Challenge Idea - "The Seven Year Itch"

QuikSand · 03-08-2014, 09:19 AM

I think I might play this out at some point, but have had the idea kicking for a while...thought I'd post the basic framework, and see if it catches any attention.

BASIC IDEA:

All your players come to your team from the draft, and must be released after they have played in their 7th year.

MY GOAL:

To force myself to improve my drafting skills, by removing most of the other crap that I tend to focus more of my attention on.

THINKING:

Pretty obvious, but this would really limit the ability to make gains through cohesion and probably chemistry (I might even turn chemistry off for this approach, to get the max out of it).

So, every draft pick counts - these are the only guys you get, period, and pretty much everyone needs to contribute for 7 seasons.

I have thought about further limitations... like no trading at all, even within the immediate draft. Not sure I like that, but I'm still toying with how to implement it. I do superficially like the 7x7=49 concept, though, I admit.

Bottom line is, I think this would be a fast-moving career, that might end up resembling playing a college game more than a pro game. There would be more attention to true "needs" for the years ahead, and most of that would become much more predictable -- which I think is pretty interesting.

I also think that the best way to get this rolling is probably by setting up a one-player-universe with all cruddy players. Over the first several years, this will be deep building... but I like the notion that this team will (might) really have serious "maintenance" needs every year, and that's intriguing to me.

Anyway, have at it.

TroyF · 03-09-2014, 10:05 AM

Obviously, not trying to do the challenge, I won the title last night with only one player over the 6 year exp mark. He was at 9 and was a pro bowl calibur center in the final year of his deal. I will be letting him go this off season because there is no way in hell I can afford the 10 million he's asking for.

How did I do it? Exactly as you stated above. I cleaned house in year one of the game. Not empty cupboard, just didn't see the need to pay veterans big money when my QB/RB/OL was horrible. How did I do it?

The team was generated with fictional players, with unaltered preference settings. The players I kept included a stud SLB, the previously mentioned C, 2 young CB's, a very good pass rushing DE and a serviceable young TE.

After that?

Some incredible luck and some good drafting. My first draft class had two stud QB's and I had one of the first two picks. I snagged starters at RT, LG, FB and DT in the draft. I grabbed an undrafted kicker and some cheap undrafted fillers to finish the haul.

I went 4-12 the following year. The next draft class saw the single best RB I have ever seen in the draft. Straight red combine, bars close to maxed out, and the interview stated "very underrated" Needless to say, I tried to do anything to move up to get him from #3. That failed and I had to wait to see what other teams would do. A QB went #1, A stud DE went #2. I got my man at #3. I drilled it with my next two picks as well. A stud WR fell to the top of the second round and I snagged an above average DT with the third round pick. Two more starters came from the draft, an WLB and a DT.

I went 8-8. The third year draft had my biggest hit of all. With the 14th pick I took a LT my scouts loved. He ended up being the hit of the century. A decent G in the second round and then a bunch of whiffs.

After an 11-5 year with an exit in the divisional round, I focused the entire next draft on defensive depth. I did not have a home run draft at all, but did well enough to get some depth.

Fifth year it all came together. 14-2, #1 offense, Bowl title. The best running back I ever saw from earlier? In four years, he's put up 7,147 yards rushing on 5.11 yards per carry and 55 rushing TD's. Add in 172 catches for 1,624 yards and another 12 TD's. This past year with the bowl run, he missed 2 full games and still rushed for 2,034 yards with 13 100 yard games and threw in 3 more 100 yard games and 433 yards in the playoffs.

To really do yours right, you would have to do it with cruddy guys at the start. That said, I think even with a normal class this would be a brutal challenge in most cases. I hit the proverbial HR in three straight draft classes. I've probably had 100+ draft classes in this game and 3 of the top 5 happened to be in this career. If that RB doesn't slip to #3, I doubt I sniff the title.

kcarr · 03-09-2014, 03:17 PM

I am doing a similar thing to this, but without the limit on years I keep people and with allowing myself to trade around in the draft. I also allow myself to sign idea rookies so in the long run it is more lenient than yours. I did however start by simming the first season and then cutting everyone from the browns roster. I did make quite a few trades down to get depth guys and ended up drafting 16 guys. This will leave me with 37 udfas the first year so it will still be a pretty long, hard climb where one or two bad drafts could set me back several years and even a good draft won't garuntee any success. The one bright note so far in Cleveland is the drafting at 1.1 of a true stud qb, currently rated 19/78 but this will still be tough. Your challenge seems even tougher but I don't feel I am that good t drafting yet.

garion333 · 03-10-2014, 01:09 PM

I'm giving this a go. Simmed a year and then cut everyone. We went 2-14 the next year and had the top pick of the draft. Of course there were no studly QBs available. Gonna be a while until we compete.

kcarr · 03-10-2014, 02:37 PM

Now my "stud qb" is showing the effects of less accurate combine numbers in this version set to 25. He is still very good and worth the pick, 25/72 with a lot of really good bars, but is actually less than I expected after his combine results with a solesmic of 52, a position drill of 98, 6.97 agility drill, 22 bench, and 4.84 40 yard dash.

QuikSand · 03-17-2014, 08:16 PM

I just played year seven...interesting building this way, but i'm unsure it will be interesting to maintain. might become "how good is your qb?' which isnt too much fun.

stevew · 03-17-2014, 08:25 PM

Modify it into a "Logan's Run challenge". Players die at age 30

da commish · 03-17-2014, 10:37 PM

I'm in year 4 of my 7 year itch league and one of the hardest things I'm running into is re-signing players so that their contracts end at year 7. Right now, I've got an 81 RB and a 79 WR in their 6th year, both asking for huge contracts lasting 4-5 years. I'll probably franchise one but don't want to sign the other to a long contract with a big bonus that I end up eating. I'll try to structure the contract to be heavily back end salary loaded with minimal bonus or else I'll never get it under the cap. Another thing on the salaries that is tough is having to re-sign low level players (low 20s or teens) to contracts that are more than they're worth. I think I'll be running into cap problems soon.

garion333 · 03-19-2014, 12:36 PM

I've been doing my damndest to end contracts on year 7 by extending them earlier in their careers. It also seems to keep costs down a bit overall as they ask for a buttload more in year 5 or 6 than extending them in year 3.

da commish · 03-19-2014, 04:17 PM

I've been trying to end contracts in year 7, too, but I tried saving some $ in the earlier years of the best players since I'd have to renegotiate and pay them more in the years under the current contracts. The contracts I was able to extend ended up being a year short ending in year 6. They don't want to just take a one year extension when they get to year 6.

The other thing I have run into is the number of players that hit year 7 each year. The first couple years worked out OK as the number of players dropping equaled the 7 new draft picks. But in the next few years I had only 3 or 4 players hitting year 7 so I had extra draft picks and had to eat some contracts. I let my scout/AI select the initial fantasy draft and he picked an excessive number of rookies (about 15!!). So year 7 will be kinda odd when I only have 7 draft picks to offse the 15 or so players that drop after their 7th year. I'm actually going to do another league where I make the draft picks so that I can spread the 53 picks better over 7 years.

QuikSand · 03-23-2014, 08:39 PM

Just finished year 9, stuck ib a mediocre rut with rifraff at QB. May need to dive in at the best rookie soon just to get past these 14/30 bums.

garion333 · 03-24-2014, 06:36 PM

After years of losing seasons I finally managed to field a near full team of draft picks and a QB of my own choosing in year 6. We won the division and went one and done in the playoffs after my QB was injured in week 17.

Lesson: You can't fake it with a crappy QB, even with three studly WRs.

QuikSand · 03-31-2014, 02:53 PM

I'm playing this in the tightest version described above -- no trading, just use the exact 7 picks you get each draft with what is available to you. That means you have a maximum of 49 guys on the team. I'm playing with injuries off for several reasons, mostly speed, and that helps on that front.

Anyway...it's great pressure to really feel any draft miss. And taking a "long snapper" is a stupid twist, as I am now saddled with a zero-rated guy for the next six seasons unless I want to dedicate a scarce draft pick to getting a quality player to that slot (the staff sets all rosters might help here).

Anyway...my team is mediocre, still. Have a seemingly good QB, but can't break through into getting good. I haven't really shifted gears into being smarter about drafting, though - which was sorta the main point of the exercise.

Anyway, it remains mildly interesting.

03-17-2014, 10:37 PM	#8
da commish n00b Join Date: Jun 2008	I'm in year 4 of my 7 year itch league and one of the hardest things I'm running into is re-signing players so that their contracts end at year 7. Right now, I've got an 81 RB and a 79 WR in their 6th year, both asking for huge contracts lasting 4-5 years. I'll probably franchise one but don't want to sign the other to a long contract with a big bonus that I end up eating. I'll try to structure the contract to be heavily back end salary loaded with minimal bonus or else I'll never get it under the cap. Another thing on the salaries that is tough is having to re-sign low level players (low 20s or teens) to contracts that are more than they're worth. I think I'll be running into cap problems soon. Last edited by da commish : 03-17-2014 at 10:40 PM.

03-09-2014, 10:05 AM	#2
TroyF Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000	Obviously, not trying to do the challenge, I won the title last night with only one player over the 6 year exp mark. He was at 9 and was a pro bowl calibur center in the final year of his deal. I will be letting him go this off season because there is no way in hell I can afford the 10 million he's asking for. How did I do it? Exactly as you stated above. I cleaned house in year one of the game. Not empty cupboard, just didn't see the need to pay veterans big money when my QB/RB/OL was horrible. How did I do it? The team was generated with fictional players, with unaltered preference settings. The players I kept included a stud SLB, the previously mentioned C, 2 young CB's, a very good pass rushing DE and a serviceable young TE. After that? Some incredible luck and some good drafting. My first draft class had two stud QB's and I had one of the first two picks. I snagged starters at RT, LG, FB and DT in the draft. I grabbed an undrafted kicker and some cheap undrafted fillers to finish the haul. I went 4-12 the following year. The next draft class saw the single best RB I have ever seen in the draft. Straight red combine, bars close to maxed out, and the interview stated "very underrated" Needless to say, I tried to do anything to move up to get him from #3. That failed and I had to wait to see what other teams would do. A QB went #1, A stud DE went #2. I got my man at #3. I drilled it with my next two picks as well. A stud WR fell to the top of the second round and I snagged an above average DT with the third round pick. Two more starters came from the draft, an WLB and a DT. I went 8-8. The third year draft had my biggest hit of all. With the 14th pick I took a LT my scouts loved. He ended up being the hit of the century. A decent G in the second round and then a bunch of whiffs. After an 11-5 year with an exit in the divisional round, I focused the entire next draft on defensive depth. I did not have a home run draft at all, but did well enough to get some depth. Fifth year it all came together. 14-2, #1 offense, Bowl title. The best running back I ever saw from earlier? In four years, he's put up 7,147 yards rushing on 5.11 yards per carry and 55 rushing TD's. Add in 172 catches for 1,624 yards and another 12 TD's. This past year with the bowl run, he missed 2 full games and still rushed for 2,034 yards with 13 100 yard games and threw in 3 more 100 yard games and 433 yards in the playoffs. To really do yours right, you would have to do it with cruddy guys at the start. That said, I think even with a normal class this would be a brutal challenge in most cases. I hit the proverbial HR in three straight draft classes. I've probably had 100+ draft classes in this game and 3 of the top 5 happened to be in this career. If that RB doesn't slip to #3, I doubt I sniff the title.

03-09-2014, 03:17 PM	#3
kcarr High School JV Join Date: Feb 2014	I am doing a similar thing to this, but without the limit on years I keep people and with allowing myself to trade around in the draft. I also allow myself to sign idea rookies so in the long run it is more lenient than yours. I did however start by simming the first season and then cutting everyone from the browns roster. I did make quite a few trades down to get depth guys and ended up drafting 16 guys. This will leave me with 37 udfas the first year so it will still be a pretty long, hard climb where one or two bad drafts could set me back several years and even a good draft won't garuntee any success. The one bright note so far in Cleveland is the drafting at 1.1 of a true stud qb, currently rated 19/78 but this will still be tough. Your challenge seems even tougher but I don't feel I am that good t drafting yet.

03-10-2014, 01:09 PM	#4
garion333 High School Varsity Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Near Cleveland	I'm giving this a go. Simmed a year and then cut everyone. We went 2-14 the next year and had the top pick of the draft. Of course there were no studly QBs available. Gonna be a while until we compete.

03-10-2014, 02:37 PM	#5
kcarr High School JV Join Date: Feb 2014	Now my "stud qb" is showing the effects of less accurate combine numbers in this version set to 25. He is still very good and worth the pick, 25/72 with a lot of really good bars, but is actually less than I expected after his combine results with a solesmic of 52, a position drill of 98, 6.97 agility drill, 22 bench, and 4.84 40 yard dash.

03-17-2014, 08:16 PM	#6
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	I just played year seven...interesting building this way, but i'm unsure it will be interesting to maintain. might become "how good is your qb?' which isnt too much fun.

03-17-2014, 08:25 PM	#7
stevew Hall Of Famer Join Date: Dec 2003 Location: the yo'	Modify it into a "Logan's Run challenge". Players die at age 30

03-19-2014, 12:36 PM	#9
garion333 High School Varsity Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Near Cleveland	I've been doing my damndest to end contracts on year 7 by extending them earlier in their careers. It also seems to keep costs down a bit overall as they ask for a buttload more in year 5 or 6 than extending them in year 3.

03-19-2014, 04:17 PM	#10
da commish n00b Join Date: Jun 2008	I've been trying to end contracts in year 7, too, but I tried saving some $ in the earlier years of the best players since I'd have to renegotiate and pay them more in the years under the current contracts. The contracts I was able to extend ended up being a year short ending in year 6. They don't want to just take a one year extension when they get to year 6. The other thing I have run into is the number of players that hit year 7 each year. The first couple years worked out OK as the number of players dropping equaled the 7 new draft picks. But in the next few years I had only 3 or 4 players hitting year 7 so I had extra draft picks and had to eat some contracts. I let my scout/AI select the initial fantasy draft and he picked an excessive number of rookies (about 15!!). So year 7 will be kinda odd when I only have 7 draft picks to offse the 15 or so players that drop after their 7th year. I'm actually going to do another league where I make the draft picks so that I can spread the 53 picks better over 7 years.

03-23-2014, 08:39 PM	#11
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	Just finished year 9, stuck ib a mediocre rut with rifraff at QB. May need to dive in at the best rookie soon just to get past these 14/30 bums.

03-24-2014, 06:36 PM	#12
garion333 High School Varsity Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Near Cleveland	After years of losing seasons I finally managed to field a near full team of draft picks and a QB of my own choosing in year 6. We won the division and went one and done in the playoffs after my QB was injured in week 17. Lesson: You can't fake it with a crappy QB, even with three studly WRs.

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03-31-2014, 02:53 PM	#13
QuikSand lolzcat Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Annapolis, Md	I'm playing this in the tightest version described above -- no trading, just use the exact 7 picks you get each draft with what is available to you. That means you have a maximum of 49 guys on the team. I'm playing with injuries off for several reasons, mostly speed, and that helps on that front. Anyway...it's great pressure to really feel any draft miss. And taking a "long snapper" is a stupid twist, as I am now saddled with a zero-rated guy for the next six seasons unless I want to dedicate a scarce draft pick to getting a quality player to that slot (the staff sets all rosters might help here). Anyway...my team is mediocre, still. Have a seemingly good QB, but can't break through into getting good. I haven't really shifted gears into being smarter about drafting, though - which was sorta the main point of the exercise. Anyway, it remains mildly interesting.