[QuikSand]

Okay, if you're a veteran FOFer you know this response.

You approach a free agent with an offer, trying to get him less expensively than his demands. And you get the response:

Your offer is too low for this stage of free agency and will not be considered.

Cool, cool. So the game has some threshold in place, presumably by some sort of formula. I have always assumed that this was merely a function of the player's age/experience, current ratings, maybe potential future ratings, and that's about it.

Okay, so why ask now?

I'm in a MP league where I see a player I'd like to bid on. I see another MP team has an offer in to that player, and I intend to beat it. But the player gives me the "too low" text back. Hmmmm. So, I try to absolutely max out the bonus and still beat the current offer he is considering. "Too low." I put in the most charitable possible version of the offer he is considering - two years of absolute minsal and all the rest bonus... "too low."

WTF?

Either:

-the game is considering something beyond player metrics in weighing what a given team's offer needs to be to pass this test; or

-my rival in this MP league has cracked some sort of code, and has figured something out here to get around the "too low" message; or

...well I'm out of explanations, tbh.