Help please RFA's !!!!

[DomisLive]

I just bought this game yesterday and I cant sgin my Free agents ? or does my GM sign them ? I'm having a hard time I love the game but im getting pissed where is the screen to sign them .....

[Skarecrow]

Where are you? If you started in the offseason of 2008, any free agents you have left on your roster are almost certainly leaving. In theory (game storyline) you've "already" signed the ones you want to keep during the prior season (the one that existed before the game began). You'll get a chance to franchise tag one of the remaining non-signed free agents, but that is it.

you will get to make RFA tender decisions prior to free agent period. Then you will get announcements during the normal free agent signing period in a few weeks. you'll get notified if any teams make an offer on your RFAs, at which point you can match or let them go.

Any non-RFAs with contracts expiring at the end of the 2008 season will usually negotiate for extensions in-between games during the regular season, starting usually around week 5 or week 6 or so. That is, unless they are really unhappy with you or the team for some reason, in which case they may quietly let their contract expire without ever sitting down with you.

[Skarecrow]

One thing I forgot to note, any players who leave your team for free agency will be open for your team to bid on during the free agent signing period just like any other team on any other player. At least once I recall that I had a player who wanted a disproportional huge contract during mid-season negotiations, and after letting that player walk without signing a contract, I was able to pick them right back up again during normal free agent bidding for way less than they demanded during regular season negotiations.

Guess they found out how much they were really worth.

[DomisLive]

I started the game in the off season and I got one option to set the tender for one player than I never go a option to resign any of my players...

This has to be some kind of glitch or something also... Andre Johnson was hurt in the off season and I simed the person to get to the regular season and when the first week started it was a freaking free agaent he was released from my team ... what gives ?

I love this game but it seems I'm ****ed with bugs

[Mike3207]

Quote: Originally Posted by murdominic

I started the game in the off season and I got one option to set the tender for one player than I never go a option to resign any of my players... This has to be some kind of glitch or something also... Andre Johnson was hurt in the off season and I simed the person to get to the regular season and when the first week started it was a freaking free agaent he was released from my team ... what gives ? I love this game but it seems I'm ****ed with bugs

Make sure to only sim one week at a time. I've seen the CPU not sign players if you sim more than one week at a time. I'm guessing you gave your GM control of personnel decisions. I'd go into your settings and check them to see if that's the problem.

[DomisLive]

Quote: Originally Posted by mrs844224

Make sure to only sim one week at a time. I've seen the CPU not sign players if you sim more than one week at a time. I'm guessing you gave your GM control of personnel decisions. I'd go into your settings and check them to see if that's the problem.

Can you please tell me were I need to go to changed that ?

I would like for them to have no control ...

also anyway to cut and hire staff in the first week of the season ? it says that one of my goals .... thanks for you help

[Mike3207]

Quote: Originally Posted by murdominic

Can you please tell me were I need to go to changed that ? I would like for them to have no control ... also anyway to cut and hire staff in the first week of the season ? it says that one of my goals .... thanks for you help

No way to cut and hire staff until the next offseason. From your career, go to Settings/Coach Clipboard. Their's two options-Show Me and Delegate. The CPU will control anything that is on delegate. You'll get a popup for the event if you have Show Me checked for all popups.

It might also be your coach philosophies. If your GM has certain contract philosophies locked, there's nothing you can do about it until the offseason and fire him/her. There is a Gamebreaker in which a coach will release a locked philosophy, but it's very rare. I don't remember where the position philosophies are located-just keep moving the menu right until it appears.

[Wheeler Dealer]

Quote: Originally Posted by murdominic

I started the game in the off season and I got one option to set the tender for one player than I never go a option to resign any of my players... This has to be some kind of glitch or something also... Andre Johnson was hurt in the off season and I simed the person to get to the regular season and when the first week started it was a freaking free agaent he was released from my team ... what gives ?

Don't be in such a hurry! You inherit a team with an existing staff with most FA re-signings already done. You may have some RFA's. You will be given a chance to tender those. There is a small problem with the RFA process. If your RFA isn't one of the desirable FAs he may never come up for bids (about 120 or so FAs come up for bidding). If he isn't bid on, he'll just drop through to the open FA market. But if he's not one of the top 120 FAs he's not much of a loss.

You will also have a chance to Franchise Tag one of your unsigned FAs. probably not an attractive option. I'm in season 7 and I've Franchised one player, hoping to move him for a #1 draft pick. Didn't work out and I have a $10M WR for 2014.

Now you get to start building your team. If you sim through this part your GM will probably make decisions you don't like. You can help this a bit by going to the clipboard, Team, Philosophy and setting some limits on what he might do if you elect to sim. There are many other choices related to talent evaluation, roster composition and subbing tired or hurt players.

You can preview the FAs available on the League section of the clipboard. Depending on how many high draft picks you have, you need to reserve $2M to $8M for signing draft picks and hiring walk-ons for training camp. You also need to reserve cap space for renegotiating contracts in season. You can go to your roster, sort by contract years left and identify the players with one year left that you definitely want to resign for future years. Estimate what that will cost and add it to your planned reserve. (Ebongreen's huge tread contains a good article for that). You have to wait for them to come to you during the season.

Now you know about how much you can spend on FAs. The best FAs will come up first. If you win the bidding for total contract value and length, you still have to negotiate the bonus and incentive with the player. The bonus doesn't change the total value of the contract but the incentives do. If you fail to agree on bonus and incentives the FA will go to the second highest bidder but your cap won't be impacted.

RFAs also come up during this process. Be sure to notice what draft picks you have to give up if you sign a RFA. It's not always bad, particularly if you can get a quality, young player giving up only a low round pick, and money, of course.

You want to keep an eye on next year's cap number as well. You can destroy your cap for next year with too many incentives or by cutting or trading players who have bonuses amortized over the length of their contracts.

At some point the trade option will appear on your Clipboard, Roster section. The Free Agent option also is available here during portions of the year. Once the trade option appears, go to trade-away and identify any players you would be willing to trade if the right offer is made. Other teams will then come to you with trade offers and may include those players in packages they want when you go to them to attempt to trade for a player.

If you sim through any significant part of the draft, your GM may trade picks or players to move up or down. You may not like the results.

During the draft you have to start by clicking on the player the GM recommends. Then you will be given the option to take him or not. If not, you can entertain offers to trade down or you can select a player.

The later rounds are a crap shoot until your GM develops the skill that gives you a "similar to" for other NFL players. Then it's an educated crap shoot.

Once the draft is over you almost immediately get the chance to bid on UDFAs. You can give rookie, one year contracts to 5 of those. If they don't make the team, the contract doesn't matter.

One week before the draft the GMs will invite unsigned free agents to camp. You can preempt the other GMs but I don't. I have enough advantages over the CPU without this "feature".

Now you need to sign your draftees. Don't worry too much, they can't go anywhere. The worst thing that ever happened to me was a rookie missing part of training camp. You'll want to make the cuts yourself and probably should select the gameplan for each practice. I played the preseason games the first year to get the hang of playcalling, challenges, timeouts, etc. After the first year you can sim the preseason games.

After the final cut, you may find some attractive FAs that will help your team. I've gotten a few starters and a couple of future pro-bowlers this way.

As the season proceeds, you should see improvement as your players increase play knowledge and your coaches improve their skills. If you have more than a few Missed Assignments at the end of a game, you're not there yet.

You get your first opportunity to hire and fire coaches once your season is over. It's very chaotic. You have almost no information about the coaches or how they will fit your needs. The best coaches who are done with their seasons come up first. The bids are in the power granted the coach, not money. You probably should save as soon as your season is over and go through the staff hiring a couple of times to get the feel of it.

If this sounds like too much planning and management, you may have picked the wrong game. At least for me, that's what it's all about.

Good Luck.