Post by Bengals GM Burkhart on Feb 28, 2021 22:26:04 GMT -5
Overview:
Welcome to NFL LOCKDOWN. We are a 32 team contract/salary cap league which attempts to create a fantasy experience as close to the real NFL as possible. Every NFL Franchise has a General Manager (GM) who is responsible for all aspects of team management.
Roster Limits:
Active rosters are limited to 53 players maximum and 35 players minimum (not including Injured Reserve). The limits are suspended each off-season to allow teams to draft, trade, and make roster moves in preparation for the upcoming season. All teams must be back within the roster limits by the league cut-down day. Our cut down date will always be September 1st of each year. All rosters must be under the maximum roster limit (53) and above the roster minimum (35) by 11:59 PM on September 1st. League management will then perform roster checks to make sure all are correct and accurate.
After the roster deadline has passed, any team that acquires a player or players causing the team to go over the maximum will have the player(s) immediately dropped. Any trade that causes a team to break the roster min/max will be considered void. The Commissioner will attempt to catch this beforehand, but it is the responsibility of each GM to remain within the roster limits.
Salary Cap:
Each team has a $212,180,000 salary cap. The salary cap will increase 3% each year. Team salary includes the total of all players under contract (Active Roster and Injured Reserve), plus any Salary Cap Hits for unclaimed waivers, plus any outstanding (leading) free agent bids. The salary cap will remain in effect year-round. This includes pre-season, so be careful while you may be temporarily over the roster limits, you may never exceed the salary cap.
If any team acquires a player or players causing them to go over the salary cap (via draft, trade, waiver claim, or Free Agency) and it is not caught beforehand, then the added player(s) will be immediately released with a 40% cap hit to bring the team back under the salary cap. If the player was acquired through a trade or draft pick, then the team may alternatively release the most recently added UFA(s) with a 40% cap hit to bring them back under the salary cap.
Free Agency:
As in the NFL, there are two types of Free Agents - Restricted Free Agents (RFA) and Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA). RFAs are players whose rights are still held by a team and may be re-signed after their original contract expires (according to the rules in the RFA section below). UFAs are any players that are not currently under contract by a team. Each pre-season any player who does not have RFA status becomes a UFA once his contract expires. The one exception is that each team may designate one Franchise player each season.
Unrestricted Free Agency begins each pre-season in June and ends each season with our Super Bowl at the end of the Week 16 Monday Night game (any bids already in progress at that time will be allowed to be completed and signed by the winner).
*AFTER WEEK 13 GAMES END, ONLY PLAYOFF TEAMS CAN SIGN FREE AGENTS, ALSO ONLY ONE YEAR DEALS CAN BE OFFERED, NO RFA STATUS ALLOWED ON FREE AGENT BIDS*
Extension Rule:
We are going to allow every GM to offer an Extension Contract to ONE player each season STARTING WITH THE STARTUP DRAFT who has at least ONE YEAR left on their contract. They must have at least ONE year left on their contract. The Extension contract may add up to 3 YEARS on a player's current contract. A player may not ever exceed a 5 YEAR contract. Players can only be extended twice. You may only use your Contract Extension in the off-season just like the Franchise Tag and Contract Buyout. The Extension will cost 150% of the player's last year of current contract unless the players contract is less than the minimum price for their position.
Players on a RFA contract can be extended as long as they have at least one year remaining before reaching RFA status. Also, if they are extended then they lose their RFA status.
Extension Prices: 2024
QB - 20M per year or 150% of last year of previous contract if over 13M
RB - 13M per year or 150% of last year of previous contract if over 9M
WR - 15M per year or 150% of last year of previous contract if over 10M
TE - 12M per year or 150% of last year of previous contract if over 8M
PK - 7M per year or 150% of last year of previous contract if over 5M
LB - 11M per year or 150% of last year of previous contract if over 8M
DE - 9M per year or 150% of last year of previous contract if over 6M
DT - 8M per year or 150% of last year of previous contract if over 5M
CB - 8M per year or 150% of last year of previous contract if over 5M
S - 9M per year or 150% of last year of previous contract if over 6M
*THESE PRICES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE EACH YEAR*
Example:
John Doe (DAL-QB) $10,000,000 (2018)
I choose to offer John my extension that adds 3 more years to his current deal. His deal would be $16,000,000 the reason would be because the origninal contract was $10M. The salary would have to be over $16M t get 150%. Same with all the other positions.
John Doe (DAL-QB) $10,000,000 (2018) $16,000,000 (2019), $16,000,000 (2020), $16,000,000 (2021) UFA
*Franchise Tagged players are not eligible for an extension.*
Franchise Players:
Teams may franchise one player with an expiring contract each season. If that player is traded, the team trading the player may not Franchise another player that year. The team receiving the player may still Franchise one player and maintain both Franchised players for that year.
A player may receive the franchise tag a maximum of 2 seasons in a row. If a player is tagged 2 years in a row by the same team...he must be paid 150% of the current years franchise tag price. If the players previous contract year is higher than the franchise tag price then the team must pay the percentage above their previous contract.
(example: DeAndre Hopkins previous year contract is 15M then the team would pay 115% above previous years contract for a FT1, 150% above current year franchise tag for FT2.) This example is only if the previous contract is higher than franchise tag prices.
Franchise tags are based on the average salary of the 10 highest paid players at their position (not including Franchise Players) and will be determined at the end of each season for the following season.
Franchise Amounts for 2024:
QB: 26,075,000
RB: 14,884,803
WR: 26,015,000
TE: 15,385,000
K: 5,570,000
DT: 11,545,000
DE: 16,590,000
LB: 18,050,000
CB: 7,205,000
S: 13,850,000
*Franchise Tagged players are not eligible for an extension.*
Free Agent Bidding:
The process for signing an Unrestricted Free Agent is to create a new thread in the "Unrestricted Free Agents" sub-board under "Free Agency". The thread should have the player's correctly spelled name, NFL team and position in the subject, and a valid bid as the message. Other GMs may reply in this thread with higher bids for the player. The bidding will end when 24 hours has passed since the last valid bid. You can not drop a player from your roster and bid on them.
We will have a easy math for Free agency (i.e. 4 years of 500,000 = 2 mil) So this will be ** Years plus Salary for the total now **
The (UPBID) will have to be $100,000 Dollars higher. So like the next bid will have be $2.1M
This will take alittle bit to get use to if you have never used it but we will work through it as a group. Feel free to ask questions I will help everyone anytime.
Here will be the Minimum salaries you will be able to use for the Free Agent pickups.
NEW MINIMUM SALARIES $850,000K for each Player
Free Agency Sniping Rule
If you want to bid on a player AFTER the 20 hour mark then the bidding team needs to two these two things:
1. Identify it as a Snipe Bid
2. Bid at least $250,000 more then the previous leading bid
Players may be signed for a maximum of 5 years and your math must be correct for the bid to be valid. The minimum raise for a valid bid will be $100,000 You may not delete the bid, once you post your bid it is final.
A GM can include RFA status in their UFA bid. The player must only have three years of experience or less to get RFA status. The RFA bid cannot exceed the players third year. EX: Jalen Ramsey just finished his second year in the league so to sign him to an RFA contract it can only be a 1year deal with RFA status. (1 year @ 2M + RFA) If a GM is signing an undrafted rookie to a RFA contract they can do a full three year deal plus RFA status.
You must have salary cap space available for a bid to be valid (remember, any Free Agency bids in which you are the leading bidder also count towards your salary cap).
During the season, you must also have roster space available for the bid to be valid (remember, roster limits are lifted during the pre-season). This means you must have less than 53 active players. Players on waivers do not count towards your roster limit. You may conditionally waive a player to make roster space (but not salary cap) for a player as detailed in the "Conditional Waivers" section below.
If a team makes a free agent bid which would put them over the roster or cap limit, that bid is invalid. The last valid bid becomes the leading bid.
Restricted Free Agents:
Restricted Free Agents (RFAs) are free agents who have 3 years or less NFL experience. Years within the league will be determined by nfl.com at www.nfl.com/players or Player Profile on Fantrax
Teams with an RFA rights tag will offer an initial contract tender, based on the tender prices below. NFL Lockdown will use a baseline price for salary when it comes to determining the tender value of any player, this will serve two purposes, the first is that it will be a draft pick compensation based tender, and it will also serve as the initial contract offer by the RFA rights team.
The baseline prices for an initial tender and contract offer will work based our UFA rules.
We will have a easy math for Free agency (i.e. 4 years of 500,000 = 2 mil) So this will be ** Years plus Salary for the total now **
The (UPBID) will have to be $100,000 Dollars higher. So like the next bid will have be $2.1M
The 2024 Tender prices are listed below:
$11M Tender - 1st and 2nd Rd Draft Picks
$8M Tender - 1st Rd Draft Pick
$6M Tender - 2nd Rd Draft Pick
$5M Tender - 3rd Rd Draft Pick
$3M Tender - 4th Rd Draft Pick
$2M Tender - ROFR (No pick compensation, Owning team has right to match winning offer)
For a team to figure out the initial baseline price, the owning team will do the following:
1: Decide what tender to place on the player.
2: Decide how long of a contract to offer.
3: multiply the tender amount by the designated multiplier.
Here is an example:
The Cardinals want to offer Tyreek Hill a 1st rd tender.
1st rd tender is 8M, the Cardinals want to offer a 4 year contract.
8 (Tender price) x (4 years) = 32 points
Here is the contract offer:
Cardinals offer a 1st rd tender to Tyreek Hill.
4 years @ $8M = 32 Points.
Restricted Free Agent Bidding:
The RFA bidding process uses the same bidding rules, and minimum raise as the UFA bidding process.
Once an initial bid is made for a player, other teams have 24 hours to raise the bid. Once the bid has been won, the tendering GM has 24 hours from the time the bid was won to decide whether to sign the player to the exact winning bid contract terms. If no decision is posted, the winning bidder signs the player for the winning bid. You may not bid on your own player in an attempt to set your contract terms.
Note: The winning bid is the only bid that the tendering GM must deal with. Be sure to make a high enough bid to actually force the owner to give him up. You may not re-up the bid later.
*RFA Compensation Rule*
The GM that owns the RFA player can specify the year and pick desired for compensation. The pick will be based on the tender assigned but the owning team can specify a pick in the current year or the following year. The pick year desired must be posted in the tender thread.
EX: The Packers place a 2025 1st Rd. tender on Dak Prescott.
This will allow the owning team to get a more desired pick as compensation. The team can also post the compensation as "Any Year"
EX: The Packers place a 1st Rd Tender (Any Year) on Dak Prescott.
In this example then the bidding team can decide what 1st they will give. Either from the current year or the following year. If the year is not specified in the post then it is assumed to be any year which means the bidding team can choose what year to give as compensation.
This change is designed to increase the value of draft picks as now they can be used more in RFA bidding. To have two years available means that more teams will have the ability to bid on the top RFA players available.
Retired Players:
When a player announces his retirement, the GM can drop him with out the same cap penalty as a waiver for each year of the contract. Retired players are posted in the waiver section just like any other waived player.
Waivers:
To release a player, you must post a thread in the waiver forum containing his contract terms, if a waiver is posted without proper contract terms then it is not valid. Waivers will not be processed if they are not posted with the proper information. Fellow GM's will have 24 hours to claim the waived player. If he is claimed, no salary cap hit will apply. If he is not claimed you'll have to release him at a 40% cap hit for the remainder of the contract. That means if you have him signed for 3 years, the salary cap hit will apply for each of the 3 years.
A proper waiver post must contain the following:
Title - Must have players name, position, current team or UFA if not signed.
The post must have the following:
Players current contract length and price. ( EX- 1M (2018), 1M (2019) UFA
Players cap hit for each year. (EX - .30M (2018), .30M (2019) UFA
Each waiver post must have this information to be considered valid.
*One waiver post per player please - Each player that is waived must have their own thread. (No multi player waiver posts.)*
Waiver Claims:
Waiver claims must be posted on the waived player's thread within 24 hours. After 24 hours, the team with the highest "Waiver Priority" will be awarded the player and will assume the existing contract. It doesn't matter what order claims are posted. The team being awarded the player will then move to the bottom of the Waiver Priority. Waiver Priorities are reset after each season to the reverse order of finish. The priority starts the same as our draft order (set after each season's Super Bowl). Once a GM posts a waiver claim, then they are official and cannot be removed.
Conditional Waivers:
You may conditionally waive a player in order to place a bid on a free agent (or to claim a player on waivers or to make a trade) which would have put you over the roster limit. State that the player is conditionally waived pending winning free agent "X" (or being awarded a waiver claim or having a trade approved). Teams may claim this player like any other waived player, but you would retain the conditionally waived player if you do not acquire your targeted player.
Unclaimed Waivers:
If a player is waived and not claimed within 24 hours there will be a 40% cap hit for every year of the contract. That player becomes a free agent, and the same rules apply to that player as they do to all free agents. The only difference is that the owner who released that player CANNOT bid for the rest of the season. If the player is later released by his new owner, then the original owner can bid.
"Gaines Adams Rule":
In the event of the death of a player currently under contract, the player may be released without a cap hit, and may he rest in peace.
Trades:
Each team will send there own trades on Fantrax. One of the Commishes will process the trade on Fantrax. Draft picks may be traded up to two years in the future. RFAs with expiring contracts may not be traded until they have been signed to new contracts.
You must have salary cap available and space on your roster in order to trade for players. Players on waivers do not count towards your roster limit. You may conditionally waive a player or players to make room for your traded for players as detailed in the "Conditional Waivers" section.
The trading deadline will be determined when the new weekly schedule comes out.
Once the trade deadline passes, trades will not be allowed until the league opens and trading is opened according to the offseason schedule.
NFL Rookie Draft:
We conduct a 5 round Rookie Draft every pre-season. This draft is for NFL Rookies that were eligible for the most recent NFL draft (including undrafted players, and NFL Supplemental Draft Players). Players that were eligible for a previous year's NFL draft and went undrafted (but are still technically NFL Rookies), are considered free agents and are no longer eligible to be drafted. Our rookie draft is conducted on Fantrax. There will be no activity for pro boards with regards to our rookie draft. There is no posting of players drafted and there will not be a "Draft Podium" with our draft results on it. If a GM wants to see the draft results those can be found on Fantrax.
Draft order for non-playoff teams will be in the reverse order of the final regular season fantasy football standings. Playoff teams will draft in the reverse order of their playoff results (teams eliminated the same week will follow the same tiebreaker rules based on their regular season finish). Our Super Bowl winner picks last.
Draft Order Tiebreaker Rules (Reverse Order)...
1. Overall Record
2. Head-to-Head Record (2 teams only)
3. Conference Record
4. All Play Record
Teams will be OTC (On The Clock) starting from the exact time the previous selection was made or skipped.
Draft Pick Clock
Round 1: 7 hours per pick
Round 2: 6 hours per pick
Round 3: 5 hours per pick
Round 4: 4 hours per pick
Round 5: 3 hours per pick
You must have salary cap room available to sign your draft pick(s) or they will be forfeited and become Free Agents.
NFL rookies not drafted during our rookie draft become Free Agents 24 hours after the conclusion of our draft.
Skipped Draft Picks:
If a team misses their pick, they will be skipped and the next team will be "on the clock". Skipped teams may pick anytime and will not affect the current clock. A team will not be skipped for more than two selections. The draft will be paused and the Commishes will make the pick based on that team's needs. This ensures no franchise gets truly hurt by an owner that is unavailable. Commish picks will be largely based on actual NFL draft position taking injuries and any off the field problems into consideration. If you don't want the Commishes picking for you, then make arrangements ahead of time if possible.
If a team has a draft pick skipped, then their subsequent draft picks will be immediately skipped until the GM signs on again. If the Commish has to make the pick for a skipped pick, then the Commishes will also immediately select for that team for all subsequent picks until the GM signs on again.
*SKIPPED PICKS CANNOT BE TRADED*
Trading of Draft Picks:
Draft picks may be traded up to two years in the future. For example, in 2021 you will be able to trade 2022 and 2023 draft picks throughout the 2021 playing year up until the trade deadline.
When the pick on the clock is traded during the draft, the clock does pause and reset If the "On The Clock" team exceeds the time limit before the trade is approved then the trade is void since skipped picks cannot be traded. Also, if the trade is approved then the clock does not reset, the new owner of the pick must pick within the pick clock time frame. This also means that all GM's need to account for that when putting their picks on the trade block. We understand the time frames are there for this reason and to better accommodate real life schedules, but make sure that the new owner of the pick has time to do a bit of research before the clock expires.
*A TEAM CAN ONLY HAVE 20 PICKS AT THE MOST FOR EACH DRAFT AT ANY GIVEN TIME*
Draft Pick Salaries (pick position on the draft board regardless of any skipped picks):
NEW FOR 2024 ROOKIE SALARIES
Round 1
Picks 1-10 - $7M
Picks 11-15 - $6M
Picks 16-20 - $5M
Picks 21-32 - $4M
Round 2
All Picks - $3M
Round 3
All Picks - $2.5M
Round 4
All Picks - $2M
Round 5
All Picks - $1M
Contract Length of Drafted Rookies:
1st round draft picks are all signed for 5 years, no RFA status. All other draft picks are signed for 3 Years and have RFA status at the end of their contracts.
There will be NO 5th year options in this league.
Injured Reserve:
If a player is placed on Injured reserve (IR) in the NFL, he may be placed on IR in this league and not count towards the 53 player active roster limit. There is 8 spots for IR players a team can have, but they all still count towards the salary cap.
Injured Reserve may also include players on NFL PUP (Physically Unable to Perform). If those players are reactivated after the 6th week, they must be removed from IR and will become subject to normal roster limits. Players on Injured Reserve must be moved back to the active roster each off-season.
Starting Lineups:
Player's positions are determined by Fantrax Sometimes players change positions... if you feel Fantrax has made a mistake, please let the Commissioner know. The starting lineups will be:
Offense
1 Quarterback
2 Running Back
3 Wide Receivers
1 Tight End
1 RB or WR or TE
1 Kicker
Defense
2 Defensive Line
3 Linebackers
2 Cornerbacks
2 Safety
1 Flex (LB,CB,S)
Playoffs:
We use the same system of seeding and scheduling as the NFL. There will be 14 teams in the playoffs. Each conference will have 4 division winners seeded 1 though 4, and 3 wild card teams seeded 5,6 and 7. The top seeds from each conference will get a first round bye. In Round 1 each conference #2 seed hosts #7 seed. #3 seed hosts the #6 seed, and the #4 seed hosts the #5 seed. In Round 2 each conferences #1 seed hosts the lowest remaining seed after round 1, #2 seed hosts the higher remaining seed. Playoffs start week 13 with the 2 Conference Championship games playing week 16. Then week 17 will be the Super Bowl for the league championship.
Division Winners Tiebreakers
1. Overall Record
2. Head-to-Head Record (2 teams only - unless a team has beat or lost to all other teams involved in the tiebreaker)
3. Division Record
4. Conference Record
5. All Play Record
Wild Card Tiebreakers
1. Overall Record
2. Head-to-Head Record (2 teams only - unless a team has beat or lost to all other teams involved in the tiebreaker)
3. Conference Record
4. All Play Record
Note: Head to head record may only be used In a multi-way tie-breaker to remove a team from the tie-breaker if that team beat or lost to ALL other teams involved. In that case the team either wins or loses the tie-breaker and the remaining teams are then compared (if needed).
Off-Season Activities:
Each off-season GMs must perform the following activities in preparation for the upcoming season.
Select one Franchise Player (optional) from your expiring contracts and post him in the "Franchise Players" thread. Put his new contract amount and the word "Franchise or FT" after his name on your roster. If this is his 2nd or 3rd Franchise, please note that.
Post your Restricted Free Agents and tender offer in the Free Agency Sub-board "Restricted Free Agents" (one thread per player).
If you do not want to tender an offer to an RFA, post him in the "Unrestricted Free Agents" thread and remove him from your roster here and on Fantrax.
Move any injured players off Injured Reserve and back on to your active rosters here and on MFL. Remember, roster limits are suspended until the end of pre-season, so you are not limited to 53 players until then.
Select one player to give your Extension to (optional) and post him in the thread titled Contract Extensions.
Select one player to buyout their contract (optional) and post him in the thread titled Contract Buyouts.
Off-Season Schedule:
This is the tentative schedule each off-season. The actual schedule will be posted each off-season in the "Off-Season Schedule" board.
League Opening Day will be March 1st every year.
Contract Option Period - TBD - This is when teams will designate their franchise tag, extension, and contract buyout.
Restricted Free Agency Tender Period - TBD
Restricted Free Agency Bidding Period - TBD
Restricted Free Agency Re-signing Period - TBD
Unrestricted Free Agency Period (Veterans Only) - TBD
Rookie Draft - TBD
Unrestricted Free Agency Period (Undrafted Rookies) - TBD
Any other activities - TBD
ProBoards Message Board:
Each team has a sub-forum. This is where GMs can post and maintain their team's roster (including active roster and injured reserve). Teams may also optionally maintain other threads such as team transactions, draft board, schedule, team records, player photos, whatever they wish.
Please activate your account and set your Proboards display name so that other GMs know who you are when you post or send messages.... Click on "Profile" on the Main Menu Bar, click on "Modify Profile", enter your team name into "Display Name", enter your password (again), and press "Modify Profile" at the bottom.
During the off-season things slow down but don't completely stop. Check in occasionally between the Super Bowl and the real NFL draft. Trading resumes each February so you should at least occasionally check to see if you have a trade offer in your inbox.
Final Notes:
There will be no changes during the season. We will discuss any changes to the league as a group the nest off season.
These Rules have attempted to cover every possible scenario, but occasionally something new comes up. In that case, the Commissioner will make the final ruling.
This shouldn't have to be said, but GMs may own one and only one team, and must have their own unique home Internet Connection and IP address. If a member is caught with multiple IDs, they will immediately be banned from the league.
If we get enough active participation, this will be an incredible experience and well worth the effort . Thanks to all those who join and stay active. Good luck everyone.
Welcome to NFL LOCKDOWN. We are a 32 team contract/salary cap league which attempts to create a fantasy experience as close to the real NFL as possible. Every NFL Franchise has a General Manager (GM) who is responsible for all aspects of team management.
Roster Limits:
Active rosters are limited to 53 players maximum and 35 players minimum (not including Injured Reserve). The limits are suspended each off-season to allow teams to draft, trade, and make roster moves in preparation for the upcoming season. All teams must be back within the roster limits by the league cut-down day. Our cut down date will always be September 1st of each year. All rosters must be under the maximum roster limit (53) and above the roster minimum (35) by 11:59 PM on September 1st. League management will then perform roster checks to make sure all are correct and accurate.
After the roster deadline has passed, any team that acquires a player or players causing the team to go over the maximum will have the player(s) immediately dropped. Any trade that causes a team to break the roster min/max will be considered void. The Commissioner will attempt to catch this beforehand, but it is the responsibility of each GM to remain within the roster limits.
Salary Cap:
Each team has a $212,180,000 salary cap. The salary cap will increase 3% each year. Team salary includes the total of all players under contract (Active Roster and Injured Reserve), plus any Salary Cap Hits for unclaimed waivers, plus any outstanding (leading) free agent bids. The salary cap will remain in effect year-round. This includes pre-season, so be careful while you may be temporarily over the roster limits, you may never exceed the salary cap.
If any team acquires a player or players causing them to go over the salary cap (via draft, trade, waiver claim, or Free Agency) and it is not caught beforehand, then the added player(s) will be immediately released with a 40% cap hit to bring the team back under the salary cap. If the player was acquired through a trade or draft pick, then the team may alternatively release the most recently added UFA(s) with a 40% cap hit to bring them back under the salary cap.
Free Agency:
As in the NFL, there are two types of Free Agents - Restricted Free Agents (RFA) and Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA). RFAs are players whose rights are still held by a team and may be re-signed after their original contract expires (according to the rules in the RFA section below). UFAs are any players that are not currently under contract by a team. Each pre-season any player who does not have RFA status becomes a UFA once his contract expires. The one exception is that each team may designate one Franchise player each season.
Unrestricted Free Agency begins each pre-season in June and ends each season with our Super Bowl at the end of the Week 16 Monday Night game (any bids already in progress at that time will be allowed to be completed and signed by the winner).
*AFTER WEEK 13 GAMES END, ONLY PLAYOFF TEAMS CAN SIGN FREE AGENTS, ALSO ONLY ONE YEAR DEALS CAN BE OFFERED, NO RFA STATUS ALLOWED ON FREE AGENT BIDS*
Extension Rule:
We are going to allow every GM to offer an Extension Contract to ONE player each season STARTING WITH THE STARTUP DRAFT who has at least ONE YEAR left on their contract. They must have at least ONE year left on their contract. The Extension contract may add up to 3 YEARS on a player's current contract. A player may not ever exceed a 5 YEAR contract. Players can only be extended twice. You may only use your Contract Extension in the off-season just like the Franchise Tag and Contract Buyout. The Extension will cost 150% of the player's last year of current contract unless the players contract is less than the minimum price for their position.
Players on a RFA contract can be extended as long as they have at least one year remaining before reaching RFA status. Also, if they are extended then they lose their RFA status.
Extension Prices: 2024
QB - 20M per year or 150% of last year of previous contract if over 13M
RB - 13M per year or 150% of last year of previous contract if over 9M
WR - 15M per year or 150% of last year of previous contract if over 10M
TE - 12M per year or 150% of last year of previous contract if over 8M
PK - 7M per year or 150% of last year of previous contract if over 5M
LB - 11M per year or 150% of last year of previous contract if over 8M
DE - 9M per year or 150% of last year of previous contract if over 6M
DT - 8M per year or 150% of last year of previous contract if over 5M
CB - 8M per year or 150% of last year of previous contract if over 5M
S - 9M per year or 150% of last year of previous contract if over 6M
*THESE PRICES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE EACH YEAR*
Example:
John Doe (DAL-QB) $10,000,000 (2018)
I choose to offer John my extension that adds 3 more years to his current deal. His deal would be $16,000,000 the reason would be because the origninal contract was $10M. The salary would have to be over $16M t get 150%. Same with all the other positions.
John Doe (DAL-QB) $10,000,000 (2018) $16,000,000 (2019), $16,000,000 (2020), $16,000,000 (2021) UFA
*Franchise Tagged players are not eligible for an extension.*
Franchise Players:
Teams may franchise one player with an expiring contract each season. If that player is traded, the team trading the player may not Franchise another player that year. The team receiving the player may still Franchise one player and maintain both Franchised players for that year.
A player may receive the franchise tag a maximum of 2 seasons in a row. If a player is tagged 2 years in a row by the same team...he must be paid 150% of the current years franchise tag price. If the players previous contract year is higher than the franchise tag price then the team must pay the percentage above their previous contract.
(example: DeAndre Hopkins previous year contract is 15M then the team would pay 115% above previous years contract for a FT1, 150% above current year franchise tag for FT2.) This example is only if the previous contract is higher than franchise tag prices.
Franchise tags are based on the average salary of the 10 highest paid players at their position (not including Franchise Players) and will be determined at the end of each season for the following season.
Franchise Amounts for 2024:
QB: 26,075,000
RB: 14,884,803
WR: 26,015,000
TE: 15,385,000
K: 5,570,000
DT: 11,545,000
DE: 16,590,000
LB: 18,050,000
CB: 7,205,000
S: 13,850,000
*Franchise Tagged players are not eligible for an extension.*
Free Agent Bidding:
The process for signing an Unrestricted Free Agent is to create a new thread in the "Unrestricted Free Agents" sub-board under "Free Agency". The thread should have the player's correctly spelled name, NFL team and position in the subject, and a valid bid as the message. Other GMs may reply in this thread with higher bids for the player. The bidding will end when 24 hours has passed since the last valid bid. You can not drop a player from your roster and bid on them.
We will have a easy math for Free agency (i.e. 4 years of 500,000 = 2 mil) So this will be ** Years plus Salary for the total now **
The (UPBID) will have to be $100,000 Dollars higher. So like the next bid will have be $2.1M
This will take alittle bit to get use to if you have never used it but we will work through it as a group. Feel free to ask questions I will help everyone anytime.
Here will be the Minimum salaries you will be able to use for the Free Agent pickups.
NEW MINIMUM SALARIES $850,000K for each Player
Free Agency Sniping Rule
If you want to bid on a player AFTER the 20 hour mark then the bidding team needs to two these two things:
1. Identify it as a Snipe Bid
2. Bid at least $250,000 more then the previous leading bid
Players may be signed for a maximum of 5 years and your math must be correct for the bid to be valid. The minimum raise for a valid bid will be $100,000 You may not delete the bid, once you post your bid it is final.
A GM can include RFA status in their UFA bid. The player must only have three years of experience or less to get RFA status. The RFA bid cannot exceed the players third year. EX: Jalen Ramsey just finished his second year in the league so to sign him to an RFA contract it can only be a 1year deal with RFA status. (1 year @ 2M + RFA) If a GM is signing an undrafted rookie to a RFA contract they can do a full three year deal plus RFA status.
You must have salary cap space available for a bid to be valid (remember, any Free Agency bids in which you are the leading bidder also count towards your salary cap).
During the season, you must also have roster space available for the bid to be valid (remember, roster limits are lifted during the pre-season). This means you must have less than 53 active players. Players on waivers do not count towards your roster limit. You may conditionally waive a player to make roster space (but not salary cap) for a player as detailed in the "Conditional Waivers" section below.
If a team makes a free agent bid which would put them over the roster or cap limit, that bid is invalid. The last valid bid becomes the leading bid.
Restricted Free Agents:
Restricted Free Agents (RFAs) are free agents who have 3 years or less NFL experience. Years within the league will be determined by nfl.com at www.nfl.com/players or Player Profile on Fantrax
Teams with an RFA rights tag will offer an initial contract tender, based on the tender prices below. NFL Lockdown will use a baseline price for salary when it comes to determining the tender value of any player, this will serve two purposes, the first is that it will be a draft pick compensation based tender, and it will also serve as the initial contract offer by the RFA rights team.
The baseline prices for an initial tender and contract offer will work based our UFA rules.
We will have a easy math for Free agency (i.e. 4 years of 500,000 = 2 mil) So this will be ** Years plus Salary for the total now **
The (UPBID) will have to be $100,000 Dollars higher. So like the next bid will have be $2.1M
The 2024 Tender prices are listed below:
$11M Tender - 1st and 2nd Rd Draft Picks
$8M Tender - 1st Rd Draft Pick
$6M Tender - 2nd Rd Draft Pick
$5M Tender - 3rd Rd Draft Pick
$3M Tender - 4th Rd Draft Pick
$2M Tender - ROFR (No pick compensation, Owning team has right to match winning offer)
For a team to figure out the initial baseline price, the owning team will do the following:
1: Decide what tender to place on the player.
2: Decide how long of a contract to offer.
3: multiply the tender amount by the designated multiplier.
Here is an example:
The Cardinals want to offer Tyreek Hill a 1st rd tender.
1st rd tender is 8M, the Cardinals want to offer a 4 year contract.
8 (Tender price) x (4 years) = 32 points
Here is the contract offer:
Cardinals offer a 1st rd tender to Tyreek Hill.
4 years @ $8M = 32 Points.
Restricted Free Agent Bidding:
The RFA bidding process uses the same bidding rules, and minimum raise as the UFA bidding process.
Once an initial bid is made for a player, other teams have 24 hours to raise the bid. Once the bid has been won, the tendering GM has 24 hours from the time the bid was won to decide whether to sign the player to the exact winning bid contract terms. If no decision is posted, the winning bidder signs the player for the winning bid. You may not bid on your own player in an attempt to set your contract terms.
Note: The winning bid is the only bid that the tendering GM must deal with. Be sure to make a high enough bid to actually force the owner to give him up. You may not re-up the bid later.
*RFA Compensation Rule*
The GM that owns the RFA player can specify the year and pick desired for compensation. The pick will be based on the tender assigned but the owning team can specify a pick in the current year or the following year. The pick year desired must be posted in the tender thread.
EX: The Packers place a 2025 1st Rd. tender on Dak Prescott.
This will allow the owning team to get a more desired pick as compensation. The team can also post the compensation as "Any Year"
EX: The Packers place a 1st Rd Tender (Any Year) on Dak Prescott.
In this example then the bidding team can decide what 1st they will give. Either from the current year or the following year. If the year is not specified in the post then it is assumed to be any year which means the bidding team can choose what year to give as compensation.
This change is designed to increase the value of draft picks as now they can be used more in RFA bidding. To have two years available means that more teams will have the ability to bid on the top RFA players available.
Retired Players:
When a player announces his retirement, the GM can drop him with out the same cap penalty as a waiver for each year of the contract. Retired players are posted in the waiver section just like any other waived player.
Waivers:
To release a player, you must post a thread in the waiver forum containing his contract terms, if a waiver is posted without proper contract terms then it is not valid. Waivers will not be processed if they are not posted with the proper information. Fellow GM's will have 24 hours to claim the waived player. If he is claimed, no salary cap hit will apply. If he is not claimed you'll have to release him at a 40% cap hit for the remainder of the contract. That means if you have him signed for 3 years, the salary cap hit will apply for each of the 3 years.
A proper waiver post must contain the following:
Title - Must have players name, position, current team or UFA if not signed.
The post must have the following:
Players current contract length and price. ( EX- 1M (2018), 1M (2019) UFA
Players cap hit for each year. (EX - .30M (2018), .30M (2019) UFA
Each waiver post must have this information to be considered valid.
*One waiver post per player please - Each player that is waived must have their own thread. (No multi player waiver posts.)*
Waiver Claims:
Waiver claims must be posted on the waived player's thread within 24 hours. After 24 hours, the team with the highest "Waiver Priority" will be awarded the player and will assume the existing contract. It doesn't matter what order claims are posted. The team being awarded the player will then move to the bottom of the Waiver Priority. Waiver Priorities are reset after each season to the reverse order of finish. The priority starts the same as our draft order (set after each season's Super Bowl). Once a GM posts a waiver claim, then they are official and cannot be removed.
Conditional Waivers:
You may conditionally waive a player in order to place a bid on a free agent (or to claim a player on waivers or to make a trade) which would have put you over the roster limit. State that the player is conditionally waived pending winning free agent "X" (or being awarded a waiver claim or having a trade approved). Teams may claim this player like any other waived player, but you would retain the conditionally waived player if you do not acquire your targeted player.
Unclaimed Waivers:
If a player is waived and not claimed within 24 hours there will be a 40% cap hit for every year of the contract. That player becomes a free agent, and the same rules apply to that player as they do to all free agents. The only difference is that the owner who released that player CANNOT bid for the rest of the season. If the player is later released by his new owner, then the original owner can bid.
"Gaines Adams Rule":
In the event of the death of a player currently under contract, the player may be released without a cap hit, and may he rest in peace.
Trades:
Each team will send there own trades on Fantrax. One of the Commishes will process the trade on Fantrax. Draft picks may be traded up to two years in the future. RFAs with expiring contracts may not be traded until they have been signed to new contracts.
You must have salary cap available and space on your roster in order to trade for players. Players on waivers do not count towards your roster limit. You may conditionally waive a player or players to make room for your traded for players as detailed in the "Conditional Waivers" section.
The trading deadline will be determined when the new weekly schedule comes out.
Once the trade deadline passes, trades will not be allowed until the league opens and trading is opened according to the offseason schedule.
NFL Rookie Draft:
We conduct a 5 round Rookie Draft every pre-season. This draft is for NFL Rookies that were eligible for the most recent NFL draft (including undrafted players, and NFL Supplemental Draft Players). Players that were eligible for a previous year's NFL draft and went undrafted (but are still technically NFL Rookies), are considered free agents and are no longer eligible to be drafted. Our rookie draft is conducted on Fantrax. There will be no activity for pro boards with regards to our rookie draft. There is no posting of players drafted and there will not be a "Draft Podium" with our draft results on it. If a GM wants to see the draft results those can be found on Fantrax.
Draft order for non-playoff teams will be in the reverse order of the final regular season fantasy football standings. Playoff teams will draft in the reverse order of their playoff results (teams eliminated the same week will follow the same tiebreaker rules based on their regular season finish). Our Super Bowl winner picks last.
Draft Order Tiebreaker Rules (Reverse Order)...
1. Overall Record
2. Head-to-Head Record (2 teams only)
3. Conference Record
4. All Play Record
Teams will be OTC (On The Clock) starting from the exact time the previous selection was made or skipped.
Draft Pick Clock
Round 1: 7 hours per pick
Round 2: 6 hours per pick
Round 3: 5 hours per pick
Round 4: 4 hours per pick
Round 5: 3 hours per pick
You must have salary cap room available to sign your draft pick(s) or they will be forfeited and become Free Agents.
NFL rookies not drafted during our rookie draft become Free Agents 24 hours after the conclusion of our draft.
Skipped Draft Picks:
If a team misses their pick, they will be skipped and the next team will be "on the clock". Skipped teams may pick anytime and will not affect the current clock. A team will not be skipped for more than two selections. The draft will be paused and the Commishes will make the pick based on that team's needs. This ensures no franchise gets truly hurt by an owner that is unavailable. Commish picks will be largely based on actual NFL draft position taking injuries and any off the field problems into consideration. If you don't want the Commishes picking for you, then make arrangements ahead of time if possible.
If a team has a draft pick skipped, then their subsequent draft picks will be immediately skipped until the GM signs on again. If the Commish has to make the pick for a skipped pick, then the Commishes will also immediately select for that team for all subsequent picks until the GM signs on again.
*SKIPPED PICKS CANNOT BE TRADED*
Trading of Draft Picks:
Draft picks may be traded up to two years in the future. For example, in 2021 you will be able to trade 2022 and 2023 draft picks throughout the 2021 playing year up until the trade deadline.
When the pick on the clock is traded during the draft, the clock does pause and reset If the "On The Clock" team exceeds the time limit before the trade is approved then the trade is void since skipped picks cannot be traded. Also, if the trade is approved then the clock does not reset, the new owner of the pick must pick within the pick clock time frame. This also means that all GM's need to account for that when putting their picks on the trade block. We understand the time frames are there for this reason and to better accommodate real life schedules, but make sure that the new owner of the pick has time to do a bit of research before the clock expires.
*A TEAM CAN ONLY HAVE 20 PICKS AT THE MOST FOR EACH DRAFT AT ANY GIVEN TIME*
Draft Pick Salaries (pick position on the draft board regardless of any skipped picks):
NEW FOR 2024 ROOKIE SALARIES
Round 1
Picks 1-10 - $7M
Picks 11-15 - $6M
Picks 16-20 - $5M
Picks 21-32 - $4M
Round 2
All Picks - $3M
Round 3
All Picks - $2.5M
Round 4
All Picks - $2M
Round 5
All Picks - $1M
Contract Length of Drafted Rookies:
1st round draft picks are all signed for 5 years, no RFA status. All other draft picks are signed for 3 Years and have RFA status at the end of their contracts.
There will be NO 5th year options in this league.
Injured Reserve:
If a player is placed on Injured reserve (IR) in the NFL, he may be placed on IR in this league and not count towards the 53 player active roster limit. There is 8 spots for IR players a team can have, but they all still count towards the salary cap.
Injured Reserve may also include players on NFL PUP (Physically Unable to Perform). If those players are reactivated after the 6th week, they must be removed from IR and will become subject to normal roster limits. Players on Injured Reserve must be moved back to the active roster each off-season.
Starting Lineups:
Player's positions are determined by Fantrax Sometimes players change positions... if you feel Fantrax has made a mistake, please let the Commissioner know. The starting lineups will be:
Offense
1 Quarterback
2 Running Back
3 Wide Receivers
1 Tight End
1 RB or WR or TE
1 Kicker
Defense
2 Defensive Line
3 Linebackers
2 Cornerbacks
2 Safety
1 Flex (LB,CB,S)
Playoffs:
We use the same system of seeding and scheduling as the NFL. There will be 14 teams in the playoffs. Each conference will have 4 division winners seeded 1 though 4, and 3 wild card teams seeded 5,6 and 7. The top seeds from each conference will get a first round bye. In Round 1 each conference #2 seed hosts #7 seed. #3 seed hosts the #6 seed, and the #4 seed hosts the #5 seed. In Round 2 each conferences #1 seed hosts the lowest remaining seed after round 1, #2 seed hosts the higher remaining seed. Playoffs start week 13 with the 2 Conference Championship games playing week 16. Then week 17 will be the Super Bowl for the league championship.
Division Winners Tiebreakers
1. Overall Record
2. Head-to-Head Record (2 teams only - unless a team has beat or lost to all other teams involved in the tiebreaker)
3. Division Record
4. Conference Record
5. All Play Record
Wild Card Tiebreakers
1. Overall Record
2. Head-to-Head Record (2 teams only - unless a team has beat or lost to all other teams involved in the tiebreaker)
3. Conference Record
4. All Play Record
Note: Head to head record may only be used In a multi-way tie-breaker to remove a team from the tie-breaker if that team beat or lost to ALL other teams involved. In that case the team either wins or loses the tie-breaker and the remaining teams are then compared (if needed).
Off-Season Activities:
Each off-season GMs must perform the following activities in preparation for the upcoming season.
Select one Franchise Player (optional) from your expiring contracts and post him in the "Franchise Players" thread. Put his new contract amount and the word "Franchise or FT" after his name on your roster. If this is his 2nd or 3rd Franchise, please note that.
Post your Restricted Free Agents and tender offer in the Free Agency Sub-board "Restricted Free Agents" (one thread per player).
If you do not want to tender an offer to an RFA, post him in the "Unrestricted Free Agents" thread and remove him from your roster here and on Fantrax.
Move any injured players off Injured Reserve and back on to your active rosters here and on MFL. Remember, roster limits are suspended until the end of pre-season, so you are not limited to 53 players until then.
Select one player to give your Extension to (optional) and post him in the thread titled Contract Extensions.
Select one player to buyout their contract (optional) and post him in the thread titled Contract Buyouts.
Off-Season Schedule:
This is the tentative schedule each off-season. The actual schedule will be posted each off-season in the "Off-Season Schedule" board.
League Opening Day will be March 1st every year.
Contract Option Period - TBD - This is when teams will designate their franchise tag, extension, and contract buyout.
Restricted Free Agency Tender Period - TBD
Restricted Free Agency Bidding Period - TBD
Restricted Free Agency Re-signing Period - TBD
Unrestricted Free Agency Period (Veterans Only) - TBD
Rookie Draft - TBD
Unrestricted Free Agency Period (Undrafted Rookies) - TBD
Any other activities - TBD
ProBoards Message Board:
Each team has a sub-forum. This is where GMs can post and maintain their team's roster (including active roster and injured reserve). Teams may also optionally maintain other threads such as team transactions, draft board, schedule, team records, player photos, whatever they wish.
Please activate your account and set your Proboards display name so that other GMs know who you are when you post or send messages.... Click on "Profile" on the Main Menu Bar, click on "Modify Profile", enter your team name into "Display Name", enter your password (again), and press "Modify Profile" at the bottom.
During the off-season things slow down but don't completely stop. Check in occasionally between the Super Bowl and the real NFL draft. Trading resumes each February so you should at least occasionally check to see if you have a trade offer in your inbox.
Final Notes:
There will be no changes during the season. We will discuss any changes to the league as a group the nest off season.
These Rules have attempted to cover every possible scenario, but occasionally something new comes up. In that case, the Commissioner will make the final ruling.
This shouldn't have to be said, but GMs may own one and only one team, and must have their own unique home Internet Connection and IP address. If a member is caught with multiple IDs, they will immediately be banned from the league.
If we get enough active participation, this will be an incredible experience and well worth the effort . Thanks to all those who join and stay active. Good luck everyone.