A few years ago, I proposed this rule. It did not get much of a go with the league at that time. I am trying again. One of maybe 2 things I hate in this league is the salaries for the Free agent draft. Is it fair to pick a player ina round and each team as you go down pays the same?
1. All players are not created equal. 2. Fairness of player quality to draft spot. 3. If we are trying to stay close to NFL.
I propose changing the rule to make this fair and to align with the way the Rookie draft is run per salary as the player goes down.
14.1 - A player's initial salary is determined by the manner in which the player was acquired. Players acquired through the Free Agent draft are assigned an option year salary as follows: Round 1: $10 million Rounds 2: $7.5 million Rounds 3-4: $5 million Rounds 5-6: $4 million Rounds 7-8: $3 million Rounds 9-12: $2 million Rounds 13-16: $1 million Rounds 17-20: $500K Rounds 21-24: $300K Rounds 25+: $100K
Change to
14.1 - A player's initial salary is determined by the way the player was acquired. Players acquired through the Free Agent draft are assigned an option year salary as follows: Round 1: $10 million Rounds 2: $7.5 million Rounds 3-4: $5 million Rounds 5-6: $4 million Rounds 7-8: $3 million Rounds 9-12: $2 million Rounds 13-16: $1 million Rounds 17-20: $500K Rounds 21-24: $300K Rounds 25+: $100K 14.1.1 Each money level is broken down into money slots using the difference in salary to the next round divided by the number of picks in each round ex: Round 1 to round 2 is 2.5million divided by 23 or 108,650 Then each pick will be decreased that amount rounded for ease of use per round. This will continue each round and will expand the division rate based on the picks in that salary level.
I have created a spreadsheet that I will email to the league. This shows the breakdown of each round.
I have also created drop-downs so you can pick one team at a time and transfer that information right to the current salary sheets used by the league.
I like the idea as my rookie draft salary proposal follows a similar approach.
Once we get into the $2.0 mil salary rounds, I do not see a big difference in the value of the player drafted 1st in the round and the player drafted 24th in the round. So I would be more inclined to support this if it were only for the rounds through maybe the $4.0 or $3.0 mil round.
And it would be a lot of work for the person(s) keep track of the draft and player salaries considering we draft over 500 players (545 last season) in the free agent draft. Having 545 different salaries will be difficult to make sure that are all correct. Even so, if the salary steps were rounded it would make that job easier. For example, Rd. 1 & 2 $100,000 per pick not $108,695 per pick. Round 3 & 4 to $20,000 per pick not $21,276 per pick. Etc...