leaves me wondering...

[FrogMan]

Take a look at this:
Front Office Football 2007
Team Cap Room and Needs List

Team Cap Room Cntr Draft Picks Big Need 2nd Need 3rd Need
Chicago $43,330,000 51 $0 Start ILB Start QB Start G
Tampa Bay $44,010,000 50 $0 Start ILB Start QB Resrv OLB
New York G $22,700,000 50 $0 Start OLB Start ILB Start DT
**New England $11,940,000 50 $0 Start DT Start CB Resrv RB
Dallas $21,650,000 49 $0 Start WR Start DT Resrv ILB
St. Louis $44,370,000 48 $0 Start ILB Start T Start C
San Francisco $54,000,000 47 $0 Start QB Start RB Start WR
Seattle $39,850,000 47 $0 Start T Start RB Start WR
Tennessee $38,380,000 47 $0 Start DE Start ILB Start WR
Houston $16,150,000 47 $0 Start RB Start T Start QB
Cleveland $28,230,000 46 $0 Start RB Start DE Start DT
Green Bay $23,880,000 45 $0 Start ILB Start DE Start S
Miami $43,930,000 44 $0 Start DT Start WR Start G
Philadelphia $42,720,000 44 $0 Start QB Start ILB Start T
Buffalo $40,720,000 44 $0 Start C Start ILB Start G
Baltimore $29,610,000 44 $0 Start CB Start QB Start WR
Denver $16,900,000 44 $0 Start ILB Start CB Start TE
Kansas City $57,680,000 43 $0 Start ILB Start RB Start QB
Atlanta $42,510,000 43 $0 Start FB Start ILB Start WR
Cincinnati $32,030,000 43 $0 Start ILB Start DE Start DT
Carolina $27,330,000 43 $0 Start ILB Start T Start WR
New Orleans $26,040,000 43 $0 Start T Start S Start ILB
Washington $44,020,000 41 $0 Start ILB Start G Start RB
Detroit $39,810,000 41 $0 Start CB Start QB Start ILB
Indianapolis $27,600,000 41 $0 Start ILB Start G Start C
New York J $42,020,000 40 $0 Start T Start WR Start DE
Pittsburgh $15,920,000 40 $0 Start DE Start DT Start G
Jacksonville $42,560,000 39 $0 Start ILB Start WR Start QB
Arizona $15,710,000 39 $0 Start ILB Start OLB Start TE
Minnesota $16,740,000 38 $0 Start QB Start ILB Start TE
Oakland $14,930,000 29 $0 Start ILB Start WR Start DE
San Diego $21,700,000 20 $0 Start DT Start RB Start ILB

This is from right after the draft. San Diego has only 20 players under contract. That's a bit ridiculous. Same goes for Oakland with only 29, but hey, it's the Raiders so I figured it was kind normal. ;)

Is that a regular occurence in single player games?

FM

[MizzouRah]

Is this a product of the patch?

[FrogMan]

no clue, maybe it's always been that way and I just noticed.

It's a new career started post patch. Anybody knows if it's always been that way.

fwiw, San Diego loaded their roster with a ton of undrafted rookies after the draft, enough to bring them to 54 players.
San Diego Chargers Roster, Scout Overview

Player # Pos Start Exp Current Estimate Future Estimate Cntrct
McNeill, Marcus 73 LT LT 6 87 87 3 yrs
Gates, Antonio 85 TE TE 9 79 79 2 yrs
Cromartie, Antonio 31 RCB RCB 6 77 77 3 yrs
Merriman, Shawne 56 SLB SLB 7 77 77 4 yrs
Hardwick, Nick 61 C C 8 77 77 4 yrs
Scifres, Mike 5 P 9 74 74 2 yrs
Castillo, Luis 93 LDE LDE 7 71 71 4 yrs
Jackson, Vincent 83 FL FL 7 69 69 5 yrs
Rivers, Philip 17 QB QB 8 68 68 3 yrs
Jammer, Quentin 23 LCB LCB 10 61 61 2 yrs
Dielman, Kris 68 RG RG 9 60 60 2 yrs
Starks, Jay 74 RDE RDE 3 57 57 3 yrs
Bronson, Shawn 24 SS SS 1 56 80 4 yrs
Cason, Antoine 20 RCB 4 54 54 2 yrs
Brennan, Nolan 39 FS FS 3 47 47 2 yrs
Wilkerson, Ben 66 LG LG 6 42 42 1 yr.
$$Arnold, Tyrell 91 NT 2 42 48 3 yrs
Campbell, Lonnie 2 QB 3 38 54 2 yrs
Pariso, Donald 44 RB RB 2 38 42 3 yrs
Johnstone, Steven 58 SLB 4 38 46 1 yr.
Rafter, Charles 82 TE 2 38 51 3 yrs
Stockton, Lester 16 K 1 37 46 1 yr.
Gerhart, Louie 13 K 1 36 58 1 yr.
Cook, Ryan 63 RT 6 35 35 1 yr.
Clark, Corey 69 RT RT 4 34 42 1 yr.
Hopkins, Scott 46 FS 3 33 33 1 yr.
Oliver, Jesse 45 FB FB 1 31 43 3 yrs
Hedgecock, Madison 30 FB 7 30 30 1 yr.
Hoover, Timothy 96 NT NT 2 30 43 3 yrs
McConnell, Frankie 53 SILB SILB 1 28 42 4 yrs
Dillon, Alonzo 32 RB 1 27 41 1 yr.
Coleman, Max 51 C 1 27 39 1 yr.
Schlafly, Austin 62 LG 1 26 40 1 yr.
Lanza, Rusty 98 NT 1 26 29 1 yr.
Watson, Marvin 40 RB 1 25 33 1 yr.
Thompson, Burt 52 WILB 4 24 42 1 yr.
##Brelsford, Sean 59 SILB 1 24 38 1 yr.
Burkett, Donnell 86 TE 1 24 31 1 yr.
Howard, Tito 89 SE 1 24 37 1 yr.
##Tornberg, Neil 57 SLB 2 23 40 2 yrs
Gardner, Peter 81 SE SE 1 22 32 1 yr.
Mussatti, Toby 84 FL 1 22 35 1 yr.
Parker, Norm 88 FL 1 22 27 1 yr.
Strong, Alex 19 QB 1 21 34 1 yr.
Beito, Roderick 21 RCB 1 21 37 3 yrs
Carrano, Jerald 35 RCB 1 21 44 1 yr.
##Burroughs, Brad 41 FS 1 21 31 1 yr.
Guerrieri, Bart 94 WILB WILB 1 21 32 1 yr.
Bates, Isaac 95 RDE 1 20 40 3 yrs
##Crownhart, Vincent 50 C 1 19 48 1 yr.
Gunn, Butch 55 WLB WLB 4 19 37 1 yr.
##Gonzalez, Randy 67 RT 1 19 44 3 yrs
##Burgess, Kurt 97 WLB 1 19 29 3 yrs
##Murphy, Deron 79 RDE 1 12 40 3 yrs


Just find it kind of odd...
FM

[sovereignstar]

Yes, it's always been this way.

[MizzouRah]

Yes, it's always been this way.

I haven't played in awhile, but I don't remember it being that bad.. I'll have to look at my new career after the first year.

[Matthean]

Yes, it's always been this way.

One of the things I noticed was the sheer amount of open spots various teams had when I started my SP league and this was before the latest patch.

[Ben E Lou]

PRetty common pre-patch. I do have one question, though:

San Diego loaded their roster with a ton of undrafted rookies after the draft

Did you mean immediately after the draft, as in FA2, or at the training camp stage? Pre-patch, it was at training camp when the teams with low numbers filled up. It was very rare for *any* AI teams to go after undrafted rookies in FA2 pre-patch, so I'm wondering if that has changed.

[Ben E Lou]

ADDENDUM: Besides punters and kickers.

[Ben E Lou]

Double dola:

And to be clear, having only one team at 20 and another at 29 is probably better than the average pre-6.2 situation right after the draft.

[OldGiants]

PRetty common pre-patch. I do have one question, though:



Did you mean immediately after the draft, as in FA2, or at the training camp stage? Pre-patch, it was at training camp when the teams with low numbers filled up. It was very rare for *any* AI teams to go after undrafted rookies in FA2 pre-patch, so I'm wondering if that has changed.

I'm seeing plenty of undrafted FAs on lousy teams pre-patch since I haven't actually found the time to play after patching.

I wanted to take over the worst team in my fictional league, but they had so much dead money spent on a few excellent players that there is no way to even pay for draft picks without cutting and piling up even more dead money.

I wonder why Jim G thinks those kind of contracts are a good AI strategy.

[Ben E Lou]

I'm seeing plenty of undrafted FAs on lousy teams pre-patch since I haven't actually found the time to play after patching.Yes, they got on teams, but I'm commenting on when they get on teams. Pre-patch, the human owner had pretty much all of FA2 to himself with regard to signing rookies. The AI teams that needed to fill up didn't do so until TC.

[FrogMan]

Did you mean immediately after the draft, as in FA2, or at the training camp stage? Pre-patch, it was at training camp when the teams with low numbers filled up. It was very rare for *any* AI teams to go after undrafted rookies in FA2 pre-patch, so I'm wondering if that has changed.

the stage from the transaction report states "Pre-Training Camp" for 16 free agents all signed for $350k so I assume not much have changed there.

So it looks like it's normal. Thanks for the info. As I said, I played a tiny bit when last year's patch came out but it's been a long while since I've played the game for any kind of longer career.

FM

[Raiders Army]

/agree

Most undrafted FAs are signed pre-training camp. I think very few are signed in FA2 by the AI...either pre- or post-patch.