Thought it would be interesting and educational to take a look at the top FA signings from this season and compare their stats, were they worth the big bucks? Compare their stats to your own players/positions and see how they stack up. Compare to FAs that you got for a lot less and brag on them if they produced better stats. Who do you think was the best acquisition? Who were the best values? Its a good idea to review this to see what the going prices are in the league and what the results were. The top two teams for "elite" FA signings were the Witches (5) and Event (4), both teams are LC contenders. This took me a while, stayed up too late, lol. This is probably the first time anyone has posted a review like this, so Please... comments and your opinions will be valuable on this subject and should improve the competitive bidding and decision making for the next early FA period. I based the selection on $20 million and up contracts and if more than 3 teams made offers on a player, if I missed a player please add. I may be adding more info as far as player rank in stats, 2nd high offer, and other notes, let me know if there is any other info that will be of value on this. Another thing to consider is that at the time we had a couple of teams, like the Tradition, that lost good players that were not re-signed due to not having owners. We will prob not get as many high rated FA's next time around, just a guess. Hope this was worth the time & effort for all that review it. cheers! gdb

All are 6 yr contracts unless noted. The player stats are for the 13 games played this season to date. They are in order by contract amount.

FA Agency 1

WLB Herbert Rubin Wampas 82m 69 tackles, 3 sacks, 7 hurries, 1 int, 21 catch allwd/55% ,,, 2nd high offer: 53.6m - Event

QB Peter Greene Witches 82m 547 att/275 comp, 4,771 yds, 32 sacked/209, 41 TD passes, 25 Int, 86 rating(17th among starters with 300+attempts).... 2nd high offer: 75.8m/Americans

CB Carlton Wallace Riptide 59m 60 Tkls, 1 hurrie, ThrnAt 118, 21 KnkDn, 53 CthAlld, 45.3%, 3 Int ... 2nd high bid 50.3m - Golden Dacs

FS Edwin Jenkins Wampas 57m/5yr 39 tkls, 1 hurrie, 4 knkDn, 18 catch alld/41.9%... 2nd high offer - 43.8m, Misfits

WR Jeffrey Brent Witches 53m 62 rec/ 1300 yds, 4 drp 42.5 Rec %, 21 yd avg, 7 TDs ... 2nd: 50.3m/Cobras

CB Arturo Bradshaw Talons 50m 44 Tkls, 2 hurr, 69 ThrnAt, 4KnkDn, 24 CAlld, 35%, 5 int.... 2nd: 33m/Tradition

LG Abel Graber Cobras 43m (17 offers!) 973 plays, 0 pen!, 2 SkAlld... 2nd: $40.6/Misfits

LT Frank Jimenes Talons 43m 920 plays, 5 pen/35 yds, 2 SkAlld

MLB Hung Pelaez Event 41m 51 tkls, 5 sacks, 20 hurries, 18 catch alld/54.5% 1 int

LDE Dale Bernal Event 40m 34 tkls, 11 sacks, 44 hurries .... 2nd: 31.5m/5yr/Talons

RDE Chris Winger Witches 38m 8 tkls, 4 sacks, 11 hurries

RB Joe Harshbarger Phantoms 36.5m 105 att, 709 yds, 6.8 avg!!, 4 TDs

FS Michael Echevarria Crusaders 35m 60 Tkls, 4 sacks, 15 hurries, 41 ThrnAt, 17 catch/41.5%, O int

MLB Norris Freund Americans 34m/5yr 49 Tkls, 0 sacks, 16 hurries, 3 int, 56% ct alld

SS Charles Young Golden Dacs 32m 58 Tkls, 2 sacks, 1 hurr, 90 ThrnAt, 9 Knk, 38.9%, 3 int

DT Riley Jacobsen Bulldogs 31m 31 Tkls, 6 sacks, 24 hurr

C Quinton Johnson, Phantoms, 30.8m 1063 plays, 6pen/50, 0 sacks allwd.

CB Harold Duncan Phantoms 30m 53 Tkls, 158 ThrnAt, 34 KnkDn!!, 43% catch alld, 3 int

RT Victor Taylor Event 29m 1004 plays, 9 pen/71yds, 2 sacks alld

LDE Jeff Davidson Geechee 27m 3 Tkls, 0 sacks, 3 hurries (LDE2)

RB Jorge Nelson Witches 25m 139 att 806 yds, 5.8 avg, 4 TDs

WLB Tony Richards, Dragons, 21m, 50 Tkls, 3 sacks, 7 hur, 2nd: 14.7 - Thunder

LDE Clint Beadles Witches 20m 9 Tkls, 4 sacks, 21 hurries

Free Agency 2

WR Kevin Jordan Cobras 45m 89 rec, 1574 yds (#4), 60.5 Rec %, 17.7 avg, 10 TDs

WLB Ernest Fudge Event 35m 52 tkls, 4 sacks, 2 hurries, 72 ThrnAt-26 catch alld/36%
note: Fudge is SS1

RDE Terry Jensen Cobras 28m 10 Tkls, 3 sacks, 21 hurries (RDE3)

RB Raul Miller Misfits 25m 121 att, 465 yds, 3.8 avg, 2 TDs

C Roy Damico Coyotes 25m 593 plays, 4 pen/36 yds, 14 sacks alld

RT Loren Negrin Event 23m 929 plays, 3 pen/25 yds, 2 sacks alld

TE Steven Cardenas Dragons 21m/5yr, 41 Rec, 348 yds, 73.2% Rec, 8.5 avg, 3 TDs

Great job GDB! I'm happy with my two guys on the list. They've played well and I think they've also allowed others on my defense to make impacts.

I suggest adding the player card links, but that's a bit tedious, so I understand not doing it. lol.

Greene & Bryant are the only two players that start out of the 5 that I signed. Winger, Beadles, & Nelson are producing their numbers from back-up roles. I'll take that kind of production from my back-ups any day! No complaints here! :)

Definitely happy with my guys, two of which got "!!!" from you in their stats.

There's a subjective and numerical side to evaluating whether or not "you got what you paid for" when it comes to the highest cost FA's. Subjectively, it depends on the level of need for an elite player at that position. There are several factors, as mentioned in the posts so far, does a player affect how other players perform?, how much stronger did the team become? What have they done that makes you happy or satisfied that you got your moneys-worth vs a potential lower cost option?

Numerically, its easy to evaluate the player vs the cost. You look at the top performance at that position in the league stats, and the medium, or mid-line. That's what you compare the statistical performance to, but we dont have all the stats that we need. For DBs, we dont know how many yards they are giving up per catch. For DL & LBs, we dont know how many tackles were for loss. So there is still a lot of "grey area" to getting an accurate assessment of how a player is performing both individually and the effect they are having on their team as a whole.

Determining the "value" of the player vs the contract cost is not an exact science. But, you can at least get an idea when you compare to other players at the same position.

To compare the elite FA's and where they stand relative to the league leading performances by position after 13 games thus far:

QB: Jesse Hahn, Talons: 453/287 comp., 63.4%, 4,312 yds, 33/240 Sk/yds, 43Td/7int, 119.74 rating

RB: James Reyes, Cobras: 216 att - 1,086 yds, 5.0 avg, 7 TDs.

WR: Rudolph Schirmer, Crusaders: 93 rec - 1779 yds, 19.1 avg, 18 TDs

Morgan Rice, Riptide: 79 rec - 1606 yds, 20.3 avg, 18 TDs

TE: David Andrews, Red Rocks: 49 rec - 891 yds, 18.2 avg, 7 TDs

OL: Several at 1000 plays and 2 sacks allowed or less.

DE: The Geechee have the top two DEs, both with 20 sacks, (thats not fair Ray!)

Kenneth Lino: 46 Tkls, 20 sacks, 57 hurries

Alan Cooper: 32 Tkls, 20 sacks, 64 hurries

DT: Robert Wolfgram, Ben Bulldogs: 38 Tkls, 17 sacks, 57 hurries

MLB: Mitchell McCarty, Dragons (yay!): 86 Tkls, 16 sacks, 34 hur, 45.8% CthAlld

WLB: Michael King, Witches: 38 Tkls, 7 sacks, 21 hur, 42.2% CA, 7 ints!

CB: Bryan Dobbins, Ben Bulldogs: 148 ThrnAt - 37.2% CA, 20 KnD, 8 ints

Glen McCarty, Talons: 151 ThrnAt - 35.1% CA, 23 KnD, 7 ints

SS: Robert Brady, Riptide: 83 ThrnAt - 37.3% CA, 8 KnD, 3 ints

FS: Kenneth Levasseur, Twisters: 78 ThrnAt - 32.1% CA, 13 Knd, 4 ints

The Geechee have had problems getting Davidson some snaps, but I can't complain as both my FA dlinemen were added for depth and rotational strategy . Davidson has just been the odd man out ...only 256 snaps. ....my substitution setting is at 47.

Wallace and Brady have made a huge difference in the riptide secondary and is a critical part of my success this season.

Wow, it's almost embarrassing that I have 5 guys on the list! It does explain why I'm so broke... I have to admit, I do look forward to the '2nd-year-after-allocation-free-agency-bonanza'... and after losing 2 straight championships, I don't blame me for going a little crazy...

Overall, I think the top two FA buys at $80 mill + were good players but not good buys. Rubin was way overbid, as the 2nd best bid was 53.6 mill. I understand the reasoning for the high bids, I just dont think they ended up being good values. In Greenes case, the 82 mill offer was not much higher than the second best at 75.8. Greene was the only elite QB up for grabs and received a total of 5 offers, the other 3 were all under $40 mill.

Of the four FAs in the next contract group of $50 mill +, I think that all four were good deals and worth the contracts.

The next seven FAs were in the 35-45 mill range were all good other than Freund, who did not produce up to value, you can get as good out of the FA pool for minimum salary. The best from that group were LG Graber, LT Jimenez, LDE Bernal, and RB Harshberger.

The rest of the FA period 1's were in the 20 mill to 32 mill range. Some of the best values were picked up here... I would rank C Quinton Johnson as the best value of the group, followed by SS Charles Young, RT Victor Taylor, and CB Harold Duncan.

From the 2nd FA period, WR Kevin Jordan was the big score by the Cobras at a reasonable 45 mill. followed by WLB Ernest Fudge at 35 mill, who was converted to SS by the Event with successful results, and RT Lorin Negrin, also with the Event, good pickin eyeball.