WDF Discussion Thread

Just one more thing FleaFlicker is making look funny.

 

The draft order is always an issue to close out seasons because of how we seed, but with this being a new league it also sticks with the previous draft settings until we update them for the new year.

 

If I'm not mistaken, Will is just first because of points for and not because of him being a lower seed than the loser in the other division.

 

I'm trying my best to follow along here. I think I have the general concept but some of it is a little fuzzy. Couple questions:

1) I understand the idea behind not allowing franchises to accumulate an enormous amount of wealth but not possessing that forethought in the draft last year I've left myself with a significant amount of cap space and nowhere to spend it because maybe I'm missing it but when I look at the free agents I don't see much out there to spend on. Maybe that will change when people come to the realization that they have some high-priced veterans they can't afford but that appears to be at least a year away - unless I'm missing something.

2) I don't want you to have to reveal your team building strategy in anyway but having spent all of your money Tim how do you plan to sign your rookies? Surely, you will have to cut some players, correct? And if that doesn't happen until closer to draft time then they will be available via the waiver process correct? This seems to take a bite out of free agency.

3) Have we set the initial salary cap too high? Not only has it left free agency pretty bleh but it also seems to have put a damper on trading?

4) Are QB contracts high enough? They make or break teams in the NFL. In our league they are pretty inconsequential. I think higher QB contracts would make for some tougher decision making in here and open things up in free agency.

p.s. This league must take an enormous amount of time to run Tim and I appreciate it.

 

You'll eat up some cash on rookies, depending on how many you sign. Right now, it will take a little over $24mil to sign all 7 rookies and that money may remain on your books for the next 2 seasons. That would put another roughly $26mil on your books for next season in rookie spending, so that puts around $50mil in additional spending in 2 years. That would eat into some of your near $200mil in available space, but how you choose to spend money from that point on will be up to you. Because of how you chose to build your roster in the opening draft, the money you have now is the by-product. Some of this will balance itself out over the next two off-seasons, but how you choose to spend is a choice that you have going back to prior to the opening draft.

I have roughly $90mil to work with, so signing rookies won't be an issue.

We actually brought the cap down some from the original number to start last season. Myself and one other manager started with less than the $50mil that was allowable for in-season blind bids.

My opinion - Trading in the first season was stymied by owners slow walking in the first season to find their footing. It's something that I mentioned previously because it's just a natural byproduct of a new league.

Quarterback contracts are going to be something that continues to be the highest impact on rosters, and it was reflected in the opening salaries. I'm working on something else that will bump up the salary of passers that enter through the draft that will bring the high-end players up in pay scale, but it will be something that is universal for all positions and similar to our forced renegotiations. It will be similar in framework, but it will be based on ranking against their peers. It's something that I have been working on since last offseason and I will have all of the details included prior to our draft.

I think a lot of your questions are coming from the viewpoint of a team with a shit ton of money to burn, which makes sense, because you have a figurative metric shit ton of cash to set ablaze. lol

When you look at it from where I'm at, the idea of making some conscientious spending decisions is already in play.

The possibility of bringing the cap back down post-draft and UDFA signings (where everyone has to get back to the min) will be in play every season until we see how things start to shake out.

So far, I think it is playing out how I expected it to. The owners that spent in the first year are seeing numbers that will make the consider spending this off-season or be forced to enter the regular season with a limited budget (less than the allowable $50mil), and the owners that were conservative with cash have an obvious abundance. As people get more comfortable with how this operates, we should start seeing some more creativity in roster building.

I appreciate it, and the work side of it is kind of interesting.

But for the most part, it's like any other league I run with the idea that so long as owners are engaged, asking questions and handling their business, everything runs pretty smoothly.

 

There's also the option of removing or modifying the percentage of rollover cash as a means to reduce overflow spending.

It's actually the top tabbed change that I have on my list of cap balancing maneuvers.

Sticking with your spending, @beachbum - You have roughly $195mil to invest in free agency. You currently have 24 players signed. You will need to get to 30 post draft, so you are guaranteed to either sign 6 of your picks or sign 6 free agents.

Let's say you sign all 7 picks and add 4 more players in FA to fill out your roster and PS. You're looking at a rough minimum of $30mil in new spending. Now you factor in $50mil for your blind bids this offseason and you're taking about $80mil off of your books. If you make zero moves throughout the season you would be able to carry over another $115mil into 2025. That's an unsustainable model for us to work with.

However, before we can eliminate or modify the ability to roll cash, we have to go through one working offseason to make sure there are no possibilities we are not considering. The ultimate idea is for owners to have as much freedom within the framework to make moves as possible while providing a competitive balance.

If we remove or modify that rollover cash and make it so that any money not spent in the offseason would be gone, up to the $50mil allowable for in-season blind bids, we would be forcing owners to spend cash or lose it. This would likely drive up the price of all levels of free agents.

That one change in how we approach cash on the ledgers would have the largest impact in spending, IMO.

Seeing how owners approach this free agent period is going to give us a lot of necessary information to work with in any possible rules modifications moving forward.

Basically, we need to keep a patient approach while we work through this first offseason before implementing any potential updates to the current rules.

 

I've actually been reading for the last 20 minutes and my initial flaw was apparent early. I saw our in-season free agent spending as available cap space. Obviously, I was off-base there. In my defense, I'm managing 16 leagues. So, I haven't spent enough time here. After a re-read this morning I have a better approach to 2024 formulated.

 

The current spreadsheet will be froze so that we have a snapshot of the math that went into everyone’s roster prior to the beginning of FA. It’s a way for everyone to be able to go back through and double check that there are no mistakes made and to confirm their numbers.

The new sheet will show the exact amount owners have on hand for 2024 and as players are added the number will automatically adjust to keep everyone current.

 

@Campbell not that I’d prefer to make things harder on myself, but can you double check how many years remaining I should have for Antoine Winfield?

And if it’s in the same spreadsheet, apparently Parsons is an LB now (didn’t you just “fix” that for me? LoL)

 

I believe Winfield should be 1 year remaining, so I have to go back through and check...

Changed it, and I'll be ready to change it in a couple months when the Cowboys put out their first official depth chart. lol

 

Question for anyone really, for those of you that follow college recruiting at all, do you find between the major scouting services of 247Sports or On3 that one does a better job than the other in any substantial way at ranking the high school talent?

 

Have a friend that swears by rivals, but if you go back and look at 2017 and 2018 with On3, they hold up pretty well.

 

Forgot about Rivals entirely. They don’t get quoted online much, in my experience

 

These damn devy drafts are entertaining.

You in any Devy leagues Tim?

 

I haven't been in one for a long time.

 

Year 2 in my first ever.

The devy drafts just have such a high degree of volatility. It’s so different.

Still hate that this league is offense only. But the opportunity was there with a guy I know and it sounded fun. Take on a rebuild and learn the ropes

 

I'm not against them, but having highly active owners is really critical to keeping the league from falling apart.

 

Yeah, helps with all leagues.
Starting with the right group is critical I think

 

We've been pretty fortunate with the first two dynasty leagues, and I'm hoping this one follows suit.

We ended up getting solid replacement owners in the original one quickly, but it took a few seasons before the NADL got itself shaped up. I really didn't want to see Nathan drop out, but he had been saying for a couple seasons that he was going to move on. We have his spot filled, just waiting to see which person is taking it.

 

Looking forward to tonights Draft, WDF style. Hope you all can show up and good luck.