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Post by Panthers GM (Jesse) on Oct 31, 2022 20:24:13 GMT -5
Hey all,
Have heard some good ideas on the chat lately for potential rule changes and have been thinking of a few myself. Wanted to just make a general thread for folks to spitball ideas for later review. Feel free to converse respectfully here, these are all just ideas right now. Go watch School House Rock’s “I’m Just A Bill” if you want to learn how these ideas become rules.
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Post by Panthers GM (Jesse) on Dec 1, 2022 9:26:23 GMT -5
Practice squad update ideas:
1. Cap hits for PS players
This idea was brought up last season. I like it and think it's worth putting to discussion and possibly a vote.
No PS players carry a cap hit/contract while on the PS. Official practice squads/contracts would be located on a commissioner maintained sheet. You could imagine a 4th round player being declared for PS before the year started. Usually their contract would be 3 years 0.6M with RFA, but when officially noted as a practice squad player (Thus ineligible to play without being elevated) they would carry no cap hit. If the team decides that player should be added to their active 48, they would be added and their 3yr 0.6M RFA deal would be added on MFL. There would also be zero cap hit for cutting a player at any time while on the practice squad.
2. UDFA (If the previous idea is adopted)
Currently UDFAs hit the open market and usually are (but not always) signed for the league minimum 3yr .33 w/RFA deal. I would propose a UDFA signing period where UDFAs can be signed for free to a practice squad, or for a one time fee to TS or active roster instead of guaranteed contracts. I'll use a player I signed this offseason as an example: Jaylen Warren, who is currently the preferred #2 RB in Pittsburgh was a UDFA. In an effort to protect myself from the possibility he flamed out, I signed him to a 2 year 1.3M deal w/RFA. Under the new system bidding might look like this:
Panthers offer a TS squad spot to Jaylen Warren
Bills offer Warren 1M
Panthers offer 1.5M
24 hours pass, Warren is signed to the Panthers TS as an UDFA. a 1.5M salary adjustment is added for 2022. If Warren is brought up to my Active roster, he will be on a 3 year 0.33M w/RFA deal.
I personally really like this idea. I think it would place a premium on 5th round pick trade value as many useful players are signed as UDFAs every year. It would also increase the usage of practice squads because of the free signing aspect. This would also bring Legacy more in line with the current role and importance of practice squads in the NFL. We could even discuss veteran players being offered TS spots and getting a minimum salary 1 year deal if brought to the main roster to get closer to the NFL's current setup. I think single game "elevations" might be more of a headache than a worthwhile addition.
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Post by Broncos GM (Kevin) on Dec 7, 2022 9:19:21 GMT -5
Claiming players off other teams practice squads
For a draft pick irrelevant of whom the player is or where he was drafted. So a base 4th as a minimum. Owner would then get 48 hours (or 72) hours to promote him or lose him.
I'd also suggest that the 4th can be overbid with a first being the max and the highest or first first round pick bid offered wins. The latter would be a rarity..
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Post by Broncos GM (Kevin) on Dec 7, 2022 9:25:28 GMT -5
Longer trading window, I have always thought trade windows are too short in these leagues. It can end a season for a GM very quickly which could result in lost interest. It should go, imo, to the final week. There's nothing wrong with players going all in to try to win, and weak teams capitalizing but with the early window we're asked to predict if we're going to be in with a shout come the last couple of weeks of the regular season...
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Post by Broncos GM (Kevin) on Dec 7, 2022 9:29:38 GMT -5
Week 14 byes...
If the NFL keep having multiple teams on a bye it what is the traditional Wild Card round of match ups then something needs to be done to rebalance the playing field. In one league I was my QB, RB2, WR1, WR2, TE,1, TE2, K, DE1, LB2, plus some depth out. I've overpaid for one game of Derek Carr (a trade made last week) added some FA junk that may help but I'm basically done in that league and there's no way to know if that will hit me hard next year should I be fortunate enough to make the play offs here
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Post by Titans GM (Ricky) on Dec 9, 2022 4:43:27 GMT -5
I'd say players should be able to be signed multiple times during a season by the same team if able to win the bid. I think the original thought was to protect the player from being signed to a cheaper deal after being waived by a team. To me the market is the market though. If a team is able to resign a player for cheaper it's what the GM's here decided is the market for the player. It's up the the GM's to be diligent and active on what they feel the player may or may not be worth.
The waiving team would still be on the hook the 35% cap hit to the player no matter what even if singed for a future lesser amount. So not like it would getting the player for nothing. I trust GM's here to set the market for players that are available for UFA.
If we raised the waived penalties based off contract length like suggested before that may detour some of the singed 3 year contract offers then waived in the same year that we've seen in the past. But that's a different topic for discussion.
To be fair I do think this has the possibility to benefit the more active GM's than the less active. But I do think if you are active that's part of the benefit of possibly being able to resign a waived player at a cheaper contract. And it's possible you won't get that contract at a cheaper amount than previously signed too.
It's not that big of a deal either way to me. Just something I think should be considered. Real NFL teams will resign a player multiple times a year if no other teams want their services. Which is why I'd suggest this rule change.
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Post by Titans GM (Ricky) on Dec 9, 2022 5:02:39 GMT -5
Longer trading window, I have always thought trade windows are too short in these leagues. It can end a season for a GM very quickly which could result in lost interest. It should go, imo, to the final week. There's nothing wrong with players going all in to try to win, and weak teams capitalizing but with the early window we're asked to predict if we're going to be in with a shout come the last couple of weeks of the regular season... I'd be all about a later trading window. The idea of GM's selling off their valuable assets late in the year to change the playoff race can be difficult to handle when tryin to make a deep playoff run. I don't know how much of that is just part of the dynasty strategy though. Other GM's here may have a better idea of how that works from other leagues they have been in. To me when a GM is able to be patient enough to save their picks that late in the season when most can't. They should still have the option to move those picks and/or players if they think will benefit their team. Imo the more active we can keep GM's later in the season the better. I can also see why this rule is in place to help detour those GM's from getting a big boost late in the year when teams can be more vulnerable to getting what they can for a player/picks before losing them for nothing. I'd be intrigued to have this up for vote in future seasons to see where it stands with other GM's though. |
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Post by Browns GM (Dan) on Dec 13, 2022 11:43:35 GMT -5
For bye week switching:
Every player with a week 14 bye gets transferred to having a week 12 bye (or whatever week we decide after the trade deadline - Thankgiving seems the best option as it doesn't usually have any normal byes).
If you want a player to play in week 14 for you then you need to declare it on a league thread. Points scored by those players in week 12 will be added to your team in week 14 if you make the playoffs.
For example this year (in Legacy) I have a week 14 bye on Mariota, Herbert, Cobb, Jarran Reed, Nick Morrow, and Mykal Walker.
If we swapped week 14 byes with week 12 (Thanksgiving) then I would've declared that I wanted to start Cobb, Reed, Morrow, and Walker in week 14.
Whatever they scored on my bench in week 12 (as their swapped bye) would be used as their scores in week 14
However I couldn't play Mariota and Herbert in week 12 despite them not being declared as a starter for week 14
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Post by Broncos GM (Kevin) on Dec 13, 2022 15:14:50 GMT -5
For bye week switching: Every player with a week 14 bye gets transferred to having a week 12 bye (or whatever week we decide after the trade deadline - Thankgiving seems the best option as it doesn't usually have any normal byes). If you want a player to play in week 14 for you then you need to declare it on a league thread. Points scored by those players in week 12 will be added to your team in week 14 if you make the playoffs. For example this year (in Legacy) I have a week 14 bye on Mariota, Herbert, Cobb, Jarran Reed, Nick Morrow, and Mykal Walker. If we swapped week 14 byes with week 12 (Thanksgiving) then I would've declared that I wanted to start Cobb, Reed, Morrow, and Walker in week 14. Whatever they scored on my bench in week 12 (as their swapped bye) would be used as their scores in week 14 However I couldn't play Mariota and Herbert in week 12 despite them not being declared as a starter for week 14 This, or and I've seen it done before in a 32 where they wanted no byes at all... in that league leave a player in who's on a buy and you score the previous weeks score, basically doubling up on one performance good or bad. Jeopardy applies there too adding a second layer of tactics. If you have a player on a week 14 bye who underscore the previous week (say a running back) you can choose to stick with his score or gamble and replace him with another. So if Chubb (say) scores 7 points week 13, is on a bye week 14, you can choose to keep the 7 points for week 14 or gamble a lesser back outscores him week 14 if you have a replacement...etc. Of course with kickers and QB it's likely there's no back up on the bench so they'd be left in |
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Post by Broncos GM (Kevin) on Dec 13, 2022 15:19:22 GMT -5
Week 14 byes... If the NFL keep having multiple teams on a bye it what is the traditional Wild Card round of match ups then something needs to be done to rebalance the playing field. In one league I was my QB, RB2, WR1, WR2, TE,1, TE2, K, DE1, LB2, plus some depth out. I've overpaid for one game of Derek Carr (a trade made last week) added some FA junk that may help but I'm basically done in that league and there's no way to know if that will hit me hard next year should I be fortunate enough to make the play offs here I actually won this btw ... spent a first for maybe one game of Carr and he dropped a deuce anyway. Another first on a TE I didn't use in the end and waived 3/4 players while adding some low scoring starters ... |
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Post by Panthers GM (Jesse) on Dec 14, 2022 11:09:22 GMT -5
Week 14 byes... If the NFL keep having multiple teams on a bye it what is the traditional Wild Card round of match ups then something needs to be done to rebalance the playing field. In one league I was my QB, RB2, WR1, WR2, TE,1, TE2, K, DE1, LB2, plus some depth out. I've overpaid for one game of Derek Carr (a trade made last week) added some FA junk that may help but I'm basically done in that league and there's no way to know if that will hit me hard next year should I be fortunate enough to make the play offs here I actually won this btw ... spent a first for maybe one game of Carr and he dropped a deuce anyway. Another first on a TE I didn't use in the end and waived 3/4 players while adding some low scoring starters ... I admire the outside the box thinking that goes into these kind of solutions but at the end of the day the 2 things I think matter the most are 1. Creating as realistic of an experience as we can to running a real NFL franchise 2. Keeping the processes simple to understand and easy enough to execute. Greg is world class when it comes to supporting this league. Almost every time I go to process FAs or trades he’s already taken care of it. The last thing I want to do enact a rule that requires a bunch of manual execution. The concept of “fairness” gets us in trouble a lot when discussing rule changes I think. Bye week strategizing is a part of fantasy as much as it is a part of the NFL. I think a better concept to watch out for is undue burdens. Week 14 byes are an undue burden, and I personally like the thanksgiving week bye swap option for that reason. Declaring those players would only take a second, as would the oversight and the adding of week 14 points for those players, and it would not create undue burden as there aren’t any real life byes that week. Edit; replied to the wrong Kevin post with this. Congrats on that win Kevin that’s miraculous lol |
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Post by Broncos GM (Kevin) on Dec 15, 2022 5:34:49 GMT -5
Yes it does create work to be fair. TBH I'd rather risk a week 18 Superbowl than play week 14 with a lot of players out on byes, most of us are feeling the sting of the dreaded IR by week 14 too, not to mention injuries. In real life teams can pick up and plug and play if needed, not so easy here as we need a minimum of 24 hours to add even assuming a maiden bid wins...
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Post by Ravens GM (Nate) on Jan 9, 2023 23:50:53 GMT -5
Some thoughts:
1. Practice/Taxi Squad- What if they are offered base contracts and bid on using some NFL type salary for a baseline. OR, we have an UDFA draft. These players go to the practice squad/Taxi Squad, don't count to the main cap unless called up. However, they can be poached by an offer from another team, which can either be matched, or let the player go. Or maybe separate the 2, make practice squad small, but require compensation if signed, and Taxi Squad no compensation. That way if you have a young guy who's benched you can still stash him, but you can't just lose him for nothing. Taxi, you're taking the risk. Just some ideas.
2. I'm against late trading windows. Just like in the NFL, you don't know where you will be, you take your shots, and the chips fall where they may. Later trading windows I think would lead to a lot of lopsided trades as teams completely sell out on players or picks based on where the standings are at, and the inflated prices would set some pretty crazy precedents that people might expect to always have followed, even after the desperation time is over. I think this would really hurt league integrity.
3. Maybe we could lower waiver times during the playoffs to ensure more options for playoff teams? If a team is in the playoffs, one would expect the owner to be pretty active, so maybe we could cut the waiver claim time in half or even more?
4. With a week 14 playoff, I do think we need to address the byes. We can't plan very well for byes when we have a team of random players. I'm not a fan of picking a different bye week to use points from, but maybe we could offer flex positions instead? Not sure how difficult that is to do. But I think that would be my preferred way of doing it. Or, we push the playoffs back one more week and risk the week 18 blues. A shorter waiver system may help alleviate some of the pain of those. For the playoffs maybe it could even be a week by week signing so that the pool is there for whoever keeps moving on.
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Post by Panthers GM (Jesse) on Jan 9, 2023 23:58:45 GMT -5
This week’s slate of games soured me entirely on the idea of a week 18 Super Bowl. Half the teams were starting preseason squads.
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Post by Raiders GM (Chief) on Jan 10, 2023 18:30:50 GMT -5
1. Roster cap changes
-NFL rosters are 53, with 9 OL, 1 P and 1 LS (11 total). I propose cutting out rosters cap to 42. This helps improve the FA pool, most teams don't use all the roster spots anyway for cap reasons or other, and align with NFL at least percentage wise.
2. IR changes
-IR should be unlimited just like NFL and those players count against the full cap, with the exception being that the player was already on your roster before going IR (no adding players to IR from the waiver wire just to hold more players than allowed on your roster or TS.
-If an NFL team cuts a player with an injury settlement from IR then the Legacy team should have the option to cut the player with an "injury designation" lessening the standard cap hit, with possible considerations for future years (that is standardized and separate from the established Appeal Process).
3. Taxi Squad Changes
-NFL PS spots are capped at 16 which is 30% of their active roster. I propose raising our TS limit to 12 (30% of the above proposed roster limit). While this may seem like a lot especially after cutting down on the above, I think with the proposed TS poaching that people are discussing will keep things interesting.
-TS players should have a lower minimum salary requirement (just like the NFL), once placed on an active roster then the salary should be automatically raised to the minimum for their contract and years of experience.
- TS poaching - when a player is on TS, they should be eligible to be "signed" to an active roster of another team. That new team has to offer at least the full contract minimum for their years experience. The current managing team has ability to beat that contract offer. Whoever "signs" the player must keep them on the active roster for the rest of the year, or if they want to place them back on TS they need to drop them and subject them to waivers first, like the NFL.
4. Dead Cap / Guaranteed Money
- When signing a player, teams should be able to raise the guaranteed money to a contract to raise the "points" that contact is worth in addition to the number of years calculation. This also means a higher dead cap hit if the player were to be cut but increases the likelihood a player "signs" with one team over another.
--Maybe a set tier of set guarantees (and the associated contract point value) can be developed to simplify it and make it easier to track manage rather than declaring a specific amount or percent.
- Late round picks (on rookie deal) and TS players should have no guaranteed money/dead cap unless a team elects to offer that.
5. Extensions and Franchise Tag
- I understand part of the reason behind existing Extension and FT rules has to do with making sure there is a robust UFA pool each year. This issue is a cap space issue, not an extension or FT issue. It makes no sense that a team can't extend any player they want if they have the cap space.
- Allow a team to extend at least 1 player in each position group.
- If a player is outside the Top 64 (or Top 100, etc.) of their position group then allow them to be extended as many times as the current team wants.
- If a player is inside the Top 64 or Top 100 then they can only be extended once before hitting FA.
- Add a "sweetheart" or "hometeam" declaration to one player that a team delegates that gives the current team 1 or more preference points on any contract offer.
--In have a player who is becoming a Free Agent and another team is offering a higher value contract (money and years) than I can, but for the one player I designate I get "bonus points(s)" added to the contract I'm offering for the player to stay home.
--This doesn't prevent another team from signing but they have to offer enough money to attract them away from where they currently are.
- Franchise Tag
It doesn't make any sense that I declare a person to be my franchise player just to let him walk the next year. The NFL has bastardized the FT, but it's purpose was to hang on to a player they intend to sign to an extension down the line but either don't have the current cap space for or can't work out the details yet.
--The FT should be similar to NFL...another team can still sign that player but they also need to return draft pick compensation to the current manager AND the current manager has the option to extend until a set deadline during the Tagged year.
6. Salary Cap and Salaries
-Raise the salary cap to mirror the NFL cap each year, minus the average salary spent on OL, LS, and P.
--Example:
2022 NFL Cap is $208M
2022 OL avg is $24M
2022 P avg is $1.25M
2022 LS avg is $885K
2022 adjusted Legacy Cap would be ~$181M
This is a 170% increase.
In order to update current contracts we would multiple all nom-exporong contract by the same rate (1.7). This can all be managed from an Excel/Sheets linked to Sportrac.com data.
Then I think we would start seeing contract numbers that are similar (not the same) as actual players and bring more parity. This, plus the roster limits and the extension and FT changes I think would bring a little more balance to the number of players a team loses each year and retaining players they spent picks on or gave up assets to acquire.
Many teams will go into rebuild mode and acquire many picks from a finite set of draft classes, but if you can only extend one and FT one from each class, what's the point of acquiring all those picks and drafting a bunch of players from the same class?
7. Transactional Tracking
With a league so big do we have anyone out there is an Excel/Access/Forms advance user that can develop a database with UI to help automate some of the waiver and trade transactions and to help automate the contract value, extension, dead money, etc. To take the burden off the Commish and other admins?
If we had a shared Google Sheets for example with some controls in place maybe I can plug in the years and dollar amount and it can auto-calculate the value. Or keep track of RFA eligibility, or help track and calculate dead cap hits when dropping.
Anyway...I know that was a lot and I know we are just throwing out for discussion so look forward to discussing more this offseason.
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