Board 8 > Board 8 National Football League League (B8NFLL) Season 10: The Offseason

(+) Yeah! (+)

I feel like this wasn't my best explanation of the slash line, so I apologize for anyone who needed that post. I feel like my post on it within the past three seasons was my best, and I guess that my old topics are archived somewhere, so if someone feels like I had a better one in the past, feel free to post it.
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I don't really see any issues, it's like you said, the guaranteed stuff is always the hardest to grasp.
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Brief Explanation of Offseason Events

I will go into full detail once we reach those points in the offseason, but I can touch on all of them now

1. Restricted Free Agency

Any player who just completed a three-year contract they originally signed as a rookie will be eligible for restricted free agency. Here, you have the option to sign or not sign restricted free agents (RFAs) from your own team to a one year deal of various monetary amounts (aka tender level) that is fully non-guaranteed. After all teams decide on that, teams will be able to sign RFAs that signed tenders from other teams to long-term contracts.

Finally, any team with an RFA that was offered a long-term contract by another team has the option to match or decline said contract. If they accept, the player will play under their original team under the new contract. If they decline, the player will play under the new team with the new contract, and the old team will receive compensation in the form of draft picks relative to the tender level the player was signed for in the very first phase of this.

2. Signing Your Unrestricted Free Agents

Any player who just completed their contract and wasn't eligible for restricted free agency will be found here. This is a lot simpler as you don't have to worry about other teams poaching your players. I just send you a list of all players with the contract that they are seeking. You let me know if you wish and do not wish to re-sign, and if you are comfortable with their demands or wish to give them a different offer. There are some wrinkles to this, but I will go into further details once we get there.

3. NFL Draft + Draft Pick Signing

This is a 7-round affair where all 32 teams draft collegiate players. Each round is ordered by record among the 20 non-playoff teams and record + playoff performance by the 12 playoff teams (SB winner will always pick 32nd, SB loser 31st, etc...). All teams normally have one pick in each of the seven rounds, but those picks get traded or lost during RFA. The fourth post lists the order and the current draft picks that have been exchanged.

After the draft is done, you have an opportunity to sign your rookies. You will not know the rookie's rating until after they are signed. The game has a certain recommendation for contract lengths based on where the player was taken to promote roster and financial flexibility. You are free to ignore their advice if you wish though.

There is a new rule that I am implementing this season upon requests made by users after making public my crusade to end gaming the system. To my knowledge, this only applies to one user, so everyone can basically ignore this, but you must sign rookies to a contract with a signing bonus equal or greater than what they originally ask for given each contract length. This is to prevent people from signing rookies with no guaranteed money, and if they do not like their overall rating, they can release them without consequence.

4. Free Agency

All those players who are currently on the free agent sheet plus those unsigned during any of the three previous offseason events will be eligible to be signed by any team at this point. However, all 32 teams will have an opportunity to bid (through contract offers) on the services of players. There will be three periods of free agency. I periodically send PMs to users indicating the holes on their roster, and if you have any holes remaining, the AI will sign players for you to fill said holes.
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Finally, I want to remind people that during the periods of signing your own free agents and free agency, you have limitations to the contract lengths you can offer them. You cannot sign a player to a contract that extends beyond their age-34 season unless the base contract already extends beyond that. If a player is already 34 or older, you cannot sign them to a contract longer than the base contract that they are seeking.

For example, free agent K Billy Cundiff is 34 years old. In free agency, he might seek a two-year contract. Even though he is already 34, you can offer him a two-year contract as that was his base contract or even a one-year contract, but you cannot offer him more than two. Free agent SS Lamon Means is 32, and if he wants a three-year contract, you cannot exceed that because three years will take him through his age-34 season.

The reason why this limitation is now in effect is to prevent people from gaming the system by offering older players long-term contracts beyond what they were asking for. Those players might retire before the contract ends. The team then pays lower cap hits in the seasons that the player is active and not pay the higher caps after the player retires with no cap penalty as contracts and null in void in this game once a player retires.
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I think that covers everything. I hope to start RFA either tomorrow or Friday. I will now ping users who haven't posted yet so that they aware.
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@Shonen_Bat
@VeryInsane

You are our junior members, so I just wanted to let you know that we will officially begin doing stuff either tomorrow or Friday. Much information has been posted, and if you have any questions before we begin, do not hesitate.
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If it helps here's a short version of how I interpret contracts (as I know I was one of the people frequently asking for clarification)

When signing new players / renewing contracts they are presented as:

Contract Length (in years) / Total Contract Cost (all years combined) / Total Guaranteed Money (all years combined)

On the spreadsheet contracts are presented as:

Years Remaining / Annual Guaranteed Money (Annual Bonus on spreadsheet) / This Year Salary / Next Year Salary (if applicable)

If you release or trade a player you are always on the hook for ALL the remaining guaranteed money which can be calculated by multiplying the years remaining by Annual Bonus. That cap hit penalty is applied in full (i.e. not stretched across course of contract) the year immediately after trading or releasing a player.

Contracts are always back loaded. So year 1 of a contract is always the cheapest and they seem to increase by ~18-25% each year (I'm sure the % depends on original contract length and guaranteed money). That means long term contracts (5+ years) will be very cap friendly the first few years but will be very punishing on your cap space on the back end of the contract.

bump
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Restricted Free Agency

This minor but oddly detailed offseason event is for a small subset of players who just completed their untampered rookie contract that was exactly three years in length. These players are not eligible to be originally offered multi-year contracts by the team that holds their rights but instead one-year contracts of fixed figures based on the tender level that you offer them.

Our Tender Levels for this season
No Tender = no potential draft pick compensation = $0
Low Tender = potential original round draft pick compensation = $820k
Mid Tender = potential 1st round draft pick compensation = $1.79 mil
High Tender = potential 1st + 3rd round draft pick compensation = $2.38 mil

Now, the mentioning of draft pick compensation there is only applicable if another team attempts to sign your player. It has no bearing on this first phase of RFA. It wouldn't make much sense if you had to give up draft picks to sign your own player now would it? Newcomers and people who don't have a good memory are certainly free to ask me what round a player was drafted in if that affects their tender level.

That being said, you might want to keep in mind about that draft pick compensation when you determine what tender to offer your player. If you think very highly of your player, you might want to offer the highest tender to deter other teams from attempting to sign them. If you don't consider a player to be a part of your future plans, you might want to offer the low tender so that they barely count against your cap space and you could end up even getting draft pick compensation if someone else wants him.

A word of advice from me: The full monetary amount attached to the tenders is NOT GUARANTEED and is usually less than what they would make on the open market, so there is essentially 0 risk to offering all of your players a tender unless you personally hate them with a passion.

You can also engage trade talks with other teams so that you can prearrange a trade that if X player is not signed by another team, you will trade them to Y team for Z compensation that might be lower than what Y team would have had to give up to sign them during RFA. In this scenario, you might want to offer the highest tender level to deter the maximum amount of teams from disrupting the trade.
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Sequence of Events

1. I will privately contact every user and inform them of their RFAs and the tender levels. If you dont have any RFAs, then you wont be notified.

2. Users will have three days to inform me which players they wish to sign and at what level.

3. I will publicly reveal all RFAs from user and A.I. teams that can be signed by other teams (AKA were offered a tender) plus their tender levels and the base kind of deal they are looking for.

4. I will give users five days to decide any action, if any, they wish to take. If they do wish to take further action, they will PM me.

Now by "any action you wish to take," I mean that everyone has an opportunity to attempt to sign RFAs from other teams. You might see some sticker shock but keep in mind that some positions are more expensive (WRs, DTs, QBs) than others (OLBs, Cs, TEs) relative to their overall rating. An 80 WR will usually be more expensive than a 90 C, and that's just how things are. Also, do not feel compelled to be active in this phase if you do not want to. Most teams sit it out, but we always get some activity from the league.

5. If a team attempts to sign another teams RFA, then the user who owns the RFAs rights will have two days to decide whether or not to match the offer.
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If you idle for any of the steps in RFA, then here is what will happen:
- If you do nothing when issuing players tenders, then I will give a random tender to a random RFA.
- If you do nothing when you can sign other team's RFAs, then I just won't do anything.
- If you do not inform me if you will match or decline to match an offer another team made on one of your RFAs, then you will default to not matching the offer.
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Two users did not receive a PM as they did not have any RFAs, so if you didn't get one, don't be alarmed and know that is why. All users who did have RFAs should have a PM in their inbox right now.

The deadline for the first phase of RFA will be Sunday, April 15th at 11 PM ET.
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Ah yes, we're hitting that time of the NFLL season
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Stream of thoughts that I wanted to post before but hadn't because I've been sick:

Yes! Robert Ferguson retired (also holy crap at that Brady Quinn OVR jump!)! Keep in mind that Brady Quinn and all players listed on the Bills' trading block page are all still on offer, folks!

Good riddance, Tom Brady. Also, farewell to the enitre Minnesota Vikings roster - enjoy retirement, guys.

I, for one, am still a big believer in Nick Foles.

KCF, can you sate my curiosity and let me know who the Bills' coaching staff is/was if you remember? My recollection is that Marvin Lewis is HC, Mike McCarthy was OC, not sure who was DC that just got replaced, and not sure who is/was STC.

I do not have info to who your DC was last season. I can check STC later, but they are all no-name people (why I never mention them) except for John Harbaugh since he became a head coach in real life.

autocorrect changed info to Incas
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bumping

Just over 24 hours for the first phase of RFA
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Less than 12 hours away
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Can't wait for me to be super indecisive because my 1st rounder is by far the highest I've ever had.

@Wizardsfan1000
@ScareChan

Just a friendly ping that you have yet to PM me your actions for the first phase of RFA.
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I intend to start second phase some time after deadline
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RFA Phase 2

The following post will contain all the RFAs by team that received a tender in the previous phase. The format will look like this:

Team Name
Player (Draft capital required to offer a contract) - Base Contract Slash Line (can be altered)

The draft capital is key. If a player requires a 1st and 3rd round pick to sign, you must own a 1st and 3rd round pick. There have been no changes in draft capital since the offseason began, so post #4 is still accurate. If you happen to own multiple picks in a round that are required to sign a player, then you lose the worst of how ever many picks you have.

Using the Dolphins as an example, if they wanted to sign a player that required a 1st round pick, they would end up losing the 29th overall pick should they successfully sign a player.

I also want to reiterate that you only lose draft picks if you sign a player and the original team elects not to match the offer in the final phase. You should keep that in mind that if you do wish to sign a player away from another team, you might want to offer a contract that you feel the original team would not match. You can alter any combination of the Years/Total Salary/Guaranteed portions of the slash line, but remember that the years cannot exceed 7.
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Bears
SS William Moore (3rd) - 3 / $5.51 mil / $780k

Bengals
HB Chris Ivory (1st) - 4 / $16.6 mil / $3.20 mil
CB Chris Harris Jr. (2nd) - 5 / $10.8 mil / $1.20 mil
LOLB Alex Daniel (4th) - 4 / $5.72 mil / $840k

Bills
DT B.J. Raji (2nd) - 4 / $17.0 mil / $3.32 mil
WR Jordy Nelson (3rd) - 3 / $10.9 mil / $1.83 mil
LT Omar Frazier (4th) - 5 / $11.5 mil / $1.85 mil
LOLB Josh Jackson (3rd) - 4 / $6.69 mil / $1.04 mil
C Bo Hamilton (7th) - 3 / $2.44 mil / $300k

Broncos
SS Chris Browning (1st + 3rd) - 2 / $5.48 mil / $620k
LT Will Beatty (2nd) - 5 / $11.5 mil / $1.85 mil
LG Mackenzy Bernadeau (3rd) - 4 / $7.39 mil / $1.36 mil

Buccaneers
LT Carlos Manning (1st + 3rd) - 4 / $21.3 mil / $5.44 mil
QB Joe Flacco (2nd) - 4 / $16.3 mil / $3.12 mil
ROLB Nick Hollinsworth (4th) - 4 / $6.69 mil / $1.04 mil

Chiefs
RG Donte Williams (3rd) - 4 / $6.82 mil / $1.24 mil
LE Tyson Jackson (2nd) - 5 / $9.63 mil / $1.20 mil

Colts
RT Bryan Bulaga (1st) - 3 / $11.5 mil / $2.64 mil
HB Rodney Buckley (4th) - 5 / $11.0 mil / $1.95 mil
CB John Nelson (3rd) - 5 / $11.8 mil / $1.30 mil

Cowboys
FS Harrison Smith (1st + 3rd) - 3 / $12.1 mil / $3.03 mil

Dolphins
C Andy Levitre (1st) - 2 / $6.20 mil / $1.34 mil
LE Kroy Biermann (1st) - 4 / $17.4 mil / $3.52 mil
TE Owen Daniels (4th) - 3 / $9.04 mil / $1.62 mil
MLB Brian Cushing (1st) - 3 / $13.7 mil / $2.40 mil
FS Rob Jackson (4th) - 3 / $7.62 mil / $1.35 mil
WR Miles Austin (3rd) - 3 / $9.57 mil / $1.56 mil

Falcons
K LaRue Rucker (1st) - 2 / $3.48 mil / $460k
WR Percy Harvin (1st) - 3 / $13.3 mil / $2.25 mil
HB BenJarvus Green-Ellis (4th) - 4 / $11.2 mil / $2.08 mil
CB Michael Freund (2nd) - 5 / $9.85 mil / $1.15 mil

49ers
QB Michael Turner (2nd) - 4 / $21.0 mil / $4.56 mil
CB Peter Whitworth (1st) - 5 / $13.8 mil / $1.50 mil

Giants
FS Glover Quin (1st) - 3 / $10.4 mil / $2.16 mil
K Dan Bailey (4th) - 3 / $3.23 mil / $450k
RT Donald Vogel (3rd) - 4 / $9.20 mil / $1.48 mil

Hawks
LG Rodney Hudson (1st + 3rd) - 3 / $20.3 mil / $4.14 mil
FS Jarius Byrd (1st) - 3 / $7.99 mil / $1.44 mil
HB Shonn Greene (4th) - 4 / $12.9 mil / $2.44 mil
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Jets
SS Roman Harper (1st + 3rd) - 2 / $6.45 mil / $660k
P Kevin Huber (1st) - 2 / $1.69 mil / $460k
ROLB Novorro Bowman (1st) - 3 / $9.44 mil / $1.74 mil
QB Blaine Gabbert (4th) - 5 / $15.2 mil / $2.55 mil
FB Marcel Reese (3rd) - 3 / $3.04 mil / $510k
LOLB Jeff Hicks (3rd) - 4 / $5.98 mil / $880k

Lightning
TE Charles Clay (1st) - 3 / $9.04 mil / $1.62 mil
HB Ahmad Bradshaw (1st) - 4 / $16.6 mil / $3.20 mil
SS Rahim Moore (3rd) - 3 / $5.21 mil / $720k

Lions
RT Joe Williamson (2nd) - 4 / $8.89 mil / $1.44 mil
LOLB Eric Sherman (3rd) - 4 / $5.72 mil / $840k
CB Nick Bowen (4th) - 5 / $7.81 mil / $1.00 mil

Packers
MLB Derrick Jordan (1st) - 3 / $11.2 mil / $1.59 mil
DT Desmond Bryant (2nd) - 5 / $15.2 mil / $2.95 mil

Panthers
CB Bernard Stewart (1st) - 5 / $15.9 mil / $1.65 mil
CB Trent Gunn (4th) - 5 / $10.8 mil / $1.20 mil

Patriots
CB Darrell Cruz (4th) - 5 / $11.8 mil / $1.30 mil

Pioneers
FB Mike Tolbert (1st + 3rd) - 2 / $7.66 mil / $1.88 mil
RT Reggie Harris (1st + 3rd) - 3 / $17.4 mil / $4.56 mil
DT Brandon Mebane (4th) - 5 / $12.2 mil / $2.20 mil

Pumpkins
FS James Riley (1st + 3rd) - 3 / $9.37 mil / $1.86 mil
QB Blair Herring (2nd) - 4 / $16.3 mil / $3.12 mil
DT Henry Melton (3rd) - 5 / $14.2 mil / $2.70 mil

Raiders
RT Sebastian Vollmer (1st + 3rd) - 3 / $14.5 mil / $3.60 mil
RT Eddie Earwood (1st) - 3 / $11.5 mil / $2.64 mil
HB Justin Forsett (4th) - 4 / $11.2 mil / $2.08 mil

Rams
FS Kurt Coleman (1st) - 3 / $7.62 mil / $1.35 mil
WR George Harmon (4th) - 3 / $10.2 mil / $1.68 mil
SS Shiloh Keo (3rd) - 3 / $4.69 mil / $660k

Ravens
RE Gaines Adams (1st) - 5 / $11.2 mil / $1.40 mil
QB Colt Brennan (2nd) - 5 / $12.6 mil / $2.05 mil

Redskins
QB Matt Moore (2nd) - 4 / $17.9 mil / $3.60 mil
WR Mike Austin (4th) - 3 / $10.2 mil / $1.68 mil
RT Pete Mitchell (3rd) - 4 / $8.58 mil / $1.36 mil
WR Martin Smith (4th) - 3 / $8.94 mil / $1.44 mil

Seahawks
ROLB Derrick Bonds (1st) - 4 / $7.92 mil / $1.32 mil
CB Martin Brown (2nd) - 5 / $11.8 mil / $1.30 mil
ROLB Blake Jones (4th) - 4 / $5.72 mil / $840k

Steelers
LOLB Junior Galette (3rd) - 4 / $6.69 mil / $1.04 mil
C David Carter (4th) - 3 / $4.88 mil / $870k

Titans
FS Mike Mitchell (1st) - 3 / $7.62 mil / $1.35 mil
HB Pierre Thomas (3rd) - 4 / $12.9 mil / $2.44 mil
WR Harry Douglas (4th) - 3 / $10.2 mil / $1.68 mil

Vikings
FS Trent Ford (1st) - 3 / $8.32 mil / $1.56 mil
CB Orlando Scandrick (1st) - 4 / $16.5 mil / $2.44 mil

Wildcats
HB Reshad Jennings (1st) - 4 / $12.9 mil / $2.44 mil
LT Tommy Jackson (2nd) - 5 / $11.5 mil / $1.85 mil
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As a rule of thumb for those who will be participating in this phase, use simple division from the slash to use as a basis for your custom contract if you choose to stray away from the base. Using Wildcats LT Tommy Jackson as an example, his base contract is 5 / $11.5 mil / $1.85 mil. If you divide the second and third numbers by his base years (5), you will find out that his annual cap hit is $2.3 mil and his annual bonus is $370k. You can use those figures as your new basis if you want to offer something different from what he is asking.

Deadline to submit offers to me for Phase 2 of RFA will be Saturday, April 21st at Noon ET
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Bump
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I may have asked this before but I forget, so just for clarification, how generally does increasing the number of years affect the cap hit for a player?

If, for instance, you sign a player for 4 years vs a player for 7 years at the same average value, say 3 mil a year average, will the first year cap hit be smaller for the 4-year or 7-year player? And likewise, which player would see the most expensive cap hit on the final year?

In other words, is it "the longer you sign a player for, the lower his cap hit is at first but it increases more dramatically over time vs someone with a shorter contract"?
Or is it "the longer you sign a player for, the higher his cap hit is at first but it increases less dramatically over time vs someone with a shorter contract"?
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Emeraldegg posted...

"the longer you sign a player for, the lower his cap hit is at first but it increases more dramatically over time vs someone with a shorter contract"

this one
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KCF0107 posted...

Emeraldegg posted...

"the longer you sign a player for, the lower his cap hit is at first but it increases more dramatically over time vs someone with a shorter contract"

this one

Gotcha, thank you.
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Out of curiosity, what happens if RFA puts you over 10 draft picks?

Then you have over 10 draft picks. That's happened to Han of the Bills in S3 and me for the Dolphins in S8.
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If anyone is willing to trade a 4th rounder for some combination of my 2014 5th and 2015 4th and 5th, message me.
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Bump
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If anyone is willing to do a 2nd (can be low 2nd) for a high 3rd (9th) and another lower round pick then lemme know. Obviously for RFA purposes so timeframe to do the trade is small. I forget what peer review period is so it might even be too late

Peer review is 24 hours, so the deadline to trade would be like saturday night
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RFA deadline is noon Saturday so deadline for trades is noon tomorrow then

Oh I lookeda the wrong page of the topic, whoops, then yeah
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Makin a trade!

Steelers receive: Panthers 2nd rd pick (26th in the rd)

Panthers receive: Steelers 3rd and 5th rd picks (9th in the rd)
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Confirm

Trying to perform mental gymnastics to work out how much cap I'll have if I offer an RFA along with my expected re-signings and I'm pretty sure it is not good.

Those rookie contracts are rough to sit on if they don't actually improve.

Trade!

~Steelers Receive:
Chiefs 2014 5th (4th in rd)
Chiefs 2015 4th

~Chiefs Receive:
Steelers 2014 4th (9th in rd)
Steelers 2015 6th

A big thank you to Shattered for swooping in at the last minute.
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Confirm

Emeraldegg posted...

Makin a trade!

Steelers receive: Panthers 2nd rd pick (26th in the rd)

Panthers receive: Steelers 3rd and 5th rd picks (9th in the rd)

Trade is official
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Less than 5 hours until deadline.

I wonder how many people lose players each year from idling out on tender matching

We might have set a record for most activity in the second phase of RFA. I already know what players the AI went for, but now I need to open the PMs. Users whose RFAs were targeted will be notified later today.
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Only one player overlap among all the players users went after, and only two players had user/AI overlap.
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Kinda stumped on who people have gone for.

I'd assume there's overlap on Owen Daniels since a 4th for an 85 TE is a steal and I can see 2 TE needy user teams. I half thought about going for him myself and trying to trade away my current TE if I got him but my cap situation was worse than I thought.

Past that I'm not really sure what people would have gone for. I wasn't going to bid on anything that needed a 1st purely because of how high my 1st pick was. Probably a mistake but I have a lot of positions of need so hoping I can get someone to slot right in and play.

I ultimately decided against losing the draft pick
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I want to say that I am baffled no user team went after Harrison Smith, whom I believe is now the top-rated FS in the league. If I didn't draft Ed Reed's replacement last year, I would have gone hard after him, even with my expected cap woes.
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Trade Time!

Browns receive:
49ers 1st round pick (16th overall)
Dolphins 1st round pick (29th overall)

Dolphins receive:
Browns 1st round pick (6th overall)
Browns 3rd round pick (70th overall)

Trade is up for 24 hour peer review, and VI needs to confirm.
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