of being very picky with trade demands for players while they are under contract with them, but not as free agents and a team with matching rights can't have specific position demands but only set the floor for compensation if they have to walk away but still get something back as outlined.

If it's going to be a draft pick, it should be exactly as the compensation notes within free agency for teams wanting to put in a bid.

But it can be a player. The winning bid team and the original team can come to a different compensation agreement that isn't the advertised draft pick, but it should be similar value and the deals that are not should then jump off the page as inconsistent and subject to further investigation and possibly voiding of the offersheet and putting the player back on the market with the contract not validated as circumventing the intended process. Then the two teams could try again but at a fairly advertised compensation the next time that doesn't intentionally drive away bid competition.

It's in an individual team's best interest perhaps to work a low contract if they can, but can't be in the league's interest overall for all.

[Goodell]

I have a question along these lines. If a team has a Transition player that they neither matched his contact offer, nor received any compensation from the new team; will the player count as a FA lost for dtermining next year's compensation picks?

The way it was setup (based upon NFL rules as understood at the time last year) it had to be strictly UNRESTRICTED free agents and not players with any restriction or matching rights otherwise.