2018 Free Agent Bids

Great job filling those needs on the cheap, Lyman.

 

I'm impressed with most everybody in this exercise. Maybe not so much in myself, I made some mistakes again, but overall this has been good.

 

BOLT FLASH:

Chargers announce the signing of CB Byron Maxwell $1.2m

 

Lyman and I have already had PMs about certain position(s) and plenty of jokes about filling our rosters at Filene's Basement and the Goodwill store, so I'm not tipping my hand on anything when I congratulate him on getting players he wants cheap.

There are three other players in particular where I would congratulate the GMs involved on the signings, but I want to keep holding my cards close to the vest to avoid tipping off my draft plans. So everyone else gets a generic

Hey everybody, nice job signing all your players!



And in particular... Will, you get an extra "one of those three free agent signings that especially impressed me may or may not have been one of yours".

 

Well, I’m impressed with the patience of a couple or three GMs here who had to wait their turn to bid.

I’ve already suggested we further limit the restructures next year as it felt like every team was in the top 5 in cap space when bidding started.

Possible Solution: maybe only the teams who start out with $2,000,000 or less cap space are allowed a third restructure. And no QBs allowed, unless there’s an OBVIOUS one (at commissioner discretion). That’s the end of my $0.02

 

Rams bid on
Justin Ellis DT
$1,250,000

Previous bid: Lions @ $1.1m

Rams bid on
Xavier Williams DT
$1,000,000

Previous bid: Lions @ $900k.

Rams bid on
Junior Galette
$1,150,000

Previous bid: Lions at $1.01m

 

Cowboys sign

Casey Kreiter
$630,000
Hayes Pullard
$705,000 (min)



Colts sign

Matt Overton
$790,000 (min)

 

The restructures have certainly made free agency interesting. And I'd say the response by the GMs here has been accurate considering the way real NFL GMs responded to past sudden increases in cap space such as in 2009 and 2010.

(I mean that in a complimentary way - I have to give credit to everyone who has made those big splash signings as it is the exact approach that real GMs would likely make under the same circumstances. The role-playing has been spot on, and to me that's the single most important aspect of an exercise like this.)

The downside is that the style of restructures we did this year kicked the can down the road on the cap hits. Teams are now locked in with the players they restructured pretty much for the durations of those contracts. The Spotrac and OverTheCap calculators only tell us the updated cap figure for this year. The GMs who take a long term approach to the role playing exercise might not have restructured those players if the calculators had told us what the cap costs would be on them in 2019, 2020 etc. As it is, we don't have to live with the consequences since it's a one-year exercise.

In my case, one of the very first names that came to mind for restructuring was Andy Levitre. He's in the final year of his contract, and a combination extension / restructure would be quite realistic and might actually happen. And of course the real team is already in talks with Matt Ryan's agent to extend his deal, which also ends after the 2018 season.

BUT... the Spotrac and OverTheCap calculators don't even give you the option to restructure them since they are in their final contract years. Since - by rule - we're using those two sources this year, Ryan and Levitre were off limits for restructures. I would have been able to do both of them under last year's rules, but I couldn't under this year's rules.

So instead of them, I restructured three big money players with more time remaining on their contracts. That created a heck of a lot more cap space than I would have had with Ryan, Levitre, and any potential third player I might have chosen had we used last year's rules but gone to three players instead of two.

I don't know if it worked out that way with other teams, but if you take me as a case study, the change made the restructurings far less realistic rather than more realistic.

 

Close to it. Trent yards on can't be fixed. Hill may still have hope

 

I like your thinking RT...

I think all teams should have the option to restructure players contracts but NOT players that signed a contract in the past 2 maybe 3 seasons, cuz that never happens.
They usually are asked to restructure/ take a paycut towards the end of their deals when their guaranteed money is almost paid out.
For example Aqib Talib this year. He's guarantees are almost payed out, he's played thru 4 yrs of a 6yr contract but has a high cap #. He will almost certainly be told to restructure his contract or be cut.

 

Tennessee Titans sign:

Brian Schwenke G/C
$790,000

Cody Latimer WR
$790,000

Dominique Easley DE/DT
$705,000

Cornellius "Tank" Carradine DE
$790,000

James Harrison OLB
$1,015,000

Daimion Stafford S
$790,000

Da'Norris Searcy S
$915,000

 

Eagles sign
Terence Newman
$1,015,000 (min)
He said he'd play one final year to try and win it all. Minny didn't want him so the Eagles will gladly take him.

Eagles sign
Beau Allen
$790,000 (min)
Key DT rotational player. I did not think I'd be able to get him back.

Eagles sign
Legarrette Blount
$915,000 (min)
Really nobody wanted him? I'll gladly bring him back for a year.

Eagles sign
Dannell Ellerbe
$915,000 (min)
I'll take the cheap LB depth incase disaster strikes agin.

Eagles sign
Jaylen Watkins
$705,000 (min)
He's back. He just wasn't worth tendering.

Eagles sign
Tyvon Branch
$1,015,000 (min)
Well that was very cheap. Thank you lol.

Eagles sign
Najee Goode
$790,000 (min)
Key Depth and special teamer.

Eagles sign
Mike Wallace
$915,000 (min)
I'd take Wallace and at this price over Torrey Smith any day.


Ravens sign
Luke Bowanko
$790,000 (min)
Center Depth

Ravens sign
Josh LeRibeus
$790,000 (min)
Guard/Center

Ravens sign
Michael Campanaro
$790,000 (min)
Bringing him back for another year as depth.

Ravens sign
Crockett Gillmore
$790,000 (min)
Resigned the new OLineman

Ravens sign
Russell Bodine
$790,000 (min)
Another Center to fight for the starting spot.
Do you sense a pattern?

 

Colts sign C.J. and Poz

 

They're nice cheap signings, but let's just say that as a division rival, I'm not exactly quaking in my boots!

 

If Ellerbe wasn't already "in-house" (kinda) I might have bid on Pos.

 

I would have to go back and check, but if I remember correctly, Ben was restructuring after year 2 of his contract.

 

Ravens bid
DeMarco Murray
$1.1M

Previous bid Steelers
$915,000

 

Rams sign
Seantrell Henderson, OL
$800,000

Rams sign
Cody Davis, S
$800,000

Rams sign
Jake McQuaide, LS
$1,000,000

Rams sign
Davon House, CB
$915,000 (min, so this counts as $630k against the cap, right?)

Rams sign
Luke Joeckel, OL
$790,000 (min, so this counts as $630k as well, right?)

 

Yes Chris.

 

I didn't restructure for that very reason..It isn't happening in real life, I know it isn't happening, so I didn't do it. I had plenty of cap space to play with though, so I understand why others on here do it, but the repercussions down the road, like you said Torgo, make a lot of these moves unrealistic. Others are necessary just to make their cap work, so I can see it. But teams in real life aren't going to restructure contracts, just so they can over spend in free agency on single players. That is why our free agency numbers are inflated.