Proposed free agency system

[Commissioner]

I know a few of you are keen to find out how I intend to work free agents and here are my proposals. The season starts this weekend so I have had to devise a plan which can be implemented easily, quickly and is simple for you guys to use. I also wanted to have a system that gave you an opportunity to put your real life knowledge to use.

I would welcome your opinions.

Proposed free agency systerm

Please note that these proposals only apply to regular season transactions. Players who become free agents at the end of the season are covered in the FAQ.

- There will not be a database of free agent players.
- Any real life NFL player who is not currently contracted to a DFL club is regarded as a free agent.
- You can instruct your team scouts to provide a report on any player your believe to be a free agent.
- Your scouts will then prepare and publish a public report on the player outlining their ability and contract demands.
- Your club then has first option on signing this player.
- If you choose not to sign the player he then becomes an open free agent.
- All DFL team are then able to submit offers to the player. He will sign for the team offering the contract with the highest total value.

[Commissioner]

I need thoughts on this ASAP. Please let me know if you have any questions.

[Buccaneers]

i really like that plan really gives us freedom to serch for good free angents

[Chargers]

I'm not sure about this.

How long do we have to offer a contract to a players before he becomes open?
Also, could we have a system so that if somebody scouts a free-agent who, in reality, is part of your team, could we be informed of the stats aswell? It would only be natural that the last team to have the player would know the stats. I'm not saying that we should have the first option to buy them but couldnt we have a chance to match it?

What do we think?

[Jaguars]

I like the idea, but what about someone like Mike Vick? How are you going to do stats on a player that hasn't played for 3years?

I'd prefer a set list that we can choose from, with just a few stats, but not all so that we have an idea about there ability

[Buccaneers]

i know its going to bee tough on the comish but what about if wwhen we send our scouts we get to tell the scout what 3 stats to get then the comish can repot back to us via email or PM the 3 stats we requested
if this makes sense :/

[Bears]

My 2 cents...

I am not sure about this.

1. Is it really the case in the real world that a team would approach a player and say what do you want - yes we'll pay that. end of. Surely the player would/might have an agent which would make it know that this player was being courted and seek a better deal from another team. Perhaps I am being naive.

2. It all seems a bit arbitary - in terms of how the ratings might work/be allocated. This might in part be a lack of my understanding how these are set in the first place.

3. What is to stop and owner just saying I need a LB and then getting a list of free agents and asking them all to be scouted. You would have to limit how many scouting events you can undertake in a season. .

Personally I think I would prefer a list/database of possibles. Sorry Comm. But as with a suggestion above - with only 1,2 or 3 ratings. You can then scout (subject to any limitations by point 3 above). An alternate which is often used in many sims is that ratings has some form of modification if you actually get the player. For example power might be scouted at 3, but when you get the player it might be 2,3 or 4, or something like that.

[Chargers]

But with the proposed method we get all of the stats anyway. I suppose that if we only requested 3 stats, then the upside could be that the player doesnt become public if you dont buy him.

But that sort of defeates the object. I'm guessing that the reasoning behind the proposed method is that the Boss only has to stat up players that are recomended. And if they aren't bought then all is not wasted because somebody else might sign them from the pool.

Looking back at it again, I'm ok with the proposed method, but I think that GMs should know if one of their real-world players are being scouted and the stats and maybe a chance to better the offer.

[Chiefs]

i think it'd be better as a set list and maybe inpliment this idea next year

[Bears]

The real world vs the DFL world is an interesting question, and I think this probably needs to be discussed first.

As I understand UFL will not replicate what happens in real life. If it did then it would be a pretty unrewarding experience. Therefore one must expect that there will be divergence - and indeed this is already happening with the trades which have been happening. Why then complicate it by introducing real life free agents/players. To me this is just going to lead to confusion as Gm's try to compare real life players to DFL players. Surely they won't be the same - so why try to do that.

If this is then the route followed how can we scout imaginary players without knowing who they are. So this leads onto a requirement for a pool of imaginary players, both for free agency and the drafts.

Hope this makes sense..

[Bills]

Like someone said the agent in real life would try and milk the situation for cash so a bid up system would work.

[Chargers]

That leaves the boss with a massive workload though. Creating players will be 10 times harder than evaluating players.

[Saints]

I don't think imaginary players should be used, it'd dilute enjoyment

[Bears]

Aug 12, 2009 15:42:03 GMT Chargers said:

That leaves the boss with a massive workload though. Creating players will be 10 times harder than evaluating players.

I absolutely agree and this should be avoided.

The difficulty I think is that the DFL is starting from a zero position. Perhaps a more logical way would have been (I am not saying this is the only way);

- start with 2008 teams,
- run a draft
- there will be some left overs, and these would form the free agent pool for the next year

and so the process goes on. But should get better as the years go on.

It seems to me that at some point the Comm is going to have to generate the draft list. How is this done? One option is to start from scratch - not good, or better to take real draft player stats and amending those to fit within the DFL ratings universe. I presume this is what happened when Comm set up the 2009 teams (what an effort in itself).

If this is the case then couldn't the real draft player names be randomised to create imaginary players but based on real stats?

[Chargers]

But why?

That to me just seems like an unneacasery process.

All of the current stats are based on real stats but they obvisouly arent 100% accurate because you cant be 100% on a 1 to 5 scale anyway.

But the DFL is a reality within itself. Darron Sproles has 2 speed. Obvisously thats a bit off but it doesnt matter because this isnt supposed to reflect the real league anyway, otherwise there would be no point in the game.

But even with creating the pool, half of those players will not be used. Because in order to make room for them you have to chuck off other people. So I dont think many people will be recruting this year anyway. And next year, we will have a free agent pool of players who havent yet been given extentions and those replaced by draftees.