In today’s Path to the Draft, we will go over the all new Keeper’s Value as well as address the Franchise Tag option again that every franchise has available to them for establishing their roster’s keepers. In short, the Keeper’s Value is a way of assigning a player on you roster a contract without the nuisance of salaries or having a salary cap. We wanted to add a little more strategy to your GM duties as well as keeping this as simple as possible for everyone to understand and enjoy. In my experience having salaries and a salary cap can be enough to handle, let alone managing your teams rosters week in and week out which is why we ONLY put this in place for establishing your keepers.
NOTE: These changes DO NOT take affect until after this seasons Keeper’s Deadline (Nov. 11th), meaning you can drop any keepers on your current roster as you please. But after November 11th, at 11:01pm the Keeper’s Value and penalties WILL be in place.
*The Keeper’s Value*
When your franchise establishes keepers, you will now have to declare a value on that keeper. The values will be K1, K2, K3 & K4 or Keeper 1, Keeper 2, Keeper 3 & Keeper 4. The values represent a contract year that the player will be signed to and will automatically be deducted by (-1) each year the player is under contract just like a real players themselves. The contracts you have available to you are determined by if your team exercises their Franchise Tag option or not.
*With Franchise Tag Option*
If your team utilizes their Franchise Tag option, by keeping three offensive players and defensive player OR by keeping three defensive players and one offensive player, you will HAVE to use your Franchise Tag. Whichever side of the ball that you’re keeping three players on, one of those players will have to be tagged. By Franchise Tagging a player, he will automatically be placed back into the player poll to be redrafted after the upcoming season. This is in place so that we do not water down the draft and there is still value in having a draft. So in short, if you tag a player this season (2015), you will have him for 2016 but he will automatically go back to the draft in 2017.
Your team’s Keeper 1 player, with your team’s Franchise Tag option exercised, will become a Restricted Free Agent. Meaning you can resign this player but your are restricted to signing this player to a Keeper 3 Contract ONLY.
- Keeper 1 – This is a player in the last year of their contract. This player is an Restricted Free Agent if the Franchise Tag option is exercised that season. This player can be resigned but you are restricted to signing them to ONLY your franchise’s maximum contract (a Keeper 3 if Franchise Tag option is used). If not signed to the maximum contract, the player MUST go back to the player pool to be re-drafted. Former team CAN re-draft player.
- Keeper 2 – This player has been signed to a two year deal
- Keeper 3 – This player has been signed to a three year deal. The Maximum Contract available if Franchise Tag option is exercised
*Without Franchise Tag Option*
If you choose to go with our standard format of establishing your team’s keepers, by keeping two on offense and two on defense, you will have the advantage of using the Keeper 4 Contract. The Maximum Contract in The League! Your team’s Keeper 1 player, with your team’s Franchise Tag option NOT exercised, will become an Unrestricted Free Agent. Meaning you can resign this player to any multi-year contract (a Keeper 2, 3, or 4).
- Keeper 1 – This is a player in the last year of their contract. This player is an Unrestricted Free Agent if the Franchise Tag option IS NOT exercised. This player can be resigned but you are not restricted to signing them to a specific contract, you can sign them to either your franchises Keeper 2, 3, or 4. You have to resign this player to a multi-year contract, the Keeper 1 Contract is not available here.
- Keeper 2 – This player has been signed to a two year deal
- Keeper 3 – This player has been signed to a three year deal
- Keeper 4 – This player has been signed to a maximum deal. The Maximum Contract (Keeper 4 Contract) is only available if the Franchise Tag option is not exercised.
Simple…, but I’m sure most of you are already wondering what’s the catch right? Well with us adding the Keeper’s Values, teams will no longer be able to release a player under contract without penalty. You can ONLY release a player under contract if the player is Suspended (suspended whenever, preseason, regular season or post season; and/or for any length of time) or if the player goes on Injured Reserve (IR) OUTSIDE of the regular season (i.e., goes on IR during the Preseason or Postseason).
*Keeper’s Values Penalties*
Outright releasing a player under contract will now have penalties. You can however trade a player under contract to a team within your conference if you’re savvy enough to persuade another owner/coach in doing so. The penalties are as follows with of course a Keeper 4 Violation being more significant than a Keeper 3 Violation and so forth…
- Keeper 1 Violation – Forfeiture of Tiebreakers, franchise will lose any and all tiebreakers (divisional or conference) for the entire upcoming season
- Keeper 2 Violation – Forfeiture of Home Field, franchise will play against the Home Field Advantage Rule, even when playing at home for the entire upcoming season
- Keeper 3 Violation – Forfeiture of Picks, franchise will lose their 3rd, 4th or 5th Round selection in the upcoming fantasy draft. The round selected will depend on where team finished that season. A playoff team will lose their 3rd Round selection and a team finishing last in their division will lose a 5th Round selection. By default, a 4th Round selection will be lost if the other two selector’s are not met
- Keeper 4 Violation – Forfeiture of Keeper’s, franchise can ONLY keep a maximum of 3 players (2 on offense and 1 on defense) and loses their Franchise Tag option for the upcoming season
NOTE: With the Keeper’s Violations being in place, we will add a second IR roster spot for emergency purposes or upon request.
And that’s about it. I’m sure there will be questions on this as we obviously can’t plan out for ever scenario possible but I do hope that this was primarily understandable. If not, feel free to comment below with your questions and I will be sure to answer any and all. One thing we are already looking into with this rule is that when a player goes on the Physically Unable to Perform List (PUP List), that it would also be okay to cut that player. Of course being that it was outside the regular season just like the Injured Reserve status. Late!!!
