Lost draft picks?

[Mooski]

Hi guys,
Loved 2k7, loving v7, but I have a strange question...

In my 2016 season with New England, I wasn't given a 3rd rd pick. I thought it strange but ignored it. I am now looking at the 2017 draft order and again where NED should be, it reads "xxx" for rd 3. Is this a New England scandal I'm unaware of, or a glitch?

[Ben E Lou]

You were over the cap at one of the points where you can't be over the cap. You lose a pick for the cap violation.

[WilleB]

And if you didn't fix it, the game will take more.

[stevew]

You were over the cap at one of the points where you can't be over the cap. You lose a pick for the cap violation.

Which points are these? After FA1?

[Mooski]

Is it always a 3rd rounder?

That might be an explanation behind it as I've been right up against the cap the last two seasons, but I don't recall going over. Minor point, I know, but is that something that could be explained during the game, or is it in the help file? (Or is it something I should have known about anyway, with it being a general NFL rule?)

Thanks for the replies so far, it would certainly explain it.

[Ben E Lou]

Is it always a 3rd rounder?

That might be an explanation behind it as I've been right up against the cap the last two seasons, but I don't recall going over. Minor point, I know, but is that something that could be explained during the game, or is it in the help file? (Or is it something I should have known about anyway, with it being a general NFL rule?)

Thanks for the replies so far, it would certainly explain it.It's in the Help File in multiple places. Here are a couple I found with a quick search:
An 'xxx' in a field indicates that the pick was forfeited because the team violated the salary cap rule.In Front Office Football, the salary cap isn't necessarily a "hard" cap. You can exceed the cap temporarily when the terms of your team's existing contracts exceed the cap prior to the season. But you will be penalized by losing your draft picks and you will be unable to sign new players or make trades if you're over the cap.

[Mooski]

Thank you, Mr Lou, excellent as always.

I'm normally very good with the cap and results often suffer because I'm not aggressive enough in free agency in spending the money. However with the Patriots save, I wanted to see how they would cope without Brady, and as it turns out, not very well. But to the point... the cap situation that I found myself in was awful and as I wanted to maximise the top players as much as I could, there was very little wiggle room and I'm suffering for it now, but the re-build will be interesting over the next couple of seasons.

I'm going to try and be active in the forums in order to get better at the game. Knowledge is a good thing, right?

Thanks again, Ben, much appreciated.

[Ben E Lou]

No prob.

The cap is a little screwy early on in careers, whether started with the default NFL rosters or with fictionals. Both humans and the AI can have some severe difficulties early on. It evens out after 5-8 seasons, once the residual effects of some of the initial contracts are gone. After that, you'll find the AI solidly competitive when it comes to keep its better players around, and as a result, it'll be extremely difficult to build a long-term consistent winner through free agency. Drafting well becomes increasingly important as the career progresses.

[stevew]

Question

I believe Cincy lost their 3.1 pick due to a cap penalty. I just noticed that pick #225 got made in my draft and the players card has him being selected in the 8th round. Is this normal? Do 224 players always get selected?

[aston217]

Woah. What?

[Ben E Lou]

I've seen this happen in rare instances. Not sure what causes it, and not often enough or repeatable enough to bother with me ever having reporting it to Solecismic.

[stevew]

I wonder if it's cause i stopped the draft midway through and saved vs running it straight thru.

[Ben E Lou]

I wonder if it's cause i stopped the draft midway through and saved vs running it straight thru.I guess that's possible. Like I said, I've seen it very rarely--as in probably a half dozen or fewer times combined in all the careers I've played in FOF4, FOF2K4, FOF2K7, and FOF7--but I've seen it. I haven't seen it myself in FOF7.