2014 GML Rules, FAQ, and Timeline

Some questions we've received through PMs in the past few years... Hopefully this will answer questions some of you may have.

Q. I got a question regarding free agency. Is it possible to do a sign and trade for restricted free agents? There are a lot of guys I like that are restricted. I'd like to do a couple of sign-and-trades to ensure I get the players I want before they hit the market.

A: Here's how we do that. If a team tenders an RFA then RFA remains tendered until free agency starts. 24 hours into restricted free agency, if the RFA hasn't received any bids he is officially signed by his original team for the tender amount. At that point he can be traded to any team. You can't trade for them before they are signed because you cannot trade free agents.

Q. What do I need to do (financially) to keep RFA's and ERFA's? I know that ERFA's don't negotiate with other teams...so all I need to do is tender them for $555,000? Is that right? And that keeps them on the team for one more year?

A: TBD for ERFAs and nobody can touch them. You may trade ERFAs after you tender them if you wish.

Q. Regarding RFA's, do I just tender them with the amount specified and THEN have to match any offer that comes in to keep them? And that keeps them on my team for the length of the other team's OFFERED contract?

A: Tender the RFAs and then match if someone bids on them. We don't do anything with contract length. We just do the amount as if they were all 1 year contracts.

Q. When will you need our list of RFA's and ERFA's that we want to keep?

A: You just need to have your tags/tenders worked out by the start of free agency, scheduled for early March.

Q. Is it (free agency) just first post gets the player or is there more to it?

A: Free agency is done in a bid format.

Q. So in free agency, we're just bidding for ONE year contracts then? Highest bid within 24 hours wins that player?

A: Yeah one year contracts. Everything resets next year so there isn't much point in doing anything longer. It's not quite the highest bid in 24 hours. Bidding could go on for a week for one player. Whenever a player goes 24 hours without receiving a bid, the bidding is over. So once you are outbid, you have 24 hours to get back on and bid again.

Q. Will there be a FA list or will we just have to work from each persons team page?

A: The "Free Agency" forum will have a thread for each position. The first post in the thread will have a list of players. The players will have the bid amount, time, and team next to them. Once a player is signed, he will be moved to the bottom of the list under the "Signed" section.

Q. How is draft pick compensation going to work out? I know you have to be significantly under the cap to sign free agents. Lets say I get the winning bid. But if a team a tenders a guy with draft pick compensation, and you sign that guy but don't have the draft picks to give up, what will happen then? Is that team going to get a compensation pick or are you left with a bunch of cap space due to lack of draft picks?

A: You either have to give that team a higher pick or trade for a pick to give him before you can bid on the player. You cannot sign a tendered restricted free agent or a franchise player if you do not have the picks to give up.

Q. As we approach FA and our teams sign and cut players (for real) do we add and subtract those players from our rosters, and if so, how soon will the cap# be available. I'm sure that the [insert team] will be re-signing some of their FAs before March, and possibly cutting some for cap reasons.

A: None of that matters. The moment rosters were handed out, you took control of the team.

Q. What about compensatory draft picks?

A: There will be 32 compensatory draft picks that will be determined after the GM League free agency period by Paul 13

Q. What is the final roster size? Can we have a practice squad on our team?

A: 53 men on a squad. There is no practice squad.

Q. Do all the rookie's we draft have to make the team? For example I have 16 draft picks, I have enough cap to sign them all but do they then all have to make my 53 man roster? Or can I just release some as teams often do in reality?

A: Yes, you may release players you drafted. You must have enough cap space at the beginning of the draft though.

Q. I didn't see this anywhere but what is the minimum bid on a player? Also, when increasing a bid, is there a minimum amount we must bid?

A: The minimum bid on a non-rookie player is $495K. Undrafted rookies are $420K. When increasing a bid, you must increase that player's bid by at least $50K if the player is below one million. When the player is over one million, increments must be at least $100K. When the five million mark is reached, increments are a minimum $250K.

If you have any questions, please ask in this thread.

Player Salaries
Salaries for individual players will be taken from the Overthecap salary databases. There is only one way a player’s salary changes. If he is released and then resigned via free agency within the GM League (not real NFL). Once a player is traded, his salary stays the same unless he is cut by the team in the GM league.

NEW THIS YEAR! Up until the start of free agency (or thereabouts), teams will have the opportunity to restructure one contract on their salary list. What that means is that you take a high salary cap player and CUT that player’s cap charge in half. Since we are only doing this on a one year basis, future years aren’t calculated. There is a penalty for doing this however. You will lose ONE free agent bid for the first 72 hours of free agency. Which means you have the potential to lose three free agents. You also cannot trade this player after you have designated him for restructure.

I will create a thread (after salaries have been posted for all teams) where each team lists their ONE restructure player. Once you’ve announced your player, it cannot be rescinded.

NOTE: While you cannot trade a player that has restructured his contract, you can trade for a player and THEN restructure his contract (as long as you haven't restructured a contract yet!).

When Cutting A Player
There is no penalty for cutting a player. If a player has a cap value of 3 million and you release or trade him, the entire 3 million is subtracted off your cap. You cannot cut players that you signed in Free Agency UNLESS the player signed for the minimum salary, $495K.

When Trading A Player
Once a player is traded his entire salary is transferred to the acquiring team.

NEW THIS YEAR!
When Re-Signing ONE player

Re-Signing one of your players BEFORE free agency

The goal here is to give teams an ability to retain a free agent by re-signing them before free agency starts. But there is a risk as you are exposing the player to the free agent market if an opposing team places a silent bid above the original team’s bid (which will be public).

The details… A GM would have the ability to possibly re-sign ONE of their free agents. Whoever they choose is up to them. There will be a 24 hour process whereby a GM lists ONE free agent from their team in a thread and a $ amount for the bid (I want GM’s to PM me their re-sign player, not post in thread, I will post the list at the start of the 24 hour process. This way, teams don’t have an advantage for not posting their player until the end).

The 31 remaining teams will then have 24 hours to react by PMing me a silent bid (normal free agency rules apply with respect to a bid amount being beaten and you must be under the cap of course). If nobody places a higher bid than the original team, that player is re-signed at the amount listed. If another team places a higher bid than the original team, if it’s the HIGHEST bid, that bid remains on the player at the start of free agency. From there, normal free agency rules apply. NOTE: The team with the highest bid at the start of free agency still has the maximum amount of bids available for free agency. In other words, it doesn’t count against them (so yes, if there are five bids maximum, a team could possibly have SIX if they are leading a bid on a player). Since the voting is silent (where I’m getting PM’s) teams will be kept in the dark with respect to who has the highest bid until the 24 hour process is over.

Also, the resign process... teams are limited to resigning (potentially) ONE player per team. Similarly, bidding teams are limited to ONE BID per team. That means you can only bid on ONE player during this 24 hour resign period. You don't get to bid on five players... you don't get to bid on as many as you want... just one... If a team, other than the original team, leads the bidding process on a player, that team starts the free agency period as the leading team. Obviously, if the original team has the highest bid, they retain/resign that player at that amount. After the resign period ends, I will post who bid the highest and which players are resigned by their original teams and which players are headed to free agency. The time of the highest bid made by an opposing team is exactly 12:01AM EST on March 3rd. Any team, including the original team, can then bid on that particular player (normal free agency rules apply from that point on).

Another NOTE: A re-signed player CANNOT be traded later.

This player would not be available for any type of franchise or tender offer. The player could be either a UFA or RFA. Also, you can choose NOT to expose any of your players to this re-sign process. Although, I would think you’ll want to do this, if for no other reason than to re-sign a “lesser” free agent that you want to keep.

2014 Salary Cap
The salary cap for the 2014 GM League will be

Spoiler

$130m

. You will need to be under this number before the start of free agency and stay under for the remainder of the year. This is taken from the actual cap number used for the NFL.

Franchise/Transition Tags
All tags and tenders must be submitted before the start of free agency (sometime in early March).

Exclusive Rights Franchise Tag
A new addition this year will be teams may make use the exclusive-rights franchise tag. An exclusive-rights franchise tag will cost more than a tradition non-exclusive franchise tag however it will allow teams to make sure they get their target without any disturbances. An exclusive-rights franchise tagged player can be added to the team's roster as soon as the deadline to tag/tender players passes.

Non Exclusive Rights Franchise Tag
A non-exclusive franchise tag will cost a little less than the tag mentioned above however other teams will have a 24 hour window during free agency to make a bid on the tagged player. If a bid is made on a non-exclusive rights tagged player, you have the option to match the bid or accept compensation from the bidding team. If you accept compensation, you will receive two first round picks from the bidding team.

Transition Tag
A transition tag is even less than the two tags mentioned above and teams will also have the 24 hour window during free agency to make a bid on the tagged player. However if a bid is made on a transition tagged player, you will only have the option to match the bid. You will receive no compensation from the bidding team if you do not match the bid.

Amount of Tags Per Team
Teams have a choice of using either the Exclusive Rights Franchise Tag OR the Non-Exclusive Rights Franchise Tag OR the Transition Tag. Which means if you tag a player with any of the tags, then you cannot tag any other players at all. This is only for UFAs. ERFAs and RFAs do not count for this.

RFAs/ERFAs
You must place a tender on all the RFA's and ERFA's you have that you plan to keep. Remember you get right to match the salary of what teams offer your players. If you do not, you get compensation based on the tender. ERFA's (Exclusive Rights) will be given a base salary and if they are tendered, no team will have an opportunity to offer that player a contract. Therefore these players can be added to your roster right away if tendered. However, RFA's cannot be added to your roster right away as teams may offer them contracts in the first 24 hours of free agency.

Trading A Tagged or Tendered Player
You may trade tagged or tendered players when said player is officially on your roster. However the player cannot be cut. This includes if the player is traded to a new team, he still cannot be cut.

Free Agency
To acquire free agents, we will use a bid format here on the forums.

All the bids will be able to be seen as it stands and the highest bid that goes 24 hours without being matched wins.

You can cut a player you signed in free agency only if you signed him for the veteran minimum $495K

Teams cannot bid on more than 5 players at a time, nor go over the salary cap. Meaning do not bid more money than you have. If we catch anyone doing this, all bids will be forfeited.

2014 GM League NFL Draft
The 2014 GM League Draft will be held at a date and time to be determined. We will do a full 7 round draft. Time limits and such will be discussed days before the draft.

If you are going to miss your draft slot send a bullpen list to either the GM League Moderator (Paul 13) or one of the Draft Committee members (TBA) to automatically make your pick.

A bullpen list will look like this:

Team A
1. Andrew Luck, QB, Stanford (if not available, go to pick 2)
2. Justin Blackmon, WR, Oklahoma State (if not available, go to pick 3)
3. Matt Kalil, OT, USC

You get the general idea...

From the second round on, the picks will be done as soon as possible in the same format as the first round. If you are not available leave a bullpen list to choose from. If you miss your time slot and fail to make a pick, the committee will make a pick for you. If you miss THREE selections, you will lose ALL REMAINING SELECTIONS! Essentially, three strikes and you are out.

Draft Pick Salaries
We will have draft pick salaries. You will need to keep track of your picks and what they will cost to ensure you do not go over the cap on draft day. Rookie salaries will be determined by where they are drafted:

TBA

Timeline of Events
Very rough right now and will change, but a basic idea of what's to come.

2/4/14 Teams will retain, hire, and fire coaches
2/10/14 Rosters will be posted
2/11/14 Teams can cut and trade players
2/14/14 Teams can bid on cut players
Feb 28, 10:00PM EST Due date to announce contract restructures (one per team)
Feb 28, 10:00PM EST Tags/Tenders are due
Feb 28, 10:00PM EST Deadline to announce via PM to me, who you would like to resign and for how much. One per team
Feb 28, 10:00PM EST Salary cap rules are in effect. All bids/tenders from this point on must be within salary cap limits.
March 1st, 12:01AM EST Bidding on tagged/tendered players begins
March 1st, 12:01AM EST Re-sign period opens
March 2nd, 12:01AM EST Bidding on tagged/tendered players ends; teams have right of first refusal/compensation
March 2nd, 12:01AM EST Re-sign period ends
March 3rd, 12:01AM EST Free Agency begins
April 12th, 12:00PM EST GM League Draft Begins
May 10th, 12:00PM EST UDFA request lists due
May 11th, 11:59PM EST Rosters are frozen (No more signings/trades)
May 18th, 11:59PM EST Final Rosters are due (write-ups are optional)
May 19th, 12:01AM EST "Best Of" Nominations Begin
May 21st, 12:01AM EST Final Voting Begins
May 27th, 8:00PM EST Winners Announced

This timeline is subject to change and very likely will.

 

Did I mention it was subject to change?

 

some new dates...

2/4/14 Teams will retain, hire, and fire coaches
2/10/14 Rosters will be posted
2/11/14 Teams can cut and trade players

 

adding two rules as a result of the Winter Team Meetings Voting Threads....

This will be added under Player Salaries... Up until the start of free agency (or thereabouts), teams will have the opportunity to restructure one contract on their salary list. What that means is that you take a high salary cap player and CUT that player’s cap charge in half. Since we are only doing this on a one year basis, future years aren’t calculated. There is a penalty for doing this however. You will lose ONE free agent bid for the first 72 hours of free agency. Which means you have the potential to lose three free agents. You also cannot trade this player after you have designated him for restructure.

I will create a thread (after salaries have been posted for all teams) where each team lists their ONE restructure player. Once you’ve announced your player, it cannot be rescinded.

NOTE: While you cannot trade a player that has restructured his contract, you can trade for a player and THEN restructure his contract (as long as you haven't restructured a contract yet!).


This will be added in its own section, after "when trading a player"

Re-Signing one of your players BEFORE free agency

The goal here is to give teams an ability to retain a free agent by re-signing them before free agency starts. But there is a risk as you are exposing the player to the free agent market if an opposing team places a silent bid above the original team’s bid (which will be public).

The details… A GM would have the ability to possibly re-sign ONE of their free agents. Whoever they choose is up to them. There will be a 24 hour process whereby a GM lists ONE free agent from their team in a thread and a $ amount for the bid (I want GM’s to PM me their re-sign player, not post in thread, I will post the list at the start of the 24 hour process. This way, teams don’t have an advantage for not posting their player until the end).

The 31 remaining teams will then have 24 hours to react by PMing me a silent bid (normal free agency rules apply with respect to a bid amount being beaten and you must be under the cap of course). If nobody places a higher bid than the original team, that player is re-signed at the amount listed. If another team places a higher bid than the original team, if it’s the HIGHEST bid, that bid remains on the player at the start of free agency. From there, normal free agency rules apply. NOTE: The team with the highest bid at the start of free agency still has the maximum amount of bids available for free agency. In other words, it doesn’t count against them (so yes, if there are five bids maximum, a team could possibly have SIX if they are leading a bid on a player). Since the voting is silent (where I’m getting PM’s) teams will be kept in the dark with respect to who has the highest bid until the 24 hour process is over.

Another NOTE: A re-signed player CANNOT be traded later.

This player would not be available for any type of franchise or tender offer. The player could be either a UFA or RFA. Also, you can choose NOT to expose any of your players to this re-sign process. Although, I would think you’ll want to do this, if for no other reason than to re-sign a “lesser” free agent that you want to keep.

 

Updated some dates... these are tentative. Would like some feedback in the general discussion thread.
2/10/14 Rosters will be posted
2/11/14 Teams can cut and trade players
2/21/14 Teams can bid on cut players
Feb 28, 10:00PM EST Due date to announce contract restructures (one per team)
Feb 28, 10:00PM EST Tags/Tenders are due
March 1st, 12:01AM EST Bidding on tagged/tendered players begins
March 1st, 12:01AM EST Re-sign period opens
March 2nd, 12:01AM EST Bidding on tagged/tendered players ends; teams have right of first refusal/compensation
March 2nd, 12:01AM EST Re-sign period ends
March 3rd, 12:01AM EST Free Agency begins

 

I'm pushing back the start of bidding on cut players a WEEK... until 2/21/14 as it was way too early having it on the 14th... my valentine's day gift to you and your significant others... in some of your cases, your socks... ...

 

Slight update here...in red...

2/10/14 Rosters will be posted
2/11/14 Teams can cut and trade players
2/21/14 Teams can bid on cut players
Feb 28, 10:00PM EST Due date to announce contract restructures (one per team)
Feb 28, 10:00PM EST Tags/Tenders are due
Feb 28, 10:00PM EST Deadline to announce via PM to me, who you would like to resign and for how much. One per team
Feb 28, 10:00PM EST Salary cap rules are in effect. All bids/tenders from this point on must be within salary cap limits.
March 1st, 12:01AM EST Bidding on tagged/tendered players begins
March 1st, 12:01AM EST Re-sign period opens
March 2nd, 12:01AM EST Bidding on tagged/tendered players ends; teams have right of first refusal/compensation
March 2nd, 12:01AM EST Re-sign period ends
March 3rd, 12:01AM EST Free Agency begins

 

Also, the resign process... teams are limited to resigning (potentially) ONE player per team. Similarly, bidding teams are limited to ONE BID per team. That means you can only bid on ONE player during this 24 hour resign period. You don't get to bid on five players... you don't get to bid on as many as you want... just one... If a team, other than the original team, leads the bidding process on a player, that team starts the free agency period as the leading team. Obviously, if the original team has the highest bid, they retain/resign that player at that amount. After the resign period ends, I will post who bid the highest and which players are resigned by their original teams and which players are headed to free agency. The time of the highest bid made by an opposing team is exactly 12:01AM EST on March 3rd. Any team, including the original team, can then bid on that particular player (normal free agency rules apply from that point on).

 

I will post draft pick salaries here...

 

I will post tag and tender #'s here.

 

GML 2014 Salary Cap is now set at $130m, teams will need to be under this # around 2/28...

 

To clarify a question regarding six vs five bids with the resigning process...

Also question regarding the resigning of FA's....
Q: So I get that we basically get a 6th bid slot if you dont restructure one of your own and you have the highest bid on someone elses FA. So for arguments sake I have a 7M bid on Player B (Player A is busy) as we enter FA. I still have my 5 other bids which I use on players 1-5. Someone then bids up Player B. Do I still have a 6th bid slot to go and beat it?

A: The answer is no. You only have a 6th bid if you enter free agency period with the highest bid on a "resign" player. Once you are outbid on that player, you are back to a max of 5 bids. So you'll want to plan accordingly.

 

Tags and Tender amounts Posted

Exclusive Rights/Restricted Free Agents
ERFA tender = $495,000
RFA original tender/right of first refusal = $1,390,000
RFA 2nd round tender = $2,200,000
RFA 1st round tender = $3,100,000

Unrestricted Free Agents
QB
Exclusive-Rights Franchise Tag: $21,354,000
Non-Exclusive Rights Franchise Tag: $16,536,000
Transition Tag: $14,223,000

RB
Exclusive-Rights Franchise Tag: $11,870,000
Non-Exclusive Rights Franchise Tag: $9,321,000
Transition Tag: $7,651,000

WR
Exclusive-Rights Franchise Tag: $13,548,000
Non-Exclusive Rights Franchise Tag: $11,856,000
Transition Tag: $9,623,000

TE
Exclusive-Rights Franchise Tag: $9,839,000
Non-Exclusive Rights Franchise Tag: $6,890,000
Transition Tag: $5,733,000

OL
Exclusive-Rights Franchise Tag: $13,004,000
Non-Exclusive Rights Franchise Tag: $11,440,000
Transition Tag: $9,970,000

DE
Exclusive-Rights Franchise Tag: $16,774,000
Non-Exclusive Rights Franchise Tag: $12,818,000
Transition Tag: $9,983,000

DT
Exclusive-Rights Franchise Tag: $13,914,000
Non-Exclusive Rights Franchise Tag: $9,438,000
Transition Tag: $7,546,000

LB
Exclusive-Rights Franchise Tag: $15,050,000
Non-Exclusive Rights Franchise Tag: $11,193,000
Transition Tag: $9,504,000

CB
Exclusive-Rights Franchise Tag: $12,533,000
Non-Exclusive Rights Franchise Tag: $11,570,000
Transition Tag: $9,332,000

S
Exclusive-Rights Franchise Tag: $11,798,000
Non-Exclusive Rights Franchise Tag: $8,242,000
Transition Tag: $6,987,000

K/P
Exclusive-Rights Franchise Tag: $4,606,000
Non-Exclusive Rights Franchise Tag: $3,471,000
Transition Tag: $3,115,000

 

Draft Pick Salaries

first round
1. $5,000,000
2. $4,750,000
3. $4,500,000
4. $4,250,000
5. $4,000,000
6. $3,900,000
7. $3,800,000
8. $3,700,000
9. $3,600,000
10. $3,500,000
11. $3,400,000
12. $3,300,000
13. $3,200,000
14. $3,100,000
15. $3,000,000
16. $2,900,000
17. $2,800,000
18. $2,700,000
19. $2,600,000
20. $2,500,000
21. $2,450,000
22. $2,400,000
23. $2,350,000
24. $2,300,000
25. $2,250,000
26. $2,200,000
27. $2,150,000
28. $2,100,000
29. $2,050,000
30. $2,000,000
31. $1,950,000
32. $1,900,000

other rounds
2. $900,000
3. $700,000
4. $600,000
5. $550,000
6. $500,000
7. $450,000

 

To clarify another question...

Q: What is the minimum roster allowable here? What is the maximum?

A: The rules state that the roster size is set at 53 players. However, as we may know, NFL teams only dress 46 for game day. Since the objective here is to field a roster for game day purposes (not for training camp, we'd need 90, can you imagine?). So, therefore... the minimum roster is 46 players. The maximum roster is 53 players.

 

updated...

Q: If a player retires in the NFL that I've signed, or is otherwise on my roster, can I remove him from my roster?

A: Yes, you can.

 

updated...

Just to give you all an idea of the remaining schedule:

May 11th, 11:59PM EST Rosters are frozen (No more signings/trades)
May 18th, 11:59PM EST Final Rosters are due (write-ups are optional)
May 19th, 12:01AM EST "Best Of" Nominations Begin
May 21st, 12:01AM EST Final Voting Begins
May 27th, 8:00PM EST Winners Announced