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Regarding ray's comment about the player salary structure. How do you lock down a high rated (80+) player to a 6 year deal for lower than the minimum bonus? You can go with a lower value on the yearly salary, but to do that you have to still hit the minimum bonus asked for. Is there any way of lowering both the salary and bonus demand? I dont think there is, at least I havnt been able to. If there is a way, I would really like to know, lol. So the choice is to either pay the higher salary against the cap or take the full hit in the bonus which will affect your dead cap if you decide to trade or cut the player before the contract term is up. If there is a way to tie up a long-term starter, other than a "gem" FA out of the pool that is not bid on by others, for "pennies", I have not seen it. Our current FA pool has been decimated, which is pretty typical for a league just finishing its first season combined with having a majority of experienced owners. There just is not much, if anything, there atm. Unless one or more of the teams failed to re-sign a good starter, there will not be anything in the early FA period. So, it will be all on the draft to significantly improve your roster.

Thanks again to all who are posting their thoughts and opinions on this subject, now is the time for everyone to do so, and it may end up that we collectively decide not to take players away from the LC, CC, and bye teams or all Div winners with more than 12 wins, for example. Anyway, if have a strong opinion one way or the other, or an idea/suggestion, please feel absolutely free to "post up".

An alternate idea of the top teams losing draft picks has been brought up by raidergreg in another thread, so lets get this idea into this thread. One comment I would have on that is that you probably would not get an 80+ default rated player picking at the 1.28 thru 1.32 spots. Not that default values count the most, but they are a general indicator, and if the key attributes go along with the default rating or better, then it is a solid value. So, there's a lot of merit to the draft pick idea, and there could also be a trade structure set up to inact it.

And, if we do go with a player cut requirement, I would suggest something like it should be based on 1. default value, 2. stats, 3. position importance, and 4. trade value. Assign a value to each and select the highest total. That way its as objective as we can structure it.

The same as my qb coach that was just poached. Somebody offered him more with out any chance for me counter....

Locking down a player is that. Not allowing anyone to offer more. If a good guy slip in to fa.....danielson te/wr in 75......he took the highest contract possible . If he didn't slip in to fa his contract would have been less than half that. Hence the pennies . ....not his real worth .

So, I am missing what you mean. When allocations a made all player contracts are up in two years....if every one is not allowed a retructures then everyone hits fa and is bid on accordingly .

This will not happen in this league or any other so the debate is lost, but it is the only way to have a legitimate dynasty in my mind. Other wise one can game saleries for what I consider pennies .

I don't care what happens here as I am testing the limits of the engine . Like in every league....I selected certain player for this test and am waiting for there growth.

Also, everyone on your team has over 50 speed....Coincidence I think not, just another flaw worth talking about.....no real player would put up monster numbers and not take a monster contract . Also, no nfl players run nine second in the fourty .

Those are the two things I want changed all else if fluff.

Hopefully we can get the new passing code in this league . ...

Why not make this a bleeding private league . .....best of both worlds imo.... good luck !

That's right Ray, after an allocation draft, you have 2 yrs to re-sign a player before he becomes eligible to be a FA. So, when you go to re-sign him, he has a minimum bonus requirement. That is not "pennies" or the minimum league salary, A good starter with a high default is going to cost your $3mill+ per year. That bonus amount directly affects the amount of yearly salary. There is no getting around the minimum bonus the player is asking for, you can only reduce the annual salary and increase the bonus amount if you want to reduce the load on annual salary cap. Please, somebody tell me if Im wrong on this, as that's the way Ive been handling player contracts to date. I have never been able to sign a 75+ default rated starter for less than $3 mill per year (salary & bonus combined).

Coaches?, I never worry about a coach poach, lol. Now, if coaches had more impact and importance in the game, oh **** yeah, I would be more diligent in signing and protecting coaches and pay them a lot more, lol. But that is not an important consideration to me yet, maybe it will be in the future, who knows. Or if you can convince me that they do make a significant difference, then I might change my mind about it. I win around 90% of my games, due to two things in general. 1. Play selection, scouting, game plan, and rules. 2. Roster make-up, not dependent on default values or trade values, specific to key attributes. There are a few exceptions, but those are extremely few.

Still, pennies to me. The nfl creates parity through the salary of players . Ours does not create parity through contracts. It's easy imo and lead to team holding on to talent by allowing them not to garner the monetary desire of any team quick enough .

If the coach situation is right some other team can offer him more money ......in the rules of a player retructure no other team can offer more money. That the only reference I was making of coaches. He garnered the leagues desire....not just one team adhering to a list of numbers jdb made up . I don't sign any coaches ever, all AI selections ....that system is completely broke.

And I get your winning strategy , but speed is the most important . Try all your same techniques that are key to winning , but pick no player over 50 speed. I guarantee the opposite results. Way more losses than wins.

I got to disagree. While yes some players make a lot more hitting free agency, theres also a lot more that sign for way cheaper than if resigned. Usually only the very best players are paid big contracts, perhaps double, others make a 5th of what they asked for to resign.

While speed is important I've won plenty of championships with a cadre of under 80 speed receivers. I don't understand why its been kept hush hush but a lot of "broken" plays aren't broken at all, they just work for slower players and not fast ones. It depends on your style, but your whole team has to be on board with it. You can't have a power back and speed o-lineman with low strength for example, and vice versa. This game has a lot more diverse options than people give it credit for.

I'm also just not comfortable with the forced handicapping of elite teams. Its a nice idea but difficult to enforce. I get confused mostly because you all are saying its so hard to catch up but it really really isn't. Of my 23 teams plenty of them were coming off horrible seasons when I took over and after 1 FA period they were playoff teams and a couple after 2 were champions.

There has only been one team that has been absolutely untouchable in my leagues and thats lellows Cheifs, I can't remember the league. My Bills are a super power but its nearly impossible to catch him. But to be fair I'm sure most of the league is now looking at me in the same light.

My point being, the teams in the back can become very good and win championships in the current structure. If there is someone who wins 3 straight championships then I totally understand implementing some kind of handicap but from what I've seen it just isn't that hard to take a poor team and make them very good if you take your lumps in the team building and put effort into your strategy, and keep in mind due to my mental limitations there are many areas I can't even utilize like rules. The only rules I have were after help from GDB getting a few basic ones.

Perhaps something like this would be more fair. LC trades a first round draft pick to worst team. Back to Back LC cuts one 80+ player and trades first rounder to worst team. For each straight LC increase players cut by 1. Getting a team playoff caliber isn't hard, getting them to catch superpower champions is another beast. This also is less intensive as it only applies to one team making it far easier to police (2 if you count draft trade to worst team).

The first season I played had only two back average over 4 yards a carry . The game has come along way since then but I do not think I would have changed my stance then on what I though was wrong with the game just cause I thought it was awesome . The same approach right now will continue the games growth in the right direction . My lack of complacency on these subjects are justified to me. My stance has always been the same as I want a better sim...like the next guy. I hope....

Good points and suggestion Pern! Yes, a bad team can be turned around very quickly by an owner who knows what to do along with having a decent FA pool available. If there are not any FA's available that will improve the team, then you either have to trade,wait for early FA and hope there is a good selection, to improve your roster. And then you have the draft. But that is only roster, Ive taken losing teams at mid-season that I made none, one, or two cuts & adds and got them into the playoffs by changing one or more of their starters and drastically changing their play selection, game plan, and adding rules. A team can be dramatically improved in a short period of time without the benefit of having more top rated players taken from the top teams. The intent of the top team player cuts is threefold, 1. increase the number of top rated players for the teams that finished the season sub-500, 2. make it a little more challenging than a standard league for the top teams to repeat, and 3. increase the competitive balance in the league. I think it's worth a try just for the difference and to see how it works out. My guess is that losing one or two players from the LC, CC, and 12+ win teams is not going to keep them from having a good chance at a repeat. And if a lot of owners dont like whatever it is that we try, then we change it back or try something else, we arent locked into any rule. There is a poll that has been posted regarding sim time, so lets get at least 24 votes in on it.

The top ten if not twenty salaries in the nflmcome from retructures sent out by the same team that drafted them. Not fa...here .the only way to create that parity is to let them all walk and test the market it simulates the player having an agent . If you got the cash and the guts you will be able to resign them. It's the first step to parity and a real challenge .

Look a t our draft compared mto the nfl trubisky got 18 mil at two for a qb our league only eight mil . That's got to benefit **** teams , so this one is up in the air for me as our system lends towards gathering alot high picks around the same time. Cause financial you can do it and the only thing to stop it is the user not trading that pick away . But what stops the tanker.

Really this is a non issue but definitely worth talking about...
. why not make it harder to hold on to players. With a legit system . I hope one day jdb adds some sort of agent system to drive up those prices of great players .

I agree Ray, it should be tougher to hold on to top players relative to salary, but... this is MFN, not the NFL. Your better players will cost you more, not as much as they do in the NFL, but I have let players go due to salary demand, not always, but now and then.

There are quite a few distinct differences between MFN and the NFL, we have kickers who have a lower % on XP's than 50 yard attempts, we dont have screen passes or reverse plays, we have ridiculous passes into the blocking pile where the back catches it for a 5 yard loss or more, zone coverage doesnt work as good as M2M coverages, you have to blitz most of the time to be competitive, runs to the weakside produce better avg than strongside, Ive never lost a starting QB to the IR like Rodgers & Luck this season, and on and on.

So, we have what we have in MFN, and its the best we have found online so far. How do you best foster competitive balance and prevent 3 peats or worse? 1. You can pass on your knowledge and experience on play selection, gameplanning, scouting play selection, misc, overides, and rules, especially if you have an extensive record of winning and LCs under your belt. 2. You can improve rosters of sub 500 teams and reducing the roster strength of winning teams. It may not involve a team having to cut players, it could be based more on draft choices and restrictions on the early FA period. Now is the time for any ideas on this, greatly appreciate the ideas posted so far.

I don’t even know what you all are talking about anymore.