Free agency annoyances

[fringeelement]

Since all CPU controlled GMs are dumb as rocks, I control all 32 teams in my franchise. That means that I have to sign free agents for all 32 teams or some team that already has two upper echelon CBs will end up paying $10million plus for another one who will just end up being a nickel back while some other teams struggle to put two capable starters on the field. It's all good though. Controlling all 32 teams keeps me involved with what's going on in my league and helps maintain a level of parity.

The problem is that it ends up taking me countless hours to complete a free agency period because no the cpu gives us no input as to what kind of contract a player wants. It starts you out with a suggested contract and then just says "Not the deal ____ is looking for" or "sorry, try again." Then , the scale moves up at a snails pace. Point is, the CPU either needs to suggest a contract that the player will accept and let us decide if we'll pay it or they need to offer clues as to what they want rather than just making it a tedious guessing game

On top of everything, some of the players asking prices are just absurd. Every CB rated 85 or above wants at least 10 million a year.

To make matters worse, the CPU determines what a players asking price is based on their rating rather than their production. So you end up having a 90 rated DE who hasnt had more than 10 sacks in a season for the past three years asking for $8-10 mill a season. Josh Freeman has been aweful in my franchise but is still rated an 89. I wanted to have the 49ers sign him as a veteran stop gap while they developed a young guy, but he wants a 6 year contract ranging from $8-15 million.

I guess I'm just venting but was also wondering if anyone out there has any solutions to any of these problems.

[aussiepats89]

I agree that the contract negotiation process needs a revamp, corners demand way too much money. I've given up signing a corner as a free agent & just draft one every year instead.

My suggested contract system for future franchises is instead of having an offer-counter offer system where you get info on the contracts of similar rated players & when they were signed etc and you can build an offer to them. They can either accept, reject or counter with a proposal of their own depending on how willing they are to sign for your team. You could even include pre-selected bonuses for performance incentives

As a hypothetical situation for next offseason, the Chargers decide not to re-sign Vincent Jackson so I as the Patriots want to go out & get him. Given the deals for Marshall in Miami and Boldin in Baltimore I know the market value for a WR like that is $10m/yr so I offer a 5 yr, $60m deal with $10m in bonuses.

As part of the deal the signing bonus is $10m out of the 50, so there's $40m to spread out over the rest of the deal as a salary. Over the 5 years the numbers go $7m, $9m, $10m, $11m & $13m with a $2m signing bonus each year. The bonuses could be for every season he goes over 100 catches he gets $2m. If that's good enough then he can take it or say, what he wants changed with it (money, years, bonuses etc).