does reducing inflation cause mass releases?

[yabanci]

I'm playing with the nfl player file/no x-factor and I started the career with inflation set to 20 and 50, wanting to see what would happen if I kept the low range about normal and reduced the upper range.

After the season 2003, almost every team released at least a few of their starters.

1. Atlanta released their entire set of CB, including both starters.
2. Arizona releases Jeff Blake.
3. Arizona releases their back up running backs, even though Emmitt Smith retired.
4. Baltimore releases Travis Taylor and Frank Sanders.
5. Carolina releases Rodney Peete and both backups.
6. Chicago releases Kordell Stewart and Anthony Thomas.
7. Dallas releases Quincy Carter and backup.
8. Detroit releases James Stewart and Olandis Gary.
9. Houston releases WR Corey Bradford, a 2nd team all pro
10. New England releases Antowain Smith.
11. Seattle releases Trent Dilfer and Matt Hasselbach
12. Tampa Bay releases Keyshawn Johnson and Michael Pittman.
13. Tennesee releases Eddie George
14. Washington releases Trung Canidate


There were quite a few other starters released. The cap right now (2004 season) is at $78,400,000 and there are 7 teams with $40-50m cap room and and another 12 with $29-39m, most of them the ones that released all their starters. So I don't see why there would such releases if it's not being caused by reducing the inflation.

[Easy Mac]

Originally posted by yabanci
1. Atlanta released their entire set of CB, including both starters.
2. Arizona releases Jeff Blake.
3. Arizona releases their back up running backs, even though Emmitt Smith retired.
4. Baltimore releases Travis Taylor and Frank Sanders.
5. Carolina releases Rodney Peete and both backups.
6. Chicago releases Kordell Stewart and Anthony Thomas.
7. Dallas releases Quincy Carter and backup.
8. Detroit releases James Stewart and Olandis Gary.
9. Houston releases WR Corey Bradford, a 2nd team all pro
10. New England releases Antowain Smith.
11. Seattle releases Trent Dilfer and Matt Hasselbach
12. Tampa Bay releases Keyshawn Johnson and Michael Pittman.
13. Tennesee releases Eddie George
14. Washington releases Trung Canidate

1. Reeves did bench his secondary this year.
2. Blake really isn't that good.
3. See #2.
4. Maybe they didn't get any better
5. Peete, Delhomme and Weinke, no thank you
6. terd-ell is crappy, and the A-Train might have been de-railed
7. QC and Hutch, maybe Jones realized these 2 suck (QC isn't very good in the game).
8. Not sure there, maybe Stewart sucks in the game.
9-13. Asking for too much money?
14. Spurrier realized Candidate does suck.

[yabanci]

that all might be true, but is everyone seeing all of these players get released after the first year?

[FBPro]

I know that I have had to release higher priced vets (as some NFL teams have to do IRL) to get some cap room.

[Ben E Lou]

The answer to the original question is so intuitive that I didn't read the details of yabanci's example, nor do a test with the retail version of the game. It has to happen that way. We had all the information we needed on this by simply looking at the demo. Here's why it will happen:

1. Original contracts are set with default inflation accounted for. In other words, nearly every player in the game has a contract that increases significantly from year 1 to year 2. (Example from the demo: The Falcons have 60 players under contract at the beginning of the demo, taking up around $65M in cap room in year 1. Of those, 37 players are under contract for year 2, taking up $69.3M in cap room!)

2. Human player decreases the amount the cap will increase, therefore further limiting cap room in year 2. (And don't forget the cumulative effect over 3 or 4 years. Virtually anyone signed to a long-term contract becomes an immediate cap liability, talent be damned.)

3. AI team gets to year 2, looks around and says, "Oh #(%*, there's no way I can keep all these guys around. These X starters are gonna cost Y% of my cap money. That's too high of a ratio. Bye-bye! {GOSUB player cutting routine}"

[yabanci]

Thanks. That's what I was assumed was happening. It's just something people might want to be aware of.

[JeeberD]

Originally posted by Easy Mac
[B7. QC and Hutch, maybe Jones realized these 2 suck (QC isn't very good in the game).[/b]

Damn straight. No love for Q in the game...

[cthomer5000]

Originally posted by JeeberD
Damn straight. No love for Q in the game...

he sucks in real life. have you even looked at his stats this year?

[yabanci]

And then after releasing all these guys, six of the teams who freed the most cap room went after Peyton Manning, with Arizona eventually finally signing him for 7 years at $157 million.

This after Peyton Manning finished the 2003 season:

superbowl mvp
league mvp
offensive player of the year,
1st team quarterback,
432-632 for 5432 yards, 39 td and 10 int, 108.8 qb rating.

So the career is a little whacky but I kind of like all the player movement and agressive AI. It should be fun until I restart with normal inflation when the patch comes out.

[TroyF]

Well, all of the current teams have their contracts prepared for an expanding cap. Even in real life they figure on the amount the cap will grow. (the NFL usually gives them a % figure before the draft on the projected cap growth)

I'd venture to guess that at least 80% of contracts are backloaded. If you suddenly take away the projected increases, teams will have no choice but to start dumping talent.

TroyF