Your Cap Management Strategies

[RogueHominid]

I'm interested in hearing how folks approach cap management, specifically how you decide which positions you'll pay, which positions you attempt to fill on the cheap, and what your positional contract limits are.

I'm in season two with OAK and have just re-signed Amari to a 4 year deal worth $9M/yr. , which seems like an overpay, and have re-signed Mack to a 5 year deal worth $11M/yr., which seems pretty reasonable for what he does.

This got me thinking and wondering if folks approach re-signings and FA signings with a specific strategy in mind or not. I kind of went with: I want him and him to be Raiders, so Imma do whatever it takes, but I'm not 100% sure that's the best strategy

[reyes the roof]

I've found it's too easy to manage the cap so I purposely overpay to make things more challenging. I gave Leonard Floyd 6 years $90 million and Trubisky 6 or 7 years at $20 million per year, I don't remember off the top of my head since I haven't played in a while but I think I guaranteed somewhere around half of those contracts. I have a really young team so I have lots of guys not getting paid much, but I've been thinking a few years ahead and letting guys walk that I could afford to pay just so I'll have cap space down the road when I need to re-sign younger guys. I don't dip in to free agency often, I think I've only signed three guys in four years


When I'm trying to re-sign someone rated in the 90s, I find the highest paid guy at that position and make sure that I offer more money than that. That prevents me from lowballing guys

[Aestis]

Re-sign every superstar & let almost every veteran backup walk (can often sign them in free agency for half their asking price). Most of them ask for way below-market deals vs what they'd otherwise be getting in the NFL. Madden has dumbed cap management WAY way down from what NFL teams have to deal with, so it's insanely easy for us. You can basically keep every good player.

[drewst18]

You can pretty well resign everyone you want. It's one of my biggest gripes with the game. 11 mil for Mack? I can't tell if joke thread or serious but irl he will probably sign for 15+

Qbs don't ask enough, stars at other positions don't ask enough.

I find that it's completely random you'll get 10 guys who should be 2-3 mil higher and then some schmuck who should be getting 1.5 asking for 6 mil per.

[PhillyPhanatic14]

I never re-sign O line. You can find good prospects in the 3-7 rounds of the draft and they're cheap and you've got them for 4 years. O line takes no time to develop and i honestly barely notice a difference between the 99RT i had for 4 seasons and the 79 RT rookie that i've got now. The rookie has given up less sacks actually. I always try to draft 1-2 and grab a udfa rookie o lineman so i can always have them developing and ready to fill gaps in my line. If you do this then you can pretty much afford to pay everyone else on the roster whatever they want.

And only spend on free agents if they're stars or if they're on short-term deals. Don't spend millions on a backup in FA. That will kill your cap. If you really need a hole plugged in FA and have cap that year but don't want to kill it long term then offer a 1 year deal. I got Jalen Ramsey on a 1 year $25 deal to solidify the position while my young corners developed and then i let him walk after one year.

[kennypowers88]

I try to take a very realistic approach. I do however use the salary ranges used in Madden rather than real life. For me, it's all about your current scheme, and what you'd like to do in the future.

So using the Raiders for example, it all starts with Carr. With that huge contract, you have to hope he can carry the offense a bit. I'd use premium offensive resources on the line (Big fa dollars, first round picks, etc), and offer a big contract to one skill position player. I'm very cheap when it comes to RB, because with a good line you can find a 77 overall backup and turn him into a starter.

For defense, it would depend on the defensive alignment you run. I personally put a huge premium on edge rushers and corner backs. Slot corners are basically starters, so you can never have enough great corners. You can usually get safeties for decent value, and I'll even convert an older or slower corner to safety if his ratings allow it. If I don't have a stud DT, I look for run stoppers and fast LBs to put behind them.

Once I have these things taken care of, I use money I have left over to resign my guys. I like keeping roster turnover at a minimal.

As far as contract lengths, that really all depends on the other contracts you have on the team. I like to know my list of pending FAs 3 years into the future. It really helps to establish a philosophy.

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[Aestis]

Quote: Originally Posted by drewst18

11 mil for Mack? I can't tell if joke thread or serious but irl he will probably sign for 15+

Try $18-$19M+. I think he'll just surpass whatever Clowney signs & become the highest paid defensive player in the league.

And that's another reason cap is such a joke in Madden. The cap keeps going up, but what guys ask for doesn't. So it just gets easier & easier to retain talent.

Cap starts off at a ridiculously easy place (seriously--in Madden so many teams start with $20M-$50M in cap when most of them IRL have more like $1M-10M) and only gets easier from there.

[RogueHominid]

Quote: Originally Posted by Aestis

Try $18-$19M+. I think he'll just surpass whatever Clowney signs & become the highest paid defensive player in the league. And that's another reason cap is such a joke in Madden. The cap keeps going up, but what guys ask for doesn't. So it just gets easier & easier to retain talent. Cap starts off at a ridiculously easy place (seriously--in Madden so many teams start with $20M-$50M in cap when most of them IRL have more like $1M-10M) and only gets easier from there.

Yeah, I assumed Mack would want near $20M. I was shocked when he wanted just over $10M. I didn't use any coach boosts or anything; I just gave him a bit more than what he asked for.

It seems like the stars don't know their value in Madden unless they're QBs.

I've considered controlling the top-tier FA signings to help with this, but the way contracts for re-signings are handled, it's pretty cumbersome to do that for other teams.

I feel like this either has to be micromanaged for realism's sake or that you have to just let it go and accept that guys like Mack will sign for less than $15M. Neither option is perfect.

But I hear votes for paying the edge rushers and the DBs. I think OL is relatively easy to replace, but it's harder for me to develop since I'm using reduced XP values. Still, though, you can get starters or future starters at OL pretty easily.

I have a hard time hitting on WR in the draft, for whatever reason, so I tend to want to pay good ones if I get one.