Signing players during playoff weeks for non-playoff teams
 

This might be old news to many of you, but I just recently started to wonder about this, tested in in SP, and it seems: non-playoff teams are not bound by the 53-man roster limit after the regular season ends. (Could be true for bye weeks too in general, haven't explored that though)

Anyone with experience doing this in MP leagues know if it's good? Because if so, I'm tempted to target some guys I may be interested in now rather than wait til actual FA, because for cohesion purposes, if I'm able to resign (which I would be, for under year 3 players) them in the offseason, they'll have a whole year up on other 'offseason' acquisitions.

Probably doesn't make a big difference, but if you have the cap space: why not?

Some leagues have rules against it. Some don't. But yeah, there's obviously some small advantage for cohesion or rights control purposes to go sign a bunch of scrap heap guys who will be RFAs to one year deals after you're out of it.

Don't be surprised if you piss off a fair portion of the people paying attention in your MP leagues by doing this. If you're particularly diligent, you might even get a rule named after you.

OK, fair enough. I was just surprised that the loophole seemed to exist and wondered if maybe in an MP league the CPU would drop players for you.

Seems like there /ought/ to be a rule against it in every league, so I'll just steer clear of it.

In at least two MP leageus I play in, teams eliminated from the playoffs can't sign guys from FA or cut any of their players except the final Bowl stage.

Here's how it works: FOF only checks for a legal roster immediately before a game involving your team is simmed. If it's bye week, or after your team is eliminated, or preseason week 1 and you're not playing, there are no FOF repercussions of being illegal.

Don't forget that or players over three years there's a loyalty boost as well. This can be meaningful in leagues where cap space is tight and therefore offers are closer in financial value.

If it's legal, there's no downside. A couple of guys who usually do pretty well in FOF MP had over 80 players under contract by the time the latter part of the FOFL postseason was finished a few days ago.

My question is how the heck are your FA pools that deep? Most of the leagues I've played in the guys available at that time would have no chance of making my roster

Well, there are 32 players worthy of being the 54th man on someone's roster when regular season week 1 is simmed. Unless you have the best team in the league, odds are fairly high that one of those guys is good enough to make your team next year after retirements.

Or that my team is better by more than one player than other teams in the league. ;) Logic success.

Really, there's a big gain here if you end up hiring a bunch of 1st through 3rd year players at the minimum salary. There's no cap hit (or a small one) and you'll have the restricted FA honors in the next off-season. Add in the additional season of cohesion and you'll have low-risk high-reward potential.

Yah, I suppose for going with the younger guys that makes sense. good call