Inside this Newsletter
NFL Effingham League Newsletter
Change to Keepers, Salary Cap RuleI was going through the League Rules the other day and I realized something while I was reading the section about Keepers and their salaries. Under the current rule, for every player that we keep(a max of 3), we forfiet a draft choice of equal salary in the next draft. I think we need to change this rule slightly. Under this rule each owner’s salary cap would be affected equally regardless of which players he keeps. I don’t think that is how it should work. I think it should be as follows:
For the first player that we keep we forfiet our last draft choice in the next draft, for the second player that we keep we forfiet our next to last draft choice, and for our third player that we keep we forfiet our second to last draft choice. Under this rule each owner’s Salary Cap will be affected differently by which players he keeps. That makes the salary cap a much more strategic thing, as it should be. (See chart below for examples of both rules). As I said when I started this league, rule changes will be voted on by the owners, So I am leaving it up to you. I would appreciate a reply to this particular rule change before the ProBowl. That gives us all a few weeks to consider the change. Again, no response will be taken as a yes response. However I would like to get a response from all of you on this, whether it is yes or no.
EXAMPLE ONE - CURRENT RULE
Tigers Keepers
Player
|
Next Years Salary
|
Pick lost Next Draft
|
Salary Saved From Lost Pick
|
Net Hit against Cap next year
|
C.Martin-RB-NYJ
|
2,300,000
|
Round 1
|
2,200,000
|
100000
|
B.Greises-QB-DEN
|
1,600,000
|
Round 7
|
1,600,000
|
0
|
L.Smith-RB-MIA
|
600,000
|
Round 17
|
600,000
|
0
|
|
|
|
|
|
Totals
|
4,500,000
|
|
4,400,000
|
100,000
|
Hooters Keepers
Players
|
Next Years Salary
|
Pick lost Next Draft
|
Salary Saved From Lost Pick
|
Net Hit against Cap next year
|
R.Johnson-QB-BUF
|
1800000
|
Round 5
|
1800000
|
0
|
S.Morris-RB-BUF
|
900000
|
Round 14
|
900000
|
0
|
J.Belser-DB-IND
|
200000
|
Round 21
|
200000
|
0
|
|
|
|
|
|
Totals
|
2,900,000
|
|
2,900,000
|
0
|
As you can see from Example One the Tigers are keeping 3 players with a combined salary of 4.5 Million dollars yet they are only taking a 100,000 dollar hit against their salary cap next year. Because of the Draft Picks that they would lose in the next Draft. While the Hooters are keeping 3 players with a combined salary of 2.9 million dollars and they are taking no hit at all against their salary cap next year. Let’s look at this same example using the proposed rule change.
EXAMPLE TWO - NEW RULE
Tigers Keepers
Player
|
Next Years Salary
|
Pick lost Next Draft
|
Salary Saved From Lost Pick
|
Net Hit against Cap next year
|
C.Martin-RB-NYJ
|
2,300,000
|
Round 22
|
100,000
|
2,200,000
|
B.Greises-QB-DEN
|
1,600,000
|
Round 21
|
200,000
|
1,400,000
|
L.Smith-RB-MIA
|
600,000
|
Round 20
|
300,000
|
300,000
|
|
|
|
|
|
Totals
|
4,500,000
|
|
600,000
|
3,900,000
|
Hooter’s Keepers
Player
|
Next Years Salary
|
Pick lost Next Draft
|
Salary Saved From Lost Pick
|
Net Hit against Cap next year
|
R.Johnson-QB-BUF
|
1800000
|
Round 22
|
100,000
|
1,700,000
|
S.Morris-RB-BUF
|
900000
|
Round 21
|
200,000
|
700,000
|
J.Belser-DB-IND
|
200000
|
Round 20
|
300,000
|
-100,000
|
|
|
|
|
|
Totals
|
2,900,000
|
|
600,000
|
2,300,000
|
Now as you can see from this example Keeping the same 3 players the Tigers would take a hit of 3.9 million dollars against next years cap. Because of the different Draft Picks they would lose under this new rule. And the Hooters, dropping their same 3 players would only experience a hit of 2.3 million dollars against their salary cap next year. This is a much more fair scenario seeing as the Tigers are keeping Players with more combined salary than the Hooters are.
Expansion & Re-alignment Proposals AS good as this past season was I do feel that there is some room for improvement within the League. One item that I would like to submit to you owners for approval is the following Expansion & Re-alignment Proposal.
Under the proposed format the League would expand from Ten to Twelve Teams. The re-alignment would be a move from a One Conference, Two Division League to a Two Conference, Four Division League. There would be Two Divisions in each Conference, and Three Teams in each Division.
NFL Effingham League
Halas Conference
Butkus Division Payton Division
1. 1.
2. 2.
3. 3.
Lombardi Conference
Starr Division Hornung Division
1. 1.
2. 2.
3. 3.
Of course the names of the Conferences and Divisions are up for discussion.In this format we would take 8 Teams to the playoffs. The four Division Winners and the next two best records from each conference. The Playoffs would then Progress through each Conference with the two Conference winners playing each other for the Championship. Just like in the NFL. The schedule would remain at 13 regular season games with each team playing their Division twice and the rest of the League once.This alignment would make the League more competitive and add to the Prize money also. The League awards would remain the same as they were this year. The other area that would need to be addressed if this proposal is passed would be the 2001 Draft. I submit the following proposal. Since we get to keep as many as three players from this years roster I think we should do something to help the new owner’s, if we do expand. I think the best way to do that would be to take an average salary of the players kept from each of the three levels, and then give the two new owners an extra pick at the end of the rounds determined by the average salary of the kept players. If you have any suggestions they are more than welcome. We will not need to finalize this rule proposal until some time next year.
Expanded RostersI think we need more flexibility on Defense. I think we can gain that by adding a fourth Defensive starter. Much like on Offense where we have a list of required starters and then the option of an extra starter where ever we want, on Defense we will have our Three required starters and then one extra to start at whichever position we choose, DL, LB, or DB. This will expand our starting Lineups to 12 players consisting of:
OFFENSE
1 - QB
1 - RB
2 - WR
1 - TE
1 - extra RB, WR, or TE
SPECIAL TEAMS
1 - K
1 - KR
DEFENSE
1 - DL
1 - LB
1 - DB
1 - extra DL, LB, or DB
this proposal can also wait until next year for a vote.
Team Special Teams? The last rule change concerns Special Teams. I think we should continue to pick individual kickers, but I am open to the idea of picking Teams instead of individuals in regard to Punt and Kick Returners. In other words instead of picking Tim Dwight and Allen Rossum as KR, I could just pick Atlanta and Green Bay and get the kick and punt return stats from whichever team I start each week, in fact going with this idea we could incorporate punting stats as well. And again this idea can wait until next year for a vote.