2014 GM League Rules & FAQ

[Mach]

PLAYER SALARIES
Salaries for individual players will be taken from OverTheCap.com. Restructures and updated information on contracts will be allowed if a reputable source according to Mach or GridIronKing34 is provided.

CUTTING A PLAYER
There is a penalty for cutting a player (whether he was originally on your team or via trade), listed as “Dead Money” in the rosters handed out. If a player has a dead money value of 3 million and you release him, the entire 3 million is added to your cap.

There will also be 2 allotted June 1st cuts. These will not function entirely similar to the actual designation, but instead a team will be able to release up to 2 players for half of their dead money charge. You cannot re-sign a June 1st cut player.

TRADING A PLAYER
Once a player is traded his entire cap hit is transferred to the acquiring team. A player can be traded once without a dead money penalty. Any subsequent trades will involve the full dead money amount being charged to the cap of the team who traded the player.

2014 SALARY CAP
The salary cap for the 2014 GM League will be variable. You will need to be under this number before the start of free agency and stay under for the remainder of the year. This is taken from the actual cap number used for the NFL. This may be updated to an extent before the league year begins.

FRANCHISE/TRANSITION TAGS
All tags and tenders must be submitted before the start of free agency (sometime in March).

Exclusive Rights Franchise Tag
An exclusive-rights franchise tag will cost more than a traditional non-exclusive franchise tag however it will allow teams to make sure they get their target without any disturbances. An exclusive-rights franchise tagged player can be added to the team's roster as soon as the deadline to tag/tender players passes.

Non Exclusive Rights Franchise Tag
A non-exclusive franchise tag will cost a little less than the tag mentioned above however other teams will have the length of free agency to make a bid on the tagged player. If a bid is made on a non-exclusive rights tagged player, you have the option to match the bid or accept compensation from the bidding team. If you accept compensation, you will receive two first round picks from the bidding team.

Transition Tag
A transition tag is even less than the two tags mentioned above and teams will also have the length of free agency to make a bid on the tagged player. However if a bid is made on a transition tagged player, you will only have the option to match the bid. You will receive no compensation from the bidding team if you do not match the bid.

Amount of Tags Per Team
Teams have a choice of using either the Exclusive Rights Franchise Tag OR the Non-Exclusive Rights Franchise Tag OR the Transition Tag. Which means if you tag a player with any of the tags, then you cannot tag any other players at all. This is only for UFAs. ERFAs and RFAs do not count for this.

RESTRICTED FREE AGENCY
You must place a tender on all the RFA's and ERFA's you have that you plan to keep. Remember you get right to match the salary of what teams offer your players. If you do not, you get compensation based on the tender. ERFA's (Exclusive Rights) will be given a base salary and if they are tendered, no team will have an opportunity to offer that player a contract. Therefore these players can be added to your roster right away if tendered. However, RFA's cannot be added to your roster right away as teams may offer them contracts during free agency. You must account for their salary cap space however.

TRADING A TAGGED/TENDERED FREE AGENT
You may trade tagged or tendered players as soon as they are tendered, with the acquiring team also gaining the right of first refusal and potential compensation. However the player cannot be cut. This includes if the player is traded to a new team, he still cannot be cut.

UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENCY
To acquire free agents, we will use a bid format here on the forums.

All the bids will be able to be seen as it stands and the highest bid that goes 48 hours without being matched wins.

You can cut a player you signed in free agency but will absorb the entire value of his contract as dead money.

Teams cannot bid on more than 7 players at a time, nor go over the salary cap. Meaning do not bid more money than you have. If we catch anyone doing this, all bids will be forfeited.

GM LEAGUE DRAFT
The 2014 GM League Draft will be held at a date and time to be determined. We will do a full 7 round draft. Time limits and such will be discussed days before the draft.

If you are going to miss your draft slot send a bullpen list to either the three GM League Moderators (GridIronKing34, Machiavelli, or Saint Greg) or one of the Draft Committee members to automatically make your pick.

A bullpen list will look like this:

Team A
1. Andrew Luck, QB, Stanford (if not available, go to pick 2)
2. Justin Blackmon, WR, Oklahoma State (if not available, go to pick 3)
3. Matt Kalil, OT, USC

You get the general idea...

From the second round on, the picks will be done as soon as possible in the same format as the first round. If you are not available leave a
bullpen list to choose from.

DRAFT PICK SALARIES
We will have draft pick salaries. You will need to keep track of your picks and what they will cost to ensure you do not go over the cap after draft day. Rookie salaries will be determined by where they are drafted:

UNDRAFTED FREE AGENCY
For undrafted free agency, the same rules apply as street free agency and unrestricted free agency. Teams have a maximum of five active bids and a player must go a full 24 hours without their current offer being raised. The minimum salary offer for an undrafted free agent is $420,000.00.

PRACTICE SQUAD
Teams are eligible to have an eight man practice squad. This will not begin until after the 53 man rosters are frozen. Beginning on April 19, teams will start bidding on eligible players. Minimum bids must be $102,000 and can go up to $415,000. Bidding increments must be $25,000. When 2 or more teams go to the maximum on a player, there will be a randomizer to determine the winner. You must have cap space for any and all practice squad players.

Teams are not required to add a practice squad to their roster but it is recommended. Below are the requirements to be eligible for the practice squad. Players must meet at least one of these requirements.

• Have no prior Accrued Seasons in the NFL (An accrued season is six or more games on the active roster)
• Have one prior Accrued Season in which the player was on the 45-man active roster for no more than 8 games

FINAL ROSTERS
Teams are required to submit their final rosters with a depth chart. Write-ups are optional. Further information will be provided once rosters are completely frozen.

VOTING
Each team has one vote (co-GMs cannot each vote) to keep things balanced. More information will be posted about the voting system in early May.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Q. I got a question regarding free agency. Is it possible to do a sign and trade for restricted free agents? There are a lot of guys I like that are restricted. I'd like to do a couple of sign-and-trades to ensure I get the players I want before they hit the market.

A: Here's how we do that. If a team tenders a RFA then the RFA remains tendered until free agency ends. A tender can be removed, but the player reverts to UFA status at that point. At the end of free agency, if the RFA hasn't received any bids he is officially signed by his original team for the tender amount. A RFA can have his rights traded once he’s been tendered and at that point he can be traded to any team. The team acquiring the player then will either gain said player at the end of free agency, or gain the compensation attached to him if he is signed away. The original team no longer factors in once the player has been traded.

Q. What do I need to do (financially) to keep RFA's and ERFA's? I know that ERFA's don't negotiate with other teams...so all I need to do is tender them for $495,000? Is that right? And that keeps them on the team for one more year?

A: $495,000 for ERFAs and nobody can touch them. You may trade ERFAs after you tender them if you wish.

Q. Regarding RFA's, do I just tender them with the amount specified and THEN have to match any offer that comes in to keep them? And that keeps them on my team for the length of the other team's OFFERED contract?

A: Tender the RFAs and then match if someone bids on them. We don't do anything with contract length. We just do the amount as if they were all 1 year contracts.

Q. When will you need our list of RFA's and ERFA's that we want to keep?

A: You just need to have your tags/tenders worked out by the start of free agency. Which is normally around the start of March.

Q. Can we re-sign players?

A: Yes, to an extent. Before free agency starts, everyone will list their UFA in a thread they wish to re-sign with a bid on them. You must have enough room under the cap for your bids. They will be collected and moved to a new thread. Opposing GMs will then announce a bid for a player in the thread. If no opposing GM bids on the player, he is officially yours. The player cannot be traded however. The player can be released, but you will absorb his entire contract as dead money and cannot use a June 1st exception on him.

Q. Is it (free agency) just first post gets the player or is there more to it?

A: Free agency is done in a bid format.

Q. So in free agency, we're just bidding for ONE year contracts then? Highest bid within 48 hours wins that player?

A: Yeah one year contracts. Everything resets next year so there isn't much point in doing anything longer. It's not quite the highest bid in 48 hours. Bidding could go on for a week for one player. Whenever a player goes 48 hours without receiving a bid, the bidding is over. So once you are outbid, you have 48 hours to get back on and bid again.

Q. How many times can we bid on a player?

A: You may bid on a player once per day. If a team beats your offer for a player, once the next 12AM ET happens, you may bid on the player again.

Q. Will there be a FA list or will we just have to work from each persons team page?

A: The "Free Agency" forum will have a thread for each position. The first post in the thread will have a list of players. The players will have the bid amount, time, and team next to them. Once a player is signed, he will be moved to the bottom of the listed under the "Signed" section.

Q. How is draft pick compensation going to work out? I know you have to be significantly under the cap to sign free agents. Lets say I get the winning bid. But if a team a tenders a guy with draft pick compensation, and you sign that guy but don't have the draft picks to give up, what will happen then? Is that team going to get a compensation pick or are you left with a bunch of cap space due to lack of draft picks?

A: You either have to give that team a higher pick or trade for a pick to give him before you can bid on the player. You cannot sign a tendered restricted free agent or a franchise player if you do not have the picks to give up.

Q. As we approach FA and our teams sign and cut players (for real) do we add and subtract those players from our rosters, and if so, how soon will the cap# be available. I'm sure that the [insert team] will be re-signing some of their FAs before March, and possibly cutting some for cap reasons.

A: None of that matters. The moment rosters were handed out, you took control of the team.

Q. What about compensatory draft picks?

A: There will be 32 compensatory draft picks that will be determined after the GM League free agency period by GridIronKing34 and Mach.

Q. What is the final roster size? Can we have a practice squad on our team?

A: 53 men on a squad. There will be an 8 man practice squad.

Q. Do all the rookie's we draft have to make the team? For example I have 16 draft picks, I have enough cap to sign them all but do they then all have to make my 53 man roster? Or can I just release some as teams often do in reality?

A: Yes, you may release players you drafted. You must announce you will not sign/tender them a contract though.

Q. I didn't see this anywhere but what is the minimum bid on a player? I'm sure we can't go putting $1 bids on people. Also, when increasing a bid, is there a minimum amount we must bid?

A: The minimum bid on a non-rookie player is $495K. Undrafted rookies are $420K. When increasing a bid, you must increase that player's bid by $250K no more, no less.

If you have any questions, please ask in this thread.