2024 RFA primer and commentary thread

[Tford]

Quote

6 Restricted Free Agency

Once a player's contract expires, he becomes a Restricted Free Agent. RFA bidding begins {date} and closes on {date}. No new bids will be accepted after {date}; "bids in process" may continue beyond {date} until a final offer is reached for a player. After the RFA signing period, any players that did not receive bids will remain on the current team's roster at no cost.

6.1 Bidding Process
All RFA bids are made in the league forum and each bid thread title must include the player's name and current owner (example: RFA17 - Tim Brown, WR HB Longhorns, where 17 = current year) and the amount bid should be in the post. Owners may not raise their own high bids or bid on their own players. Once a bid is posted on a player, other interested owners may increase the bid. Owners may drop out of the bidding process for any individual player at any time unless they have the high bid. They may re-enter the process as long as bidding remains active for the player in question.

6.2 Bid Closing / Matching
Bidding will CLOSE on any player who doesn’t receive a bid for 24 consecutive hours. Once the auction is “CLOSED” on a player, the current owner will have 24 hours to match the highest bid and retain that player. If the bid is matched or 24 hours passes without a match then the auction will be marked “FINAL” for that player. The timer will NOT be turned off during weekends. The timer is turned off on Easter. Any bids made the Saturday prior to Easter will not close until the Monday following Easter. Any bids made on Easter will not close until the following Monday at midnight EST."

6.3 Overbidding
Owners who place bids must have enough AFL-Devy Bucks available to cover all outstanding high bids. If an owner overbids their budget at any time, that bid will be removed from the board. The highest bidder at the time of the overbid will be asked by the Commish/Roster Commish if they would like to maintain their previous bid. The overbidding owner can no longer bid for said player. (This exclusion will remain even if overbidding owner makes a trade for more AFL-Devy Bucks). All other bids placed by the offending owner will remain in effect. Anyone overbidding their AFL-Devy Buck balance will incur the following penalty(ies):

1st offense - $3 AFL-Devy Bucks fine. Bid is null and void.
2nd offense - $6 fine-Devy Bucks fine. Bid is null and void.
3rd offense - Owner is locked from remainder of bidding process in current RFA period (except matching)

Provided that everyone is paid up, bidding begins on Monday April 1 and no new bids are allowed beyond April 22. Bidding may continue on open auctions beyond the 22nd but no new auctions may be opened after that date.

 

Rules are summarized above. Bid convention this year should be as follows:

RFA24 - [Full Player Name] [NFL Team] [Position] (Current RFA rights holder)

Example: RFA24 - Deion Sanders ATL CB (Footlongs)

 

Please avoid spotlighting players, bid or unbid. There's no official rules in the rulebook against it but it's bad form in my opinion.

 

You can see your bidding balance in the link below. I will do my best to update the cash as bids are won or matches are confirmed but each owner is responsible for their own balance regardless of the state of update on MFL. You must be able to cover all outstanding bids at all times.

Accounting Report on MFL site

 

Finally, to confirm for both new and old owners, RFA rights can be traded at any time in this league; before bidding, during bidding and after bidding is closed but before the match timer expires.

[Tford]

Just to confirm for new and old owners alike, when auctions are closed, I will typically closed them with a comment as follows:

 

"Bidding is CLOSED. Incumbent owner team has 48 hours from last bid to match."

 

24 hours of no bids to close the auction, 24 hours more to allow the incumbent owner to match. If you have any questions, drop me a PM.

[darin3]

10 hours ago, flemingd said:

75

Lmao shot fired.  

[CreasyBear]

Seriously.

Guess it’s that kinda league.

[RodneyRules]

Dave….your either stupid, made a mistake and added a 5 to a bid that was more logical or your trying to make a new friend.  Either way enjoy Ridley for 75 bahahaaha.  

[RodneyRules]

3 hours ago, CreasyBear said:

Seriously.

Guess it’s that kinda league.

Loved your narrative on trade just processed….beware of THE COCK!

[CreasyBear]

9 minutes ago, RodneyRules said:

Loved your narrative on trade just processed….beware of THE COCK!

Fleming could’ve at least bought me dinner first! 😉

[Tford]

While it doesn't seem like it will change anything based on the current narrative, this is still spotlighting IMO.

 

Wouldn't hurt my feelings if the discussion waited until after the auction is complete.

[RodneyRules]

Yea my bad….see something say something engrained in my head

[CreasyBear]

29 minutes ago, Tford said:

While it doesn't seem like it will change anything based on the current narrative, this is still spotlighting IMO.

 

Wouldn't hurt my feelings if the discussion waited until after the auction is complete.

I can tell you another thing that hurts feelings and is poor form… lol

Maybe humor the FNG, Ford, and tell him exactly what spotlighting is? Thanks and have a great night.

[darin3]

I thought spotlighting was intended to cover players that had yet to be bid on or drafted.   
 

if that’s not the case then I’m guilty too since I commented as well 

[Tford]

1 minute ago, CreasyBear said:

I can tell you another thing that hurts feelings and is poor form… lol

Maybe humor the FNG, Ford, and tell him exactly what spotlighting is? Thanks and have a great night.

Spotlighting to me is drawing attention to any player whose auction is still under way or yet to start. Any discussion that could influence others' opinion on the RFA process.

For all we know there could be other bidders that may have or still want to bid on any player open and your discourse could be altering their opinion.

Like I said, there's no actual rule against it in our rulebook so I can't enforce anything here. But it doesn't mean that I have to condone it either.

[darin3]

And oops. Sorry I’m just realizing this is not the bid thread and the comment thread where I was the one to start commenting on the wild bid.  
 

in my other leagues, “spotlighting” is reserved for players that had not been mentioned yet, whether in RFA or draft   
 

sorry if I stepped over a line 

 

[CreasyBear]

4 minutes ago, Tford said:

Spotlighting to me is drawing attention to any player whose auction is still under way or yet to start. Any discussion that could influence others' opinion on the RFA process.

For all we know there could be other bidders that may have or still want to bid on any player open and your discourse could be altering their opinion.

Like I said, there's no actual rule against it in our rulebook so I can't enforce anything here. But it doesn't mean that I have to condone it either.

Cool. 

[flemingd]

All you donkeys with a ton of cash and doing nothing to improve your teams with it.  What else is there to spend on?  $75 isn't even 1/2 of what a bunch of owners have available and Creasy had over $200.  Owners entered RFA in this league with 173% of the annual allotment and the big prizes are David Montgomery and Ridley and with our FT rule no stud is ever going to hit RFA.

[flemingd]

On 4/3/2024 at 11:30 PM, Tford said:

While it doesn't seem like it will change anything based on the current narrative, this is still spotlighting IMO.

No big deal, but I agree.  Not like anyone was likely to overbid it in this particular case, but that's mostly not the point.  Anything that draws the attention to someone not closed shouldn't happen. Just because one guy thinks it's too high doesn't mean everyone else does, and that might remind someone that doesn't to get in there and up that bid.  Sucks for the guy that wanted him and/or the guy that now has to match a higher bid.

[Tford]

3 hours ago, flemingd said:

All you donkeys with a ton of cash and doing nothing to improve your teams with it.  What else is there to spend on?  $75 isn't even 1/2 of what a bunch of owners have available and Creasy had over $200.  Owners entered RFA in this league with 173% of the annual allotment and the big prizes are David Montgomery and Ridley and with our FT rule no stud is ever going to hit RFA.

Is $75 for Ridley really that crazy when Josh Allen went for $113? You can trade rights at any time in this league so I think that you need to make sure that you outbid everyone if you want to win.

 

[CreasyBear]

Hey, all good.

Again, owners can value a player any way they want. Still, observing as a newcomer to the League, when one bid is SUCH an outlier for a seemingly 2nd tier player, that seems to be a big enough ‘spotlight’ in an of itself. Plus the timing of the bid just seemed wonky, as a series of bids had already been placed on Ridley, with the big bid coming basically immediately after his rights were dealt to the FNG!! 😉  Still, it’s a good point that there really are only a certain number of avenues available to add assets, and dollars don’t score points. 

But again, all good. I am just trying to get a read on the personalities and tendencies of the other owners, as I only know one guy…looks like we got all sorts of guys in this league: dudes that spend money like sex addicts at the Bunny Ranch; 🙂 dudes that cling to assets like they are their daughter’s virginity on prom night, stand-up dude’s, etc., and then there’s that Huntington Longhorns guy…yikes.

But looking forward to the NFL Draft!!

[RodneyRules]

Yea watch out for the Longhorn dude....he's sketch!  While I agree with your take on what went down (and think I know why), nobody has ever been able to keep the c*ck in its pants...right Dave?

[flemingd]

1 hour ago, CreasyBear said:

Plus the timing of the bid just seemed wonky, as a series of bids had already been placed on Ridley, with the big bid coming basically immediately after his rights were dealt to the FNG

Last year I put Russell Wilson up for $1 thinking I'd bump it later.  Not one donkey even bid $2 and he closed at $1.  If you don't bid what you're willing to win him at, don't be surprised if your underbid gets matched.  When I truly want a guy I put down what I'm willing to pay.  If it's matched or outbid so be it but I'm not going to be the donkey (again) that doesn't get the chance to take his shot.  You had $213 and traded for his rights, so I knew I wasn't gonna win him with a lowball bid.

1 hour ago, RodneyRules said:

Yea watch out for the Longhorn dude....he's sketch!  While I agree with your take on what went down (and think I know why), nobody has ever been able to keep the c*ck in its pants...right Dave?

Cocks don't belong in pants they need to be left to free range!

[RodneyRules]

hAHAHAH....you kill me dude.  I 100% agree by the way on the bid approach....that is how I do it assuming that a mid range bid may never get bid up if perceived value is higher and owner can easily match...but $75....feel like you could have gotten it cheaper...but I guess your right....when you die you can't take the cash with you....you go you free ballin dog!

[Tford]

With the way match rights work in this league, you gotta beat 11 other teams with your bid. Bid your max early and never worry whether that last $10 would've gotten the player.

 

Also, I will be at my kid's hockey tryout tonight so bids won't be closed until I get home a bit later.

 

[Tford]

Same deal with being out for a good chunk of the day at hockey tryouts.

Should be back at about 7pm EST. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[Pope Flick]

This league is broken in RFA and it’s (the really bad word)ing stupid.

[flemingd]

Nothing broken about it.  We've had 6 years of $100 reloads.  The first 3-4 years had all guys on original contracts so no spending there, DTS guys being on taxi for 2-3 plus another 4-5 initial contracts, and Devy players having an additional year or two on top of that to bake.  Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Saquan Barkley, Kamara, Mixon, Jonathan Taylor, DJ Moore, Mike Williams, AJ Brown, DK Metcalf, Roquan Smith, none of those have have hit RFA.  Christian McCaffrey, Nick Chubb, Fred Warner are just now having contracts expire.  Plus we have a virtual lockdown FT rule that's cheap as hell to keep the top dollar guys.  It's how free markets work, supply/demand/cash flow.  Josh Allen hit RFA two years ago because of a bad initial contract and he got a $113 bomb dropped or the same reason.

We entered RFA with an average of $143 per owner so either we can "overpay" for average/above average guys or we can suck wind and take $250 into next  year.