(Another) Rookie Rules suggestion!?!

[Royal Hawaiian Opihi]

I was thinking about my draft strategy... and the cap space we've got for our development squad this year... and I was thinking that we might get into a situation where we don't want to use all three (or more) of our draft picks. Drafting a player has certain cap ramifications. Even if we don't want a player & release him, we'll have to take the 20% hard cap.

What if we pickup a player in the UFA period who qualifies for the Development Squad, and we like him better than one of our draft picks? I know this league is all about choices... but I can envision that when we get to the latter part of the second round, and most of the third round, there may not be many players we're willing to commit cap space to.

So... (are you still with me?)... how does this sound? Why don't we make a provision that says each team is allowed to cut ONE draft pick per season, prior to the start of the regular season, without facing any cap penalty? Of course, these cannot carry over from year to year (ie. if I don't cut any rookie this year, I don't get two cuts next year!). This would give us a little "wiggle room" when deciding on UFAs vs. Rookies for the final roster positions.

Make sense? Or am I just being a bit too non-committal?

[Philadelphia Freedom]

Sounds kind of non-committal to me. If you are not sure about using your picks you could skip them, trade them, figure that depending what position you draft the ramifications for releasing would not be that great, or you could also try and trade the player that you drafted late and that would make room for your UFA.

Okay, after all of that I had another thought (shoot 2 in one day...). Anyhow, if a player is on your developmental squad and you drop him does he count against your cap? It seems like he might count against your developmental cap, but since he never appeared on your roster would he count as a hard-cap hit? This may already be covered in the rules (I seem to miss details like this) but it might be worth discussing if it is not covered.

[Philadelphia Freedom]

Okay, I found my own answer (based on the rules at the FF site, though I think we are going to be changing these somewhat).
Each team will be allowed a 3 player development squad for players with 0-3 years of NFL experience. The development squad will have a 2000cb development squad cap with 8 contract years available (max 3/player). Development squad cb and contract year caps will not count against a teams regular cap unless a player is activated to the active roster.
Once promoted to the Active Roster, a player cannot be placed back on the Development Squad by the SAME team during the same season (if the player is cut or traded other teams can place the player on their Development Squad, but the original team CANNOT ever have on his development squad that year).
The same soft and hard cap rules will apply when releasing players off the Development Squad as with the Active Rosters, only the cap hit will count against the Development Squad Cap not the Active Roster Cap. Further, Development Squad contracts will increase 10% each year just as Active Roster contracts do.

[Royal Hawaiian Opihi]

I hear yah... but I also want to hear the opinions of those who don't have a TON OF CAP SPACE LEFT for the season! lol.

[Preds]

Contrary to the opionion of the distinguished gentleman from Philly, I actually see the sense of allowing us to cut rookie players prior to the start of the in-season free agency period.

Better than having us skip picks. Gives us the preseason to scout our rooks and make sure we really want all 3.

Maybe allow an evaluation period each year through the training camps. Rookies won't officially be on either the active roster or the dev squad and can be cut before 8/15 with no cap hit.

However, by 8/15 at midnight if you want to keep a rookie you have to declare him active or dev squad, and any cuts from that point on would count against the appropriate cap. Contract years would have to be declared by then as well.

What do you think?

[Philadelphia Freedom]

I could agree to that but it seems to me that it sort of devalues the picks if you end up cutting them. Why don't we try it for this year and see if it is worth adding as a permanent fixture in the rules. Also, could you provide a summary of what the actual new rules will be in terms of the use of the developmental squad? Thanks.

I believe we should be able to cut the rookies and not take a cap hit as long as we haven't assigned contract years left. This will allow us to evaluate them before we make a commitment to the players. But you would have to release them or assign contract years prior to the week before the season starts.

[Nittany Dodgers]

I like it. I'd go for it.

[Philadelphia Freedom]

Could someone provide a summary of what the actual new rules will be in terms of the use of the developmental squad? I am looking for number of slots, years, dollars, etc.

Thanks!

[Preds]

Unfortunately, only 9 of 12 teams have voted on the Dev Squad issue, however 8 of the 9 votes cast in favor of making all 4 changes detaled below. The 1 dissenting vote was in favor of changes 1-3, but not number 4.

Since we we do have a super majority (8/12) already, I see no reason why all 4 changes shouldn't take place, so plan accordingly.

The approved changes to the Development Squad are:

1. Eliminate the 3 year rookie max on the Dev Squad and make it the same 5 year max as on active contracts (Keep in mind, after 3 NFL seasons a player will not be eligible for the Dev Squad, so at that point, if given the max 5 year contract teams would have 2 years of their Dev Squad player on the active roster.

2. Make the Dev Squad a true place for us to develop our rookies by expanding the Dev Squad contract years to 10 effective immediatly this season.

3. Expand the Dev Squad to 4 players in 2003 with 12 Contract Years and a cap of 2750 to further allow room for growth of both this years players and next years.

4. Expand the Dev Squad to it's final size of 5 players in 2004 with 14 Contract Years and a cap of 3500 to further allow room for growth of players

[Philadelphia Freedom]

I wanted to make sure I understood before we started drafting!

[Philadelphia Freedom]

Mike when you get a chance could you update the Roster (Cap) App? I want try and see who is where and what kind of position we are in with cap space. Many thanks!

[Preds]

As far as I know the app is already current and up to date.

Here's the Link, maybe you were using the app on the old site.

Online Roster App

[Philadelphia Freedom]

I think I figured out what is confusing to me. For a team such as the Opihi, they have declined to match a number of players. However, those players are still on their roster and it looks like their salaries are being included in his Cap number. I guess what I was looking for was the current rosters showing who went where and who will be paying their salaries for 2002 (and beyond).

Maybe this has already been done and I am just misunderstanding what I am looking at (if so I apologize).

[Preds]

Actually Matt, those are players that wern't matched by their original teams, and are now part of the new teams roster. The RFA Not Mached Tag is just a way of identifying how the player was acquired.

To my knowledge, all the rosters are current and up to date.

[Philadelphia Freedom]

I knew I was missing something. Sorry I was taking the tag (RFA Dec) to mean that Jim declined to match. Thanks for clarifying.

BTW, how about them trading Bills? I was impressed it seems like they came away in pretty good shape!

[Preds]

Yep, real happy as a Bills fan. Drew's in town today to meet the press and then be welcomed by a rally at the field house. Should be interesting.

Watch out for the Bills this year, they'll be a MUCH improved team.