2011 RULES: Roster Size Max

[Goodell]

There have been more comments on this than I recall in the past.

The NFL has a 80 man limit during training camp. Then two cut-downs:
August 31 - Roster cutdown to maximum of 75 players.
September 4 - Roster cutdown to maximum of 53 players.

The NFL also has the Rule of 51 (or had it during the last agreement) where during the off-season not all 80 count against the salary cap but only the highest 51 salaries and the other 29 didn't count against the cap.

Our way of being less complicated and limiting of off-season rosters was to have everybody always count against the cap. That way you could sign a lot of guys but you'd better stay under the cap.

In my mind a roster of higher paid 53 guys for 137M is better than 90 rookies for 137M that you have to cut a lot of them, but there has been some frustrations stated with large roster sizes.

Things may change next year anyway with a new labor agreement that we may integrate if new roster size rules setup in reality, but just getting some feedback on this while the issue vocalized.

To me, at minimum you need:

53 guys
+ 8 who'll end up being added to p-squad (mostly draftees who didn't cut it)
----
61

Plus if you have at least a couple spots where there is high competition and not sure which guys are going to make real rosters or not in the veteran backup roles (can't be on p-squads), I don't really like a rule that our sim teams with LESS information and less evaluation have to make decisions on which guys to keep before the NFL team makes up their mind after 4 pre-season games with large rosters.

So if you add a couple guys fighting for roles who some will get cut, that's up to 65+ minimum, although I know some teams don't focus as much on having a practice squad but to me that's part of the team-building options we want to highlight for developing players and building rosters over time. And to me if doing that many, not sure why we'd have an articifical number over just going with the realism of the NFL rules on roster sizes.

Another thing about the training camp free agency and larger rosters at least to me is that it gives us one other avenue for competition. It seems like the only real heavy activity is during April free agency and the draft (which are the most fun) but heavy competition in training camp over surprise young players seems like another avenue yet another high activity time after a long layoff. Some of the setup for the signing of those unproven players, though, seems to create some frustration more than fun competition sometimes which is why I'd like to improve the bidding process during this time for those types of players and create a new fun round of free agency during camps. We tend to have two extremes this time of year of VERY active teams with big rosters and battling over the latest featured rookie, and other more established teams maybe up against their cap or around their set 53 already and perhaps not liking other squads with huge rosters maybe having some benefit in raising their odds of someone making it out of the bigger pool.

With a rule of 51 type setup there might be a lot more bidding on rookie free agents in camp because they wouldn't count against the cap unless their bid salary was amongst the highest 51 on the team or unless they eventually made the team.

I think whatever happens in the NFL next year for rule changes might be more significant than this poll now, but just want to make sure this issue addressed and some way to get a feel and feedback on this also while fresh in our minds.