2035 Off-season Discussion

[sawblade300]

Had to say goodbye to a guy that's been a beast the last few seasons for us. WR Bennie Mandel. Mandel had a brutal shoulder injury last season and had to be put on IR. He came back from the injury ruined. His ratings plummeted. RR, BPR and overall took at least a 30-40 point hit. It's hard to see a guy who was a #1 WR and one of the tops in the league, be reduced to a #3 or 4 WR on the team. I couldn't do that for what he was making, so had to let him go.

I'm hoping the WR we drafted in the 2nd round can replace him as our #2.

[Delandis]

For the first time since I rejoined OSFL, I'm optimistic about our draft from top to bottom. Lots of potential in our draftees this year.

[Matt]

Happy I had some cap room.

Clicked on Sage to see what his renegotiation's might be. He wants $40m a year!!!! Holy crap...does this come down?

Also see my holding out RB wants to get paid $15m a year. I'm all for having to pay big players big money...but goodness...aren't those demands a little off kilter with the salary cap.

[Guest]

Nope, that's FOF7. The great purge is upon us.

Here's the thing I believe is happening: contract demands increase based upon contracts out there. The AI and some human owners have given out some rather large contracts, which then drives up the renegs.

There are other factors, but I believe that's a large reason we're seeing such large offers as more and more players move off the 2k7 contracts they have.

Jim wanted owners to have more turnover and meaningful free agencies. If you want to keep your star QB, then you better be ready to pay up. The flip side is you're not likely to have a great backup in the position as he's gonna want $4 or $5 mil a year. Not feasible when your starter is already taking up 25% of your cap.

I like it, tbh. It forces us to make choices about who we keep, unlike the dynasties we had before. There's more parity in the league, much like the NFL. Its just a shame that because our budgets are in their 27th year they've grown to astronomical levels and people are asking for a bazillion dollars.

I'd just franchise Sage next year and then see what he wants.

[Guest]

Oh, and you won the championship last year, I have a feeling players want more $ when that happens.

[Delandis]

The salary cap is 245M. I think comparatively, its not that different than today's NFL.

[Aston]

Yeah, it seems in the ballpark. The NFL salary cap is 133M.

[Matt]

I agree the salary cap is close to reality. QBs asking for $40m is not.

[Guest]

I don't understand.

Our salary cap is almost twice the NFL's and the current reigning SP winning QB is asking for ($40 mil) twice what Joe Flacco got ($20 mil). Seems about right.

[Aston]

In 2014, the top NFL QB by cap hit is Eli Manning at $20.4M, which scaled by (245 / 133) = $37.6M. Sage is a top 4 QB in the league, and of the Top 5, he's the youngest and most successful.

No arguments from me, though, that the FOF7 cap landscape is cold and unforgiving. I think it's more so than the actual NFL, top to bottom. There's an interesting discussion at the CyFL about it.

Probably more than reflecting realistic dollar amounts -- something that can't be exactly translated given all of the NFL's complex salary structures and FOF's much simpler set of rules -- it was designed to have the effect of forcing all teams to let a lot more of their players test Free Agency. So far, that seems to be good. And if you do happen to get a good thing going, to keep it up, you'll have to do it with some very different players every few years, which is also probably an intended effect.

[Matt]

Ok I stand corrected. I guess the QB isn't so bad. It's my 4th string CB wanting $14m which gets me.

[Aston]

Yeah, that is bad. That's the game saying "Screw you, you can't keep him!"

Mean-spirited!

[Guest]

If that 4th stringer got to start due to injuries from other players then you can see crazy offers like that. Not that anyone is dumb enough to pay that for a 4th stringer, but the player can wish, right? Damn agents.

[Guest]

M 10-6 Late Free Agency 1-2

It's almost noon. Everything okay Nuts?

[Aston]

Late morning today. Sorry guys!