School me on dynasty--contract leagues ... Contract lengths

[mh34444]

For leagues where owners assign contract lengths to players, how do you determine the appropriate contract value to assign to a player? Assuming a roster of 40 players w/ IDP and 100 years of contract to dish out (A roster below 40 players loses 1 year of contract for every man below the roster limit).

A few ideas I'd appreciate some feedback on ...

Idea #1 .. Reserve a set # of contract years for each position, then assign them accordingly to the players at that position. Example: 15 years for QB's, 17 years for RB's, 20 years for WR's, 9 years for TE's, 3 years for PK's, 11 years DL, 13 years LB, 12 years DB. These are just numbers I threw out there, certainly can be adjusted as needed.

Idea #2 .. Assign contracts to players according to their age .. Assuming a quality QB will perform into his mid 30's, sign elite talent to a certain age (Elite QB1, age:28, 7 year contract. Decent starting QB2, age:31, 2 or 3 year contract) .. Decent RB's only seem to last until they are 29 or 30 (Elite RB1, age:25, 4 year contract. Prospect RB2, age:24, 5 year contract. Handcuff RB3, age:28, 1 or 2 year contract). WR's hold up pretty well, usually into their early 30's (Elite WR1, age:26, 7 year contract. Decent starting WR2, age:29, 2 or 2 year contract. Prospect WR3, age:24, 7 or 8 year contract---Assuming his prospects are Elite).

Idea #3 .. Mixure of idea's #1 and #2 .. Sounds the most logical, but the problem I forsee is if you have a lot of youth at any one position. Say you have 3 QB's, Ryan, Rodgers and Edwards. You risk shorting the long term value of the player when he reaches his prime if you distribute contracts evenly. Of course you can trade away that depth, but most owners aren't in the business of trading away young talent for aging players, especially if you acquire a 28 year old RB, or a 30 year old WR that you can only safely rely on 2 or 3 more years out of.

Your thoughts?

[spodog]

Are you trying to solicit ideas on how to set up your league? If so, you might have better luck posting this in the Comissioner's Corner forum.

Otherwise, you could dedicate a weekend to reading this novel. These guys have spent a lot of time on the questions that you ponder:

http://dynasty.efsports.com/ftp/EFS_Rules_2004.pdf

[mh34444]

Thanks, I'll take a look. I'm not a commissioner, just a guy that joined a new league that has contracts and needs some guidance. I don't wanna be "that guy" 3 years into the league finding out he went wrong 3 years prior.