Board 8 > Board 8 National Football League League (B8NFLL) Season 11: The Offseason

(+) Yeah! (+)

You did it, KCF. You managed to make every HB in the league happy. Might be your finest accomplishment so far. GOAT Commissioner!

Okay, so most of you but not all (especially the users who have joined us in the past few seasons) may know that the league began with a mystery fantasy draft. What I mean by that is all the players that were originally in the game were all put together in one giant pool, and then I had the AI do the drafting for all 32 teams for the full 50 or so rounds that it lasted.

Entering our 11th season, some of those players are still with the teams that drafted them without ever entering the free agent pool. I can find this out in the game when I click on a player profile and look at when they were acquired by the team. If it says "FANTASY DRAFT" then that means they were acquired right when this project went live five years ago. While it will be a sad day teams start to have no players from their inaugural roster, that day isn't now, so here are are the players still with the team that selected them in that first draft (in order of age).

Bears
K Rian Lindell
LG Langston Walker
RT Jordan Gross
SS Mike Doss
RG Shawn Andrews
CB DeAngelo Hall

Bengals
LG Eric Steinbach
DT Tank Johnson
LT Khalif Barnes
WR Matt Jones
CB Fabian Washington
RE Terrell Suggs
WR Mike Williams

Bills
LT Jeff Backus
DT Albert Haynesworth
RT Alex Barron

Broncos
LG Alan Faneca
C Hank Fraley
CB Phillip Buchanon
RT Elton Brown
RT Shane Olivea
DT Tommie Harris

Browns
RE Charles Grant
LG Vince Manuwai
LT Adrian Jones
DT Vince Wilfork
RT Nat Dorsey

Buccaneers
DT John Henderson
WR Nate Burleson
CB Randall Gay

Chiefs
RE Junior Siavii
DT Sam Rayburn
LG Dylan Gandy
C Chris White

Colts
P Shane Lechler
LG Steve Hutchinson
K Jeff Reed
FS Bryan Scott
MLB Nick Barnett
LT Jammal Brown
DT Ian Scott
HB Steven Jackson

Cowboys
TE Jason Witten
CB Dunta Robinson

Dolphins
C Todd McClure
RG Kendall Simmons
WR Kelly Campbell
LOLB D.J. Williams
LE Travis Johnson

Falcons
RT Chris Samuels
RG Keydrick Vincent
C Dominic Raiola
MLB Gary Brackett
SS Donte Nicholson
SS Thomas Davis

49ers
RT Mark Tauscher
RE Jonathan Fanene
K Josh Scobee
LOLB Leroy Hill
LE Marcus Spears

Giants
LG Ben Hamilton
RE Reggie Hayward
MLB Barrett Ruud
LT Junius Coston

Hawks
Kynan Forney
LT Jonas Jennings
DT Shaun Rogers
SS Roy Williams
RE Aaron Kampman
CB Antonio Perkins
TE Kellen Winslow
WR Reggie Williams

Jaguars
K David Akers
LG Matt Lehr
SS Michael Lewis
FS Bob Sanders
LE Ty Warren
LOLB David Pollack
DT Dewayne Robertson
WR Michael Clayton
ROLB Kevin Burnett
QB Dan Orlovsky

Jets
K Lawrence Tynes
RT Kareem McKenzie
RE Antonio Pierce
RG Jake Grove
RE Chauncey Davis
CB Chris Gamble
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Lightning
K Neil Rackers
RE Justin Smith
QB Eli Manning
WR Braylon Edwards

Lions
P Rodney Williams
K Rob Bironas
LT Kevin Shaffer
LE Osi Umenyiora
LG Justin Smiley
QB Jason Campbell
RG Jonathan Clinkscale
DT C.J. Mosley

Packers
RE Dwight Freeney
RT Kevin Barry
K Josh Brown
DT Jimmy Kennedy
WR Lee Evans
C Jeff Faine
HB Carnell Williams
LG Logan Mankins
ROLB Channing Crowder

Panthers
LT Marvel Smith
C Nick Hardwick
MLB Jonathan Vilma
TE Chris Cooley
LE Luis Castillo

Patriots
C Daniel Koppen
P Dustin Colquitt
TE Heath Miller

Pioneers
P Chris Hanson
K Nate Kaeding
WR Mark Clayton
WR Troy Williamson

Pumpkins
P Kyle Larson
LG Mike Williams

Raiders
C Chukky Okobi
RT George Foster
MLB Larry Foote
WR Anquan Boldin
LOLB Karlos Dansby

Rams
K Sebastian Janikowski
RT Robert Gallery
LG David Diehl
ROLB Demarcus Ware
WR Roy Williams

Ravens
RG Stephen Neal
C Casey Rabach
SS Michael Boulware

Redskins
LG Brian Waters
LT Leonard Davis
DT Kevin Williams
K Mike Nugent
HB Kevin Jones
ROLB Teddy Lehman
FS Sean Taylor

Seahawks
P Brian Moorman
LT Levi Jones
WR Charles Rogers
RG Chris Snee

Steelers
LE Raheem Brock
LT Mike Pearson

Titans
LG Bryant McKinnie
QB Kyle Boller
K Robbie Gould

Vikings
P Dave Zastudil
C Ross Tucker
RG Qasim Mitchell
LE Will Smith

Wildcats
FS Chris Harris
CB Darrent Williams
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If I hadn't failed my team and forgotten about the re-signing deadline a couple seasons ago, that bum Haynesworth would not have had that undeserved distinction.

And the final fun fact/historical thing that I had planned was revealing the regular season records (in order of winning percentage) of everyone currently active in the league (newcomers Smitty and Jablaxi not included but Chris, our first champion, is) and how they stacked up to one another.

Some of these might be pretty depressing, maybe more so for long-time vets than those with just a season or so under their belt, but I hope that you can take this on the chin and know that I am not trying to pour salt over wounds but unveiling more of our project's history.

All of the data I used to provide the rankings can be found on the wiki page.

1. KCF (Dolphins S1-present) - .668% (107-53)
2. Sultan (Jaguars S3-present) - .653% (83-44-1)
3. Chris (Buccaneers S1-S7, present) - .633% (71-41)
4. Jukkie (Redskins S2-S6, Cougars/Patriots S7-present) - .604% (87-57)
5. Eddv (Giants S1-present) - .600% (96-64)
6. Nee (Lions S1-present) - .575% (92-68)
7. Wiz (Cowboys S1-present) - .550% (88-71-1)
8. Scare (49ers S2-present) - .531% (76-67-1)
9. Shattered (Steelers S6-present) - .531% (43-37-1)
10. Emerald (Panthers S6-present) - .525% (42-38)
11. stevr (Bills S7-present) - .507% (32-31-1)
12. Tangicide (Packers S8-present) - .479% (23-25)
13. Stan (Titans S2-S10) - .395% (57-87)
14. VI (Browns S9-present) - .375% (12-20)
15. Ranlom (Chiefs S7-present) - .375% (24-40)
16. prof (Wildcats S6-present) - .367% (29-50-1)
17. Shonen (Pumpkins S10-present) - .312% (5-11)
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Well, I guess that I can do another fun thing and list when each of our current users joined up. I just put the info right above, but I can do a dedicated post for better viewing, and maybe you can compare each other's accomplishments and become rivals or something.

Inaugural Season
*Chris
Eddv
KCF
Nee
Wiz

S2
Jukkie
Scare
Stan

S3
Sultan

S6
Emerald
prof
Shattered

S7
Ranlom
stevr

S8
Tangicide

S9
VI

S10
Shonen

S11
^Jablaxi
^Smitty

* - Left for three seasons
^ - I have neither seen them post nor get a hold of me since the new topic was made
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What happens if I idle during the offseason?

First and foremost, I want to remind everyone that if for any reason you need/want to take a break from your B8NFLL duties, do not hesitate to tell me and ask me and I am more than willing to take temporary control of your team until you are willing and able to return.

As for the four main events of the offseason, three of them have safety nets in place to prevent your team from being gutted. If you don't understand what follows, then hopefully everything will make sense when we go over the specific rules for each offseason event as they come. If it still doesn't, do not hesitate to ask questions:

1. If you idle during Restricted Free Agency - I will sign one of your restricted free agents (RFAs) at random and to a random tender level. If said RFA is signed by another team, I will default to not matching the offer and letting them sign with the other team with draft pick compensation coming your way.

2. If you idle during Signing Your Unrestricted Free Agents - I will sign one-third of your unrestricted free agents (UFAs) at random and to the deals that they are asking for. I will round up (if you have 16 UFAs, I will sign six). I will include players who will only sign via the franchise tag among the UFAs, but they will not be among those that I choose at random (aka will be used for counting purposes in your favor). Any player holding out will not count as a UFA and may be re-signed at my discretion (any knowledge of you trying to make a trade + your roster/salary cap situation will be taken into consideration).

3. If you idle during NFL Draft + Signing Rookies - I will draft for your team as if I were in charge of them using a combination method of present (positional holes, perceived opportunities, etc...) and future-oriented (soon-to-be retired players, expiring contracts, etc...) ideology. While I would rather this not be used to take advantage of me, I'm sure that most users who have idled and have me draft for them as well as observant peers can attest that if I am good at one thing, it is drafting (and losing Super Bowls).

4. If you idle during Free Agency - I won't do a thing. I have it set up so that the AI has the authority to sign any roster holes user teams have on their team. At the end of the third and final round of free agency, any user team with a roster hole will have the AI sign players until all holes have been filled. I will always remind users of any roster holes they have on their team after both signing their UFAs and rookies. The roster sheet on the hub spreadsheet also mentions to the very left of how many players for each position you need to have under contract for your team.
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To do:
- Send Jablax Seahawks stats once his account is finalized and stuff
- Start Updating Spreadsheet
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If I may offer my input on the roster sheet change, I don't think the position needs a separate column from the player, just the rating is enough imo. Too many lines going on, plus having a column there doesn't really serve any purpose. KCF doesn't change positions enough to warrant it I think.

Also, what if you made the team dividing lines a bit thicker than the lines separating player/rating, to help differentiate the columns? I can see someone getting mixed up on the ratings because the lines all look the same. Again, just my input.
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That's a fair comment and would actually drastically reduce the time for me to change the sheet too. I'm trying to think of there's an advantage to it and only thing I can think of is to display roster holes. I'll have a think.

The line thing I actually tried and the step between current line and next line up is really drastic so I swapped it back. Way more so than in excel. Wanted to show KCF before doing it

Gotcha. Just another thought, instead of having two sizes of lines then, what if you just didn't do custom lines between the player and the rating, and just leave the normal cell lines on those?
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Free Agent sheet is up-to-date

All teams should have updated cap spaces in the Team Financial sheet right now, and I am in the middle of doing some additional updating there right now.

Bills and Panthers should be fully up-to-date on their financials
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Bengals, Cowboys, Lions, Packers have their team financials updated and more are on the way
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Jags, Chiefs, Pumpkins, Bears, and Browns are updated now. Still more coming
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What did you think about my idea for the MVP voting
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I personally like stevr's suggestion of having the five-person ballot for every category but any user who has a different opinion for Off Player, Def Player, or MVP can write-in a candidate from one of the relevant categories.
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Team Financial sheet is now up to date. I am going through roster sheet and removing retired players. I might also do rating changes for teams who have been given the full Shattered treatment
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The following teams have their ratings updated:
Colts
Jags
Chiefs
Pumpkins
Bears
Browns
Dolphins
Vikings
Patriots
Giants
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Regarding the new format for the spreadsheet, and maybe this will be ironed out, but is the spacing supposed to be that way?

The thinner line between position and player name kind of fixes it, but the space to the left of the positional letters in the left column under every team looks a little weird. Minor complaint though.

Also, not sure why, but there seems to be weird spacing above random player names in certain rows.

Colts through Seahawks I think have the format that we are going with. Others have either the classic format or Shattered's first draft
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FB Nolan Hugely is listed in my financials but I dont think he is on my team
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I've done the formatting for every team now. What I need to do is revise the formatting for Bills through to Packers to make it consistent with everyone else (8 teams I think)

You can update overalls on those teams though KCF, that has no effect on me fixing the formatting on those teams. It will probably take me ~30 mins to fix them, I'm just too tired to finish it off tonight.

ScareChan posted...

FB Nolan Hugely is listed in my financials but I dont think he is on my team

He is in your team. He was a midseason injury replacement, so I likely forgot to add him to the roster sheet
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I am trying to wrap up all the updates tonight. Then maybe Shattered will wrap up his stuff by tomorrow or Friday and then we officially start RFA on Saturday?

Okay, I am all done on my end. The team that was hit hardest with rating drops was easily the Pioneers. Jags benefited the most from rating rises.
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To do:
- Send Jablax Seahawks stats once his account is finalized and stuff
- Officially start RFA once Shattered is done with his work
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Formatting should be done now

Best part of spreadsheet being updated is that it means trade season is open!

Yeah I think the formatting now looks way better. Thanks Shattered!

Not a great ratings change season for me, but it could have been worse I think.
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Ratings changes for me were okayish. Most of my defense got a 1-3 bump. My O-line saw minor bumps (with rookies getting a bit more) and everyone else on offense stayed static with Turner and Murdock dropping 1. Except for Owen who saw a 5 bump but from 68.

Raheem Brock decided to return and play as a 37 year old DE despite plummeting from 89 to 85. So would be cut bait but then KCF posted about original fantasy draft players and now I'd feel guilty about cutting him.

Sad that McClain wasnt able to maintain his 91 through the offseason (was 88 last year). Although should save me money on contract renewal at least

KCF0107 posted...

And the final fun fact/historical thing that I had planned was revealing the regular season records (in order of winning percentage) of everyone currently active in the league (newcomers Smitty and Jablaxi not included but Chris, our first champion, is) and how they stacked up to one another.

Some of these might be pretty depressing, maybe more so for long-time vets than those with just a season or so under their belt, but I hope that you can take this on the chin and know that I am not trying to pour salt over wounds but unveiling more of our project's history.

All of the data I used to provide the rankings can be found on the wiki page.

1. KCF (Dolphins S1-present) - .668% (107-53)
2. Sultan (Jaguars S3-present) - .653% (83-44-1)
3. Chris (Buccaneers S1-S7, present) - .633% (71-41)
4. Jukkie (Redskins S2-S6, Cougars/Patriots S7-present) - .604% (87-57)
5. Eddv (Giants S1-present) - .600% (96-64)
6. Nee (Lions S1-present) - .575% (92-68)
7. Wiz (Cowboys S1-present) - .550% (88-71-1)
8. Scare (49ers S2-present) - .531% (76-67-1)
9. Shattered (Steelers S6-present) - .531% (43-37-1)
10. Emerald (Panthers S6-present) - .525% (42-38)
11. stevr (Bills S7-present) - .507% (32-31-1)
12. Tangicide (Packers S8-present) - .479% (23-25)
13. Stan (Titans S2-S10) - .395% (57-87)
14. VI (Browns S9-present) - .375% (12-20)
15. Ranlom (Chiefs S7-present) - .375% (24-40)
16. prof (Wildcats S6-present) - .367% (29-50-1)
17. Shonen (Pumpkins S10-present) - .312% (5-11)

It's interesting to see that nobody who came in S6 onwards is able to break into that Top 8. I wonder if that's a case of it taking a few seasons to get knowledgeable enough to win consistently. Or if it's a case of it taking a few years to mold the team. Probably a combination of both

It's especially interesting because we comment that users tend to mismanage teams compared to the AI (at least cap wise) but it seems the longer users spend with a team the better their winning percentage. I guess the more cynical view could be that only winning users stay on long term and those who aren't as successful drop out.

McClain might still be a 91 if I told you that he hit that mark previously. I'm sure that I made a mistake or two when I updated ratings. I know that I caught a few before signing off last night and can find out later.
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Oops, I meant to indicate ties when I posted regular season records. Scare + Shattered and VI + Ranlom have the same career winning percentages.
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The real reason is that our inaugural group is just that damn good.

I like that I have made MOST of the post seasons I have been eligible and am still down quite a bit on this list
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Alternative theory. People who have been in it longterm have idled and had KCF make decisions for them at times and KCFs decision making is way better than the rest of us lol

My teams in good shape but I appear to have some difficult decisions to make this off-season.
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I will be the first to admit that my first season was definitely a bumpy road as far as learning how everything worked.
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Hm. Not many notable changes for the Bears. Moreno obviously got a bit of a bump after he ended the year strong which is good to see. Borland looks like he wants to take over for Dan Morgan at MLB after jumping a couple points to an 82. Otherwise it looks like some age regression for some players.

Titans though...Lynch is closing in on 90 after a good year of being the starter. Somehow I had a couple receivers increase by 1. Harry Douglas, despite being injured on two separate occasions during the year, made it to 80 and KR/PR and emergency WR fill in Blake Cronin is up to a 73 lol. The real stars of the offense though were in season FA signing RT Mike Jones who jumped 3 points and last year's #2 leading receiver TE Dwayne Allen also jumping 3 points to 89. Just in time for RFA!

DLine took a hit with everyone dropping including star acquisition Jamaal Anderson...oops. DTs both dropped by 2 leaves a gaping hole at DT for the Titans going forward. But that linebacker group! Gonna miss them. CB Samuel sees some age regression but that group still looks okay. Really disappointed that FS Carter didn't increase after starting last year but both SS increased in rating so that's neat.

Overall, mixed results for the Titans so we'll see what the AI does to build on the momentum of making the playoffs last year. As for the Bears, got some work to do with several retirees but not too much I think.

Emeraldegg posted...

I will be the first to admit that my first season was definitely a bumpy road as far as learning how everything worked.

Oh god this. And the next several years tbqh. Which is why it took so long for me to get the Titans back on track. And they might still fall back into being awful. I'm a lot more hopeful that the same won't happen to the Bears though given what I've learned.

Is there a way to see what the stats were previously? Like view the document as it wasbefore the chanes soI can compare? I think most of my keyguys got better which is good, but wanted to see if I am remembering wrong though
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Usually no but you are in luck because I copied the old stats when I was showing the example of the reformat

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16eKq2t-G5rnnU9Nu_iSMz2Krrr5LmB2N3E20wM-s4TQ/edit?usp=drivesdk

ShatteredElysium posted...

Alternative theory. People who have been in it longterm have idled and had KCF make decisions for them at times and KCFs decision making is way better than the rest of us lol

I think there's some truth to this. I also think that as long as you're active (or KCF is on your behalf) and have a really good team, the nature of Madden makes it a bit easier to maintain that.

Then there's other factors to consider. Like my team plays in the toughest division in the AFC. VI has had really bad luck with injuries. Shonen had some bad luck last year and is in the toughest division in the NFC.

There might be more to it - like maybe some of us are really bad at setting coaching strategies. I have no idea what I'm doing with defensive strategy specifically (as in, we perform pretty poorly regardless of what I've set), but I'm not sure if that's just because my defense isn't talented enough, random Madden factors, or I'm just bad at it.

ShatteredElysium posted...

Usually no but you are in luck because I copied the old stats when I was showing the example of the reformat

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16eKq2t-G5rnnU9Nu_iSMz2Krrr5LmB2N3E20wM-s4TQ/edit?usp=drivesdk

nice!
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cam +1, Foles -1, Rivers +1
Bell -1, Gore -2, Johnson -1, Austin +3, Williams +2, Turner + 3, Lindsay + 5!, Orr +5!
So not positive like I thought, but some big boosts from some of my new guys

If I remember right Orr was like a 5th round pick or something too
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even though coaches dont make a difference I feel a HB as our OC will help Cam and our running game
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Hey KCF, when you send me my RFA PM could you include what round each of the guys were drafted in? I normally keep a record for myself but as this is my first year with the Bears I'm unfamiliar with where anyone was drafted. Thanks!
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Sent a message to the fantasy football guys who signed up. Hopefully they check in here.

RFA will officially begin tomorrow.

I forgot to bring my Xbox with me, but "luckily" my furnace broke down, so I'm having my dad come over to bring that and some space heaters later today.
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Looking at all the RFAs, this appears to be one of the strongest groups that we've had. Lots of players in the mid-80s or higher.
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We get our Team Holes after RFA right? or am I missing steps

like RFAs, shot at our guys, Draft, then free agency or am I mixing it all up
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No, I tell you of your team holes after UFAs and rookie signings. You can ask me any time I suppose, but it is faster and easier to check the roster sheet yourself.

As far as off-season events go, you are correct on the order.
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