Waiver Wire help

[Xyph31]

Hi, I am extremely new to FF, but I have been doing my research and I have come to a dilemma. My apologies in advance if my questions are extremely noobish. I've tried looking for an answer using the search function and couldn't find what I was looking for.

I'm starting a 10-12 team FFL with good friends and some family.(Draft this sunday. Im hosting )None of us have played FF before and I am the one who is setting everything up for our league. (commish) So when the time comes, I want to have the answers for the guys. See, I'm not totally sure how waivers work. Trades are trades, I understand that, but how do waivers work? Say in week 3, someone on my roster is injured and out for 4 weeks or just plain bombs and doesn't play as expected. I release them, correct? Thus becoming a free agent? Then another team owner can pick up the player as a free agent as long as they have a free spot?

This is the only way you can acquire free agents, right? Or is there a sub-pool of players that are free agents?

Again, please excuse the lack of knowledge. When I don't understand something, I need to understand the very mundane basics of it. Thank you in advance!

[Velocity3107]

Don't worry about sounding like a n00b. We were all there at some point in time.

There are many different ways waivers can work. This is the way that most leagues do it.

Of the entire NFL universe, whatever players aren't drafted are placed into the free agent pool. These players can be picked up at any time, but you have to drop one player in order to another, obviously. The player you added comes on your team immediately. The player you dropped is now on waivers for a 2 day period.

Here's the confusing part.

During these 2 days, everyone in the league can make a claim on him. The lower your record, the higher claim priority you have. So for example in a 4 team league:

Team A: 3-0
Team B: 2-1
Team C: 1-2
Team D: 0-3

Team D would have the first rights to this dropped player, then Team C, then B, then A.

If two players are dropped, Team D would have to pick which player they would rather have. So say Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are both dropped by teams A and B(obviously would never happen), all 4 teams are going to want them. Just because Team D has the top priority, they don't get both. They would get 1 guy, Team C would get the other.

If that is all too confusing, you could just make it where everyone becomes a free agent as soon as they are dropped and they can be picked up on a first come, first serve basis.

I hope I was as clear as possible. If you need further explanation, feel free to let me know

[Xyph31]

Thanks for the very informative reply, Velocity! One other question, is there a stop point in the season when you can no longer acquire free agents?

[Velocity3107]

No not really.

There is a trade deadline usually after week 10 or 11, but pretty much every league allows you to pick up free agents all the way through playoffs.

[glackk]

Just to add to Velocity's explanation, another popular way of doing waiver priority is to assign a priority number to each team. The initial assignment are in the reverse of the draft order.

i.e.
If team A had the first pick in the draft, then team B and second pick, then team C, then team D...team D would have priority 1, C would have priority 2, B would have priority 3, and A would have priority 4.

During the 2 day waiver period that Velocity described, any and all teams can place a claim on a player. Let's say team B and C place claims. The team who placed a claim that has the highest priority (team C, priority 2) would successfully add that player to their roster. Because team C successfully placed a claim, C's priority would drop to the lowest priority (priority 4), and all other teams' priority would go up by 1.

Before claim: D (priority 1), C (priority 2), B (priority 3), A (priority 4)
After claim: D (priority 1), B (priority 2), A (priority 3), C (priority 4)

The ensures that once a team places a successful claim, they "go to the back" of the waiver line.

Of course if no team places a claim on the player in 2 days, that player becomes a Free Agent, and any team can add that player on a first come, first added basis.