Don't worry, this will likely be the Bengals' last "we're happy to welcome" post... We finished up what we believe is one of the most productive free agent classes this afternoon with the signing of four players, two of which figure to be starters for us. First is center AQ Shipley (28) who opted to sign with arguably the most talented offense in the league for the low price of $1.5 million. He was the 14th ranked center in the NFL last season (+4.5), despite playing just 440 snaps. While not a great fit for the Indianapolis Colts' scheme, he should fit in nicely between one of the top guard duos around. Shipley can competently play any interior position along the offensive line and will push Mike Pollak (+5.0) at center. Next we'd like to introduce our starting SS, Bradley McDougald. At 24, he emerged as one of the few building blocks for Tampa Bay's defense last season. McDougald became a starter in Week 13 and graded out positively in four of the last five games of the year. He's very athletic (can play nickel back as well) and has been lauded for his instincts. Jaiqwaun Jarrett and Jeromy Miles can push for playing time, but we have every reason to believe McDougald will win the starting job. We have four solid safeties, including rising star George Iloka, giving us a ton of versatility to mix and match players in various sub packages going forward. Finally, we welcome DT Ziggy Hood and OL Willie Colon. Hood really come on late last year as he adjusted to a one-gap scheme in Jacksonville, finishing with a +4.3 grade in the final 6 games of the season. The former first-round pick, at 28, still has a lot to offer and will be asked to use his size (6-3, 300) and strength be a one-gap player as our 4th DT. Colon is a nice veteran with plenty of starting experience. Had a down year in 2014, but that was an anomaly after grading out positively the previous three seasons. He's likely a backup G and RT for us. There may still be some moves out there, but we're thrilled with our final additions and strongly believe that we will field one of the deepest, most complete teams in the league next season, blending proven stars with productive younger players and a competent supporting cast. From top to bottom, we have significantly upgraded a roster that had become stagnant, taking a good group of players and potentially putting together something great.
A little late, but the Lions are happy to announce the signings of the following players: Brian Hoyer QB $1,000,000 Chris Conte S $510,000 Jordan Todman HB $510,000 Jaquizz Rodgers HB $510,000 Karl Klug DT $510,000 John Jerry OG $510,000 Jeron Johnson S $510,000 We can't believe we got probably the best QB on the market for $1M. The real life Texans just signed him for over $5M per year. We are happy with Carr at QB, but feel very comfortable if we have to play Hoyer in a pinch considering the guy is a winner. Rodgers and Toddman are guys we feel can succeed given more touches. Conte has been a starter for a good portion of his career. Jerry and Klug give us some depth on our lines. And Johnson is a guy we feel like is an ascending player (CK has been raving about the guy) who has learned behind some of the best defensive backs in the game. And the best part is, we got all these guys for peanuts.
The Buccaneers would like to introduce DE/DT Jarius Wynn! Despite reports that this move was intended to fool Bucs fans into thinking they had signed DE Kerry Wynn, Jarius Wynn, 28, can play DE or DT, and was a stellar rotation player for the Bills at both positions. Hampered by a knee injury, he only played 11 games last year, starting in one, recording 18 tackles, 2.5 sacks, and a fumble recovery. At 6-foot-3, 285 pounds, he has the size and talent to compete for the starting DE position alongside Leger Douzable and Jacquies Smith, or be a fantastic rotation player under the tutelage of Cullen Jenkins, our stellar rotation DT. At this point the Bucs feel like we're close to finishing with free agent acquisitions, and feel very proud about a successful Free Agency.
Atlanta Falcons would like to welcome K Matt Prater! [video=youtube;Bff3albJ0qc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bff3albJ0qc[/video]
Lulz at UCF_Finatic creating enemies and spitefully bidding up Gipson just b/c I didn't let him have his cake and eat it too. #ScrewsOverGMsWhoDoHimFavors #WantsOtherGMsToAssumeAllRiskWhileMakingNoConcessionsOfHisOwn
Apparently, i can't offload cap and bid on Gipson because Todd said I am only outbidding him to spite him. Meanwhile, I was the first person to place a large bid on Gipson a bid of over $9 million. And now I get to mull: 1. Those trades will void, you'll apologize, and we'll move on. 2. Those trades will void, you won't apologize, and you'll be kicked out. Really sucks because I've been in this league several years always followed the rules and never done anything outside the lines. Hell, I even won the league twice.... I guess the trades I made raised some flags but I can explain every since trade. The trade the likely got me flagged was me trading two 4th round picks for a 7th round pick. That trade was done as a two part trade agreed to upon by both me and the Bengals; if you put those two trades back to back I essentially paid a 4th to get rid of $1.4 million in cap room.
Falcons over bid by like $15,000,000 beyond the Salary Cap or his cap space. Then he's been making moves to shed salary to continue his bid against Tood. He made some questionable trades, getting a 4th back in one...only to trade it back with another 4th, for a 7th he gave up.
This could have all been avoided if the Falcons just went and cut a bunch of their players. Then I could have at least gotten in on the firesale.
pretty sure falcons have been going for gipson since the first day. i would consider a bid spiteful if it was not need based. dude just wants to overspend on a fs.
Exactly, I pretty much carried 45 guys the whole time. I was now cutting down the fat to go after gipson. Didn't think I would have to, was going to pitch continuity and keep most of my team together.
I made one calculation error. After the "voided" trades I had over $40 million in cap room... I'm not bidding against Todd, I am bidding for Gipson. He is the only solid FS out there, Landon Collins is a SS so there was no one in the draft I wanted there. Again I bid over $9 million on Gipson before Todd had even bid on Gipson once. The trades make sense back to back if you compare them.
I'm not sure about the ooverbidding thing, I can't justify that. But a GM made moves to clear space to go after a player he coveted since start of free agency and that's wrong? No logic to that at all. He's won GM of the Year twice, he's making moves --albeit unconventional ones-- to win. I honestly don't get it.
I've enjoyed having you in those leagues and it really pisses me off (more disappoints) that you could pull something so bush league. You can play it off as strategy and you know what? If this was the NBA, I could buy it. But we aren't simulating the NBA... we're simulating the NFL. You don't see this type of **** in the NFL. I know you didn't "break" the rules. I'm not playing that game... I can do what I feel is the best for the interest of the GML in terms of integrity. I know its just a game but people (including yourself) spend a lot of their own time playing this game. I'm not going to be wasting their time... and especially not mine. I don't necessarily think every trade you made was unfair... however the sheer amount of trades and the fact that you essentially paid off a team to give you more cap space, I don't appreciate that. What's the point of dead money if people are going to pull trades like that? Then the fact that you went over the cap by $7.4M on a player before these trades... I can't even think of a time where something like that happened to that extent... maybe a million... but SEVEN? C'mon. But you know what? If you can get over half the league to say that they are OK with this happening... I'll allow it and play through the season even though I don't like the decision being made at all. But I can promise you this: Paul or someone else will be running this league here next year because I'm not wasting my time with it if that happens.
Really not trying to start anything here, I was just trying to make my team as good as possible. I didn't cut my team down to roster size of 30 like most people here, because I wanted to keep my team together. When I saw Gipson getting out of reach with my current cap space, I worked on cutting and trading the fat to get my target/s.
I've won, and I make unconventional moves but they get blocked as well, VO can tell you all about that time I traded cap space for players or picks...I can't remember.
I think we were a little more outright. I took something like 5 million in cap space for like a 3rd rounder. Or something. Pretty sure that was the Manning year.
Dude, I got home from the gym and started cooking dinner. I literally just finished eating and then I get some text about this. This is not how I wanted to spend my night but so it goes...
If there's a precedent for it, I'm fine with that. But I'm not sure how one person can make a call on what's fair and what's not? It's not like he's colluding to make another team better to make his worse. There's a clear goal in sight. Clearly i'm just *****ing because I got a pick in return for cap space....but I made a post earlier in the day saying I would take on cap for picks and it wasn't shut down. So it leads me to believe it would've been ok if that scenario played out with another team and not Falcons? Again, Im just confused by the decision.
Which is ironic because I was trying to keep most of my team together like in the real NFL. I was and am still treating this like its a real league. Consider these facts: 1.) Another GM in the League advertised they would trade a 4th round pick and a certain high priced player to another team on their Trade Block. I did a similar thing and got in trouble. I had no way of knowing this was frowned upon. 2.) Another GM in the League cut their roster down to like 10 players I try getting down to like 40 players rapidly to make FA moves, but get in trouble Someone else earlier this year had like 9 bids out at once, it happens. And 100% truth be told, I was out at a bar drinking last night. I "drunkenly" ran the numbers in my head and thought I had the cap room to make the bid. My spreadsheet told me otherwise once I got home. I was drunk and messed up. I apologize for causing all this trouble to everyone. I hope I didn't piss too many people off at the end of the day I was and am trying to field the best team possible (like I have always done).
I don't really see how this is any different then what Todd's done as an example and he's also advertised draft picks for taking on cap hits (Easy cowboy...just an example!). Not a fan of a 4th rounder being the price to absorb cap hits....but there has been a LOT of cap dumping/shifting this season. This just put more of a focus on it because it's a fast and furious dump to keep up with a ridiculous price on a free safety (Should really think franchise/RFA market instead). Maybe there needs to be a bigger penalty for being caught going over the cap on bids? Or bite the bullet and institute real NFL style cap hits next year.
Look at the two bengal's trades back-to-back. I paid him a 4th to take guys I wanted to drop salary on, we agreed to it both trades beforehand via PM as it was the only way that we could accomplish the trade since I couldn't trade two players and a 4th round pick for nothing...