A guide to being a GM (contracts, FA, draft, etc.)

[DKBOS]

Hey guys

I have enjoyed my first two weeks with NFL Head Coach immensely and have had trouble putting it down like so many of us. I have also been diligently reading these boards and thought I would spend some time sharing my lessons and observations on the GM side of the game. It is a bit long but the game as you guys know is pretty deep, so there is a lot to think about.

I hope this proves helpful for people to navigate what is a great game IMO and if you do find some use these tips, post something as a comment, so we can keep the thread up front and other people might benefit from it as well.

If people have comments or other tips, let me know and I will try to incorporate that as well. Enjoy!!



Contract negotiations in general

• Check the personality of the player you are negotiating with – this will give you some sense for how they negotiate, whether you can bully them into accept a low offer with time or whether they are superstars who will ask for the world and walk if they don't get it. This should also give you a good sense of whether to try to resign the player during the season or let him go to free agency – for example, if you are dealing with a superstar, then that person is often best to let go to free agency rather than try to negotiate a deal with during the season since he will ask for more money during the season compared to what he will get during free agency…think WRs…
• Always start out with the lowest offer. Basically a buyer should make the first offer at the low end, because as the two parties then inch towards the middle over time, the ultimate meeting point will be further in the buyer’s favor than it would be if the buyer had started with a higher offer. I usually start out my first two negotiations offering nothing but the lowest offer…then I gauge how the negotiation is going in the future based on the player’s action
  • If the player is continually inching down from his starting offer and giving up a large amount each time you make a counter offer (i.e. starts at offer 35 and ends the first negotiation at 12 and jumping 3-4 places every time), then I stick to the first offer in the next negotiations because I am confident that this means that the player is bad negotiator and that I will eventually get my way
  • If the player inches down very gradually as I hold my ground and even leaves the negotiations as I make the same low-ball offer twice, I take that as a sign that the player is a shrewd negotiator and I will need to meet him somewhere in the middle
• One note on rookies….these guys will almost always take a low offer. They may hold out for more until the final stages of training camp, but they will come around, so don't give up too much to these guys…be patient and firm
• A large signing bonus…kills you if you think you might be cutting the player later on down the road…this is especially true for the 85-87 rated players, which are good but not great…say you sign one to a contract with a large signing bonus and you then draft a player at the same position with a 90 potential in the next draft…you are a bad position now, because you would have to take a huge cap hit to start your young stud and release the veteran. However, if you know your franchise QB is going to be around forever (98 potential), then signing bonus is not as big of a deal
• Large incentives…kill you if you are giving them to your star WR in a west coast system (just as an example)…you might think that giving away a $6M a year deal with no signing bonus and $1.5M incentives each for 1000 yards, 10 TDs and pro bowl is a good deal, but in reality your WR is going to be making $10.5M (6 + 3x1.5) a year because your system sets him up to be achieve those incentives…so be very careful. I would rather give my star WR $1.5M extra in base salary a year than give up the incentives in a pass heavy system. The flipside, just as with signing bonus is that if you are signing your WR3 in a run-heavy system, then feel free to give away as many incentives as you want rather than increase his base salary…because in reality he is never going to achieve them! Be a little careful though if the player is backing up a starter with low durability…that means there is more chance the starter will be injured and all of the sudden your WR3 becomes your WR2 or even WR1 and those incentives are within reach
  • One small note on running a pass heavy offense with a lot of receivers (think Patriots playbook)…here you never really know who is going to get the catches so be careful with incentives in general

Who should you re-sign and who to let go

This will of course vary from person to person, but here are the general guidelines I go by:

• Based on your playbook and style of play – if you are running the Mike Martz offense where you throw constantly, then paying big money for a RB, does not make much sense – spend you money on your QB instead. On the flipside, I have played with the Chargers Playbook which is run heavy and have made the mistake of paying big money to receivers…only to have my TE lead me in TDs and receptions total every year because the playbook is geared more towards TE receptions. This is especially true if you sim a lot
• Based on general availability of good players at the position – there are certain positions in football where it is hard to find good players and some where it is easier to do so…WR is a position where you should be careful to pay big money to more than one player…there are simply too many players in the draft every year that have the potential to be good to pay big money for them. Guards also come to mind here although if you have 94 rated guard and you run a lot, hold on him…
• Based on the draft preview – look at the draft preview and survey which positions are strong in the upcoming draft…if you are thinking of resigning your DT, but see that the draft is stacked with DTs, consider not resigning him and waiting to draft one in the draft…NOTE: those that really want to go deep can also do his based on FA preview, but you will need to make some educated guesses on who will be a FA or not

Key point on philosophies - before we go any further

There has been some discussion on the board about philosophies and how you set them to maximize your success. My take is the following which seems to be in-line with the statements from a few of the development team members.

• Your playbook decides your style of play and the effectiveness of your players. Your philosophies have no impact at all on how well your players do…think about the following example: I came across a FB in the draft that was awesome at running the ball (a Mike Alstott clone)…so I drafted him and changed my FB philosophy to from blocking to running FB…bang, his overall went from 72 to 87…I was thrilled…until I realized that my playbook doesn’t have any plays for the FB to carry the ball…so that 87 was worthless
• Therefore, I reckon your philosophies are basically a filter for evaluating players, so set them to default – that is if you choose to play with the Steelers and choose the Seattle West Coast playbook, set the philosophies to the default of Seattle (which you get from starting a season with Seattle and noting them down or from the Prima Guide)
• This is crucial for scouting players as your philosophies determine your view on their potential grade. Another example, you use the Tampa Cover 2 but you set your CB philosophy to man coverage…if you do so, you are setting yourself up for drafting a lot of busts and starting people you should not be starting, because for the Cover 2 you need….wait for it….wait for it…Cover 2 CBs which are good at zone coverage

Draft scouting

Need, need, need…the successful teams in the NFL scout and draft based on need (think Patriots, Colts, etc.) and the game rewards that

Regular season scouting

• Look at the players with one year left on their contracts, their personalities, age and so on and decide BEFORE the season, who you will attempt to resign no matter the cost, who you will let go if the price is too high and who you will not resign at all
• Based on the above you should be able to narrow down a few positions to focus on that will be team needs come April…scout those positions
• Consider getting the special skill upgrades for your GM which basically give you all the information on small, medium or big schools that you would have been able to scout during the regular season without needing to do so…this is a BIG help later…but I will get to that under draft strategy

Season all-star games

• I usually use these to scout the smaller school player that I may not have any information on before, but if you have a bad GM, you could use this for scouting better players as well
• Keep in mind though that if you already know you are going to use one of your individual workouts on a player, then scouting him in the all-star game is pointless since you are going to get 100% of information later regardless…same thing goes if your GM has the more advanced special skills where he gets the potential grade from just going to the pro-days or gets all of the 1^st round information automatically

Combine scouting

• Here I usually target the top guys – personality is important for your first and second picks, but potential is much more important for later round draft picks
• The one exception I have is if I already have a player that I have identified that is from a small school but has a favorable comparison to an NFL player (LT perhaps…), then interviewing them and making sure their personality is a fit is a good idea

Pro-days
I have a few different criteria here…I pick the schools based on:

• Position need: if I need a RB and USC has 3, then I go to USC over any other schools
• Number of players: If Texas has 12 players and all the other options only have 2-4, then Texas is the best choice
• DO NOT think so much about overall rating if you have not scouted the players on that school very much…Say USC has 2 players and you have scouted them 66% on average and they are rated at 80 average between the two and Hampton has 5 players but I know nothing about them and they are therefore all rated a 1 – all else being the same, I go to Hampton, because you might find that one of those 5 players is a “diamond in the rough”
• If my GM has the special skill whereby he gets the potential grade just by going to the pro-day you need to balance out the number of players available with whether you were going to use an individual workout on that player regardless…usually for me, the number of players wins, because it yields me more diamonds in the rough, which I deem crucial to success

Individual workouts

• Use these on the possible choices for your #1 and #2 round pick…if you need a DT, then scout the top 5 DTs, but consider your draft position and the mock draft. Ideally you want scout the players that are “mocked” to be drafted right around your draft pick and that fit your need (so if you have Tom Brady and a QB is supposed to be drafted before you in the mock, then don't bother…you don't need a QB anyway)
• If you have a combination of picks that will allow you trade up (think two #1s) then allow yourself to scout one or two of the top prospects in your need positions, because you will want to evaluate whether trading up makes sense
• The same goes for players that are mocked not to be drafted in the first round – if you can pick up your 92 potential rated WR in the second round despite you having the #15 draft pick, then you are MUCH better off trading down and picking up more picks that first round pick
• As others have said on this board, DO NOT waste your time bringing in the top QB in the draft projected in the to go #1 in the draft if you have the #30 pick…the individual workouts are the most powerful source of scouting in the game and should be used wisely

I will move on to free agency first before draft strategy

Free agency
Enter into it at your own risk…there is no safer way to wreck your salary cap than to sign a bunch of overpriced free agents. Having said that, here are a few ground rules I use

• Know before you go into free agency how much you are willing to spend – it basically comes down to looking at your scheme and who much you need a star player at a given position and what the going rate is for a player of a certain caliber at that position
• If I have a lot of cap space and need to win now because of my approval rating, then I would consider filling a few positions, but usually not the top guy, since he will too expensive
• If absolutely need a QB (just as an example) for my system and there are no good QBs in the draft, think about acquiring an older QB in free agency to tide you over
• Again, the killers here are:
  • Spending big on a player position you don't need
  • Spending big on a veteran with declining production if you are going to draft a young stud at the position any way
  • Overpaying in general

Draft strategy
I will say this up front, this is my favorite part of the game…so I have a lot of advice and thoughts on this (hence this is a long section to read...). Going into the draft weekend you should have a good idea of what you are looking for, which players are possible sleepers and where you could get the players you are targeting…for the actual execution of the draft, I have a few rules I like to follow:

• In round 1 or 2, never draft what you don't know – if you have a first round pick and you don't know the potential ratings or NFL comparison of a player you want to draft…DON'T…nothing will destroy you faster than drafting complete busts in the first round…instead trade down for future picks (and pick up the sure thing next year) or more picks and diversify your risk…I have taken a 90 overall rated (ability not potential) CB before that I hadn’t scouted probably only to find he was a 57 potential…so he will never be better than 57, the 90 means nothing. Therefore, in the absence of any information, you are much better off trading out of your pick…
• In later rounds, NFL comparison and key strengths and weaknesses are key – in the later rounds where you might not have the potential grade on players, look for the NFL comparison first to give you a sense for how good the players could be. Having a thorough knowledge of current and past NFL greats history helps here (for example, it helps to know that Walter Payton and Ray Nitzke were rather good…). Strengths and weaknesses also help here – first of all, if the players have no weaknesses, he is usually pretty good…but also if you need cover 2 CBs then it is no good to draft one that has his biggest minus in zone coverage. Finally, upside is a good indicator of higher potential relative to rating
• Know where your targets players are supposed to be drafted – Get a sense of where your targets are going to be drafted based on the mock draft and use the pick the pick heavily. Apologies for the inconsistent formatting, but I cannot stress this point enough. The pick the pick ability allows you to look at the needs for the CPU team that is picking AND what players they have at the top of their draft board…so if you look at the draft of a team and see that they are looking for a 1^st string QB and they have a DT rated 94 and a QB rated 94 as 1-2 at the top of their board then you know they are going to pick the QB…if you are dying for that QB, this is your chance to trade up…Also look at the rosters for teams after the current pick to determine whether they would be looking for you target player
  • The takeaway is that if you have a sense that your diamond in rough is going to last until at least the top of the 3^rd round, don't use your 1^st rounder on him…if you really want to be safe, trade up to the end of the second round as soon as you see the player getting into the top 10 of pick the pick CPU draft boards. An example of this: I had identified a CB that was a diamond in the rough…he was a 67 ability rated player but with a 92 potential…based on his potential, he was definitely worth a 1^st rounder but based on value, he was not…I waited for him to creep up into the top 10 of other teams draft board, which was not until the 3^rd round and then I traded up and got him. For my troubles I filled other needs with my 1^st and 2^nd rounder
  • Be careful though of waiting until the latest possible moment to trade up. Say Miami needs a QB and they have the 8^th pick and the superstar QB slips in the draft…if you wait until the 8^th pick, Miami might not trade with you because the value to them of drafting the superstar QB outweighs the value of any trade
• In general, trading down is very powerful – knowing your draft board and what I mentioned above is how you build your dynasty…I cannot stress this enough
• Be wary of taking the mock draft as undeniable truth – Things change between when the mock draft was made and when the draft actually takes place…that means that players move up and down in the mean time. That is likely due to the CPU simulating the same process as you are undertaking in the off-season. Use the pick the pick instead…it doesn't lie…
• Trading up is a lot cheaper if you get offered the pick rather than having to force the trade – not much I can say about this. This is just pretty self-explanatory…a motivated seller is more likely to sell cheaper than a non-motivated seller is
• Pay attention to the audio commentary – this will help you identify diamonds in the rough and combine freaks (read draft busts) who are moving up solely because of their 40 time or bench press reps (then you are likely looking at the next Mike Mamula…look him up if you don't know what I am talking about…)
• Bottom half of first round is the best place in the draft…strong statement I know, but what I mean is this:
  • The salaries drop off dramatically after the first 12-15 draft picks and is much easier on the salary cap…and there are still great players available
  • End of 1^st round contracts are for 5 years, 2^nd round contracts are for 4 years, 3^rd round and below are for 3 years and less…and believe me, if your stud diamond in the rough LE wants his $9M a year earlier compared to his current $1M a year that is a big deal…obvious this has to be weighed against the value argument for trading down I made earlier, and if you are badly in need of good players then you should probably trade down regardless…but if you are in a precarious situation with regards to your cap, then keep this in mind
• Keep the learning number at the forefront of your mind – if you draft a 90 potential LG with a low learning grade, he may have better potential than your current starter at LG rated 87. However, the upgrade in potential will likely not be a good option, because it will take him too long to learn playbook
• Finally, durability is important – especially at the RB position, be wary of drafting a RB with low durability. This is particularly true if you have bad trainer…I drafted Darren McFadden with the Falcons and he was injured for more than half the season for the next few season because of his slightly sub-par durability grade and bad trainer for the Falcons

I hope this is helpful to people.

[ASB37]

Wow great work man. I have to say Playing the game and just going through my first draft and offseason I used some of your tips without reading them so it reassures me that I did a good job. But this write up is very deep and very very useful. Pay attention if your having trouble with the offseason there is a ton of good advice here. A++++ work.

[phrasius]

This is good advice, and a lot of the techniques are ones I've been using myself, but I might have done it with fewer smiley's.

[adembroski]

The smilies are caused by him typing this up in word and copying over. Phil Frazier's posts look like this too.

Great post man, hell of a first impression. Welcome.

[Knight165]

Wow.
Great info and insight.
Best first post ever IMO.
Welcome aboard!

M.K.
Knight165

[adembroski]

BTW: Pick the pick was a stroke of genius. Gives us a reason to pay attention to the draft rather than sim to our pick.

[jfsolo]

We need more first timers coming out of the gate with posts like this, instead of "Death 2 Madden u no I sayz the truf", or "NBA Live 4 life 2k kaint see me."

It took me 2 full cycles to get a sense of things at the level that is described in this post.

One thing that could be cool is if you had owners who actively interfered with these processes, so even if you, the User, got things down to a science and rarely made any missteps, your owner could step in and say "We're drafting the WR who runs the 4.2, I don't care if he's as dumb as a rock, I want that speed baby!!" Or "We're going to resign that 34 year old running back to a 3 year deal, because he's like a son to me"

This could add some additional real life elements(besides the Game Changers) that often mess up the sound planning of even the best coaches/GM's.

[DKBOS]

Ha!...thanks for pointing out the smileys (hopefully now fixed). It was indeed cause by a cut and paste from Word.

Thank you guys for the welcomes...really appreciate it.