League Discussion

[Toltec]

My thoughts:

Ditching the AFT is one solution. That would prevent a team from getting totally out of a committment. My only concern with that is it still makes sense to backload contracts just for the simple fact that it's way in the future. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to have some provision against an extremely backloaded (or frontloaded) contracts? Like say, no more than a certain percentage of the total money can be in any one year. I don't know, just thinking out loud here.

I am ok with limiting backloaded contracts to money percentages, but frontloaded contracts should remain untouched. If I have the cap room in any given year to burn, I may as well front-load a few contracts.

[aaawall91]

As someone who backloaded a contract with the intentions of AFT before I got to the last year of it with LT last year, I'm a fan of adding some sort of detail to reduce the magnitude it can be used at.

[FantasyMan13]

My thoughts:

Ditching the AFT is one solution. That would prevent a team from getting totally out of a committment. My only concern with that is it still makes sense to backload contracts just for the simple fact that it's way in the future. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to have some provision against an extremely backloaded (or frontloaded) contracts? Like say, no more than a certain percentage of the total money can be in any one year. I don't know, just thinking out loud here.

This.

I brought this up in the offseason (as well as ditching the AFT), but didn't get much fanfare. It's a good debate...

I really think we should ban backloaded contracts. For example, let's say I wanna sign a player. And let's say I consider him to be the most valuable free agent at his position and I have a lot of cap space to work with. By our rules now, I can sign him to a 5 year/$50M contract with years 1-4 paying $200K and year 5 paying $49.2M. When year 5 comes, I can simply AFT him.

Here is what I propose:

1) Do away with the AFT. Cutting a player doesn't cost an owner too much as it is.
2) All contracts must either stay the same or decrease from year to year. As someone already said, if an owner has the cap space one year for 1 or 2 huge contracts and wants to frontload, they should be able to do it. This is kind of like our version of the NFL signing bonus.
3) Keep the NTC. I know some of you don't like it for FA's, but I think it's good for giving owners more options when in bidding wars with other owners. It also allows owners with less cap a chance to compete with owners with $50M free.

What do you guys think?

[FantasyMan13]

I'm just not going to ever post a ridiculously backloaded contract again. My apologies for doing it earlier. I feel like a hypocrite since I was totally against them last year.

I dont blame you at all. It is perfectly within the rules, and makes sense. We need to figure this out soon because I would like to backload a big contract...

[FantasyMan13]

dream, what are my options with Terrell Thomas now? I planned to re-sign him, so do I have to re-sign him, or can I drop him? Also, if I re-sign him, can I put him straight on the IR to save cap space for the FA bidding?

I feel really bad for that guy, he was so good last year...

[Toltec]

Why not limit the AFT to no more than $10M

[dream_017]

dream, what are my options with Terrell Thomas now? I planned to re-sign him, so do I have to re-sign him, or can I drop him? Also, if I re-sign him, can I put him straight on the IR to save cap space for the FA bidding?

I feel really bad for that guy, he was so good last year...

You have to re-sign him. You can then cut him(and take the cap hit) or he can be placed on IR (players on IR still cound against the cap, just not the roster limit of 35)

[dream_017]

Backloaded contracts - My suggestion was the same as Terp - limit to a percent that a contract can increase or decrease per year. Although there are still some safeguards, there is only 1 AFT per year, if you don't use the AFT there is a significant cap hit, you can't go over your cap in any given year, if that player doesn't pan out you are stuck with him until the off-season to use the AFT. I understand the concern, but I think backloaded contract will hurt a team in the long run(so I will not do it). I haven't looked at the bidding that caused the concern yet, but I think the only reasonable way to resolve it is to limit to a %


NTC - as I think about it, I think NTC were only designed for rookies and re-signed players, not for FA or FA blitz

[Toltec]

I am ok with limiting the increase % for backloading but am against any % limits for frontloading.

[dream_017]

I am ok with limiting the increase % for backloading but am against any % limits for frontloading.

I will set up a poll