help... offseason

[NoleFan]

well, i finally did my offseason stuff and i REALLY need help with money management. i find myself always trying to keep players rated in the 70 and trying to fill EVERY one of my team needs. then, there are draft picks to be signed. i always end up with like $1M in cap money for the season.

any tips would be appreciated. i could just let the cpu handle that couldn't i?

[MajorPyn4]

That sounds like me. I have zero money to deal with. If I was to have a major injury I'd be screwed. Currently this season, I am only playing with 2 qbs. I did have 3 hb, but now I am down to 2. Usually I do have a few dollars to play with, but not this season. Sometimes you may have to sign a few scrubbs for little money and let them ride the pine all season. I have a couple of guys that haven't played a game all season. They are just roster fillers.

[Radja]

look for guys rated low but have high attributes in the needed categories for the position. my 3rd WR is only a 62 but in all important categories he is my 2nd best athlete. he never drops anything with his high catch rating and is always open because he is fast.

[BBMo]

I am the MASTER of cap management!!!

Hopefully I can help. When I started my Bears Chise I was in salary cap HELL. I had NO room to play with. I spent the preseason EVALUATING my personel and found that there were some guys getting a whole lotta dough that just were not worth it. The first thing that I do is target the players that are making the most money. For instance if I have a 10 year receiver that is rated 95 making 6 mil a year, I might be better off signing a 70 rated rookie to a long term contract for CHEAP and letting hin grow. The rookies with the most potential, I try to sign to sign to 6 and 7 year deals. If they dont work out I can always trade them. I NEVER sign ANY rookie that wants more than 3.5 a year...NO MATTER WHAT HIS RATING!!! simply because I cant sign him for a lotta years anyway without the prive going through the roof. Right now I have an 80 rated 2nd year QB that is riding the bench making almost 4 mil a year. The reason is because my 3rd year 60 rated QB is playing better making only 1 mil a year. How is this you ask?? Because the 60 rated QB is more accurate! The 80 rated guy had speed, arm strength, composure, agility...but he lacked what I think might be the most IMPORTANT attribute in the game...CONSISTENCY! He kept missing wide open receivers and that was unacceptable! Figure it this way...

If a QB has a 80 accuracy rating and a 50 consistency rating...
That means that he would throw the ball to the right place on 8 out of 10 throws, IF HIS CONSISTENCY WAS 100! But it's only 50 so guess what??? He's only gonna make a good throw 4 out of 10 times.

You have to constantly evaluate players to see where they are, if they are on the rise or on the decline. I would much rather have 75 rated rookie than a 90 rated 10 year guy that is falling off because keeping the 90 guy is gonna be more $$$ than its worth in about 2 years and then you will be trying to trade a guy who cost a lot but isnt rated that high. You will get raped on the trading block if you wait too long to trade someone. The trick is to keep MORE of your team on the rise than on the decline. Dont get me wrong, you dont have to trade a player as soon as he starts dropping. But I would definately be looking to trade anyone who dropped more than 5 points...EVEN BRIAN URLACHER! It is simply not worth paying him 6 mil a year if he drops below a 90.

Here is a basic breakdown of my strategy...

Rated 90 to 95................4 to 5 mil a year
You should have 1 or 2 of these guys on your team and they BETTER be starting AND playing WELL!

Rated 85 to 90................3 to 4 mil a year
You might be able to get about 4 of these guys on your roster. They better be starters too!

Rated 80 to 85................2 to 3 mil a year
You should be able to get about 5 of these guys on the roster. They will be starters too.

Rated 75 to 80...............1.5 to 2 mil a year
You should be able to get about 7 to 10 of these guys on your team. Most of them will start too.

Rated 70 to 75...............1 to 1.5 mil a year
This is were about 1/3 of your team will be. You should try to get rookies, 2nd and third year players here. Be careful though, Rookies rated 70 and above usually cost a lot of coin depending on the position they play. If you can get a 3rd year player for 1 mil this is a good deal because chances are that he could STILL be increasing...NOTHING is a sure bet though. You gotta learn when to cut your losses with a player.

Rated 55 to 70.............up to 1 mil a year
Most of these players should be rookies and people you aquire in trades with other teams. NEVER sign a free agent rated 55 unless he is rediculously cheap (league minimum). Remember he was released from that other team for a reason.

As a general rule I dont sign ANYONE whose overall rating is lower than 55. lets face it, all they are gonna do is ride the bench and unless they are rookies they wont have that much potential. I will however take lower players in a trade so I can cut them with no penalty and sign someone from the free agent pool.

One more thing...ALWAYS TRADE FOR PICKS!!!!
That is very important. Whenever you trade for players try to get a pick too, even if it is a late rounder. I try to keep it so that I have at least 10 picks on draft day EVERY YEAR! I never sign ALL of them. But it's nice to have lots of choices.

Remember there are people out there that REALLY do this for a living and some of THEM don't get it right...LOL. Use your preseason wisely. I know that you might just want to jump in and play but this is your chance to see where people are at skillwise. I had a 65 rated WR that never dropped a pass. He could take the wickedest hit and STILL hold on to the ball. I had to make him a starter. I would not have known if I didnt play him during the preseason.

Me personally...I live for draft day. Sometimes I like it better than playing the games. The object is not to have the highest rated team, but to have a team that you can win with...It's SUPERBOWL OR BUST BABY!!!!!



PEACE

[NoleFan]

nice. i'll give this a try.

[TWOSILK]

Quote: Originally Posted by Radja

look for guys rated low but have high attributes in the needed categories for the position. my 3rd WR is only a 62 but in all important categories he is my 2nd best athlete. he never drops anything with his high catch rating and is always open because he is fast.

Finding diamonds is the key to being successful in this game since the comp a.i. drafts by ratings, look for what fits in your play style if you need a game breaker take a chance on a low rated speed demon at wide out and if you are struggling against the run draft that low rated space eater his mere presence will make a difference. you have to draft for your style of play.

[dan77733]

Here's the ultimate trick -

Before starting a Franchise, you can do one of two things.

1) RE-Assign all 53 players on your team via the team rosters section located in the roster manager option. For example, I use the Eagles and after I RE-Assign all 53 players, my cap room is in the negative when I start my franchise but the positive is that all 53 players are paid at or close to what they should be and when you finish the first year, you'll have a good amount of cap room because no one is overpaid and some players will most likely be gone.

The perfect example is OT Todd Wade of the Texans. He's getting paid $5m a year if I remember correctly. He should be $1.2m per year. Basically, RE-Assigning players eliminates overpaid and underpaid players by paying them all at or close to what they should be.

2) Do a Fantasy Draft. Starting a franchise using the Fantasy Draft will pay every player for every team at or close to what they should be paid. A Fantasy Draft basically RE-Assigns every player in all 53 rounds.

In franchise -

You can sign players to one year deals and let them leave as free agents at season's end if you have no plans on keeping that player. Also, signing players with no signing bonus will allow you to release them at any time without a cap penalty.

Free Agent Wire -

Once a player accepts your contract offer, pay him what he should be (or less if you want) paid. When the CPU offers a player a contract and the player accepts, the contract is always at or lower then what the player should be paid. For example, if you were to release Texans OT Todd Wade before the Free Agent Wire, you will notice that his contract demands are at what he was getting paid with the Texans. However, after the CPU signs him, his contract will be reduced to what it should be.

With the exception of actually being able to fix the salary, length and signing bonus after a player accepts your contract in the Free Agent Wire, all these tricks have worked since NFL 2k3.

Hope this helps.

[jdub2k4]

Quote: Originally Posted by NoleFan

well, i finally did my offseason stuff and i REALLY need help with money management. i find myself always trying to keep players rated in the 70 and trying to fill EVERY one of my team needs. then, there are draft picks to be signed. i always end up with like $1M in cap money for the season. any tips would be appreciated. i could just let the cpu handle that couldn't i?

I agree with BBMO. There are plenty of dos and dont's when it comes to signing and trading. To me, the offseason is the best part of the game. I good team can be had fairly easly if you know how to manage the cap. Here are some more guidelines that I follow before entering an offseason:


Know your players. Don't just rely on a players overall rating, learn which individual aspects of the game are his strengths and weaknesses.

Know what each players contract looks like. Know who is in their last year of contract and know who has a penalty. If a player has a penalty, that amount will count against your cap even if they are traded or released. It will still count against your cap even if you are able to renegotiate their contract. I like to call it "hidden fees." 90% of cap problems come because guys with large penalties are either released or traded, and your team is still having to pay that penalty while they are on another team. For this reason, I usually leave players with penalties over 800k alone, unless I feel that I can manage a better trade of deal by trading for someone with a lower contract value, as explained in the below scenario:

If my veteran 83 RB has a salary of 3.0M with an 800k penalty, I could trade him for a 72 rookie RB with a salary of 1.2M and 0k penalty, and come out with a net gain of 1M to my cap. Here is how it works using simple algebra:

Your new rookie RB has a salary of 1.2M, but for the sake of simplification, you can add the 800k penalty that still remains from the veteran RB to his salary. So in essence, you are now paying 2.0M to your rookie RB, but you gained 1M in cap because the previous RB contract was 3M

(3.0 - (1.2 + .8))
(3.0 - 2.0)
(1.0)

And you thought all them hours and hours of doing Algebra and listening to a boring teacher wouldn't pay off

Also in your trading, try to get the most out of every trade. If in this same trade, the other team had a 100% acceptance rating, I could probably get a 5th round pick from them as well, or even get a 3rd round pick by giving up my 4th. So lets look at this trade again:

I get:
a rookie RB with 72 rating that will likely increase once the season starts
3rd round pick
+ $1M in cap space

they get:
a veteran RB with 83 rating that will likely decline once the season starts
a 4th round pick

That is just an example, but like I said, if a player has a ridiculous penalty like $ 4M, you might be better off just letting their contract run out.

Next, do not overlook the cheap guys. In every team, there are guys who are not stars, or even starters, but situational guys that do one thing well. If I have a RB that is has speed and is agile, but doesn't break a lot of tackles, then I would pick up a RB in free agency that may be very good in breaking tackles and is sorry in everything else, and I would only use him for short yardage situations. the same applies for TEs and FBS, that I may bring in just for their run blocking abilities. On defense, I have loads of ILBs and SSs that have very high tackle ratings, which are used on special teams and in obvious run situations. These guys generate a large number of fumbles on special teams, too. Usually, these guys are rookies with ratings of 50-65.


About Rookie signings: Players are ALWAYS cheaper if you can sign them within your rookie signing period. Once players are released, their demands will go up, so try to make your deals within that period. If you are pass this period and still need to fill some holes, sign before the preseason, because after the preseason is over, rookie ratings rise, thus making their price demands rise also.

Never sign with a BONUS! Most players ask for at least a 20% bonus which means a 20% penalty if they are traded or released down the line. You would be better off to increase their salary in case you need to trade them later. There is no sense in paying a player that isn't on your team! You can also beat the contract system by signing players to back load contracts with no penalties if you are only planning on keeping them for a year or two. For example, if you have a free agent that you want to bring in to fill a role, instead of signing him to a 2 year contract worth 800k each year (total of 1.6M) you could sign him to a 5 year back load contract with NO bonus. This means that the bulk of their salary will be in the later years, but since you don't plan on having them that long anyway, they will get the least of their contract during the first 2 seasons. So, though their contract may be 5 years $ 4.0M, with the back load contract, you may only have to pay 250K and 400K for the first 2 seasons. Just make sure you release them after you are done. And since you don't have any bonuses attached, you won't have to pay that remaining salary. Sweet, huh?

Using this strategy, I have a host of star starters as well as a nice amount of fill in guys. And by trading for picks, I have a host of picks in the off season to work with.

I will say this, if I have a rookie that I KNOW will be good for several years, I will sign them to a seven year contract, because, the better they get, the more money they want. So if you plan on keeping a guy that is only signed for 3 years, when his contract is up, you may be forced to shell out 4M where as you would have only been paying him like 1M if you signed a longer contract.

I hope this helps,

Jdub


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* EDIT *
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A few more notes:

A player's rating increases 1 point with every inch of height that is gained. So if 1 player has the exact ratings as another player in his position that is 2 inches shorter, the taller player will have a 2 point higher player rating. So pay attention to player heights and their weight also, because it will make a difference in how they play.

Also, during the off season, scout the players before drafting. I usually keep the rookie edit feature on, and scout the rookies by viewing their stats WITHOUT editing. It isn't cheating if you don't actually edit. The reason I do this is because the scouting combine is a joke when compared to real scouting sessions. There is no way to scout enough targets with the current system alone, so before the combine, I get a certain amount of targets in mind, then scout my likely draftees to see what the scouts say about them. Perfect example: I coach with the Dallas Cowboys. For some reason, Roy Williams is always getting hurt. So I was looking to draft a SS to backup for him (the previous off season, I drafted a CB who's stats better fit a FS, so I switched him there and moved Roy to SS where he is in real life). But one of the top 10 rookies on the board was a SS. I scouted him, and found out that he was a good athlete, but terrible skills as a SS. He was slow, couldn't cover, wasn't durable, but could jump, was agile, and strong. I had about 10 draft picks stockpiled, so I drafted 2 other SS that I thought would be better. At my amazement, in the last round, he was STILL on the board...a top 10 guy that drops to the 7th round. So I took a chance on him. After the draft, he had a 76 rating, but my other two had a 68 and 67. I couldn't sign all, so I compared their stats and decided I really couldn't think of any place on the roster that he could be used, so I let him go to free agency. The Eagles picked him up, now it is week 4 and he is already out for the season with an injury...

So the moral of this story is, know what you are getting. Just because a guy is high up on the boards doesn't mean he will be any good to your team.