Remove the "no-bonus" award to Rookies

[Commissioner]

Players with rookie status should receive a salary bonus if they qualify for one at the end of the season. Rookies are already super cheap. Extending out the $1 salary for another season when they were good enough to earn a bonus (being tops at their position) will just create too much of an unfair imbalance between players values and salaries. Perfect example is Saquon Barkley. Finished #1 in our league for RB, but because he is a rookie he does not earn a bonus. So it means he stays at $1 salary again instead of getting the $8 salary bonus and earning his 1st bonus (remember it increases the bonus amount depending on how many bonuses they have earned). So not only does it mean he stays cheaper now, but it means he stays cheaper in the long run because even though he qualified for a bonus he didn't receive it thus he doesn't even earn his first bonus.

It should look like this (let's assume he's a Top 5 back for 5 seasons)...

Barkley, 2018 Season Rookie, $1
Barkley, 2019 Season, $9 (after finishing in Tier 1 in 2018 and getting his first bonus of $8)
Barkley, 2020 Season, $19 (after finishing in Tier 1 again in 2019 and getting his second bonus of this time $10)
Barkley, 2021 Season, $31 (after finishing in Tier 1 again in 2020 and getting his third bonus of this time $12)
Barkley, 2022 Season, $46 (after finishing in Tier 1 again in 2021 and getting his fourth bonus of this time $15)

Instead of our current structure like this...

Barkley, 2018 Season Rookie, $1
Barkley, 2019 Season, $1 (even though he finished #1 he didn't qualify for a bonus because of Rookie status)
Barkley, 2020 Season, $9 (after finishing in Tier 1 again in 2019 and getting his first bonus of $8)
Barkley, 2021 Season, $19 (after finishing in Tier 1 again in 2020 and getting his second bonus of this time $10)
Barkley, 2022 Season, $31 (after finishing in Tier 1 again in 2021 and getting his third bonus of this time $12)

So after year 5 you are looking at Barkley being at $46 going into his possible 5th bonus ($18 for Tier 1) vs $31 and going into his possible 4th bonus (15).

When you look at guys in our league like Gurley (80), Zeke (75), and Kamara (58) that is just tremendous value either way.



If a rookie is really exceptional like Barkley is, a team in our league really doesn't need to have him at $1 for TWO seasons. If he's good enough to qualify for a bonus right out of the gate then give him the bonus and start him on his salary increase journey.

Commissioner's Note: Since draft picks have been traded in both the upcoming 2019 and next year's 2020 draft, a rule like this, if approved, would go into effect starting with the 2021 draft.

[bthoman]

While I completely agree with this rule, I have made many trades and went all in for rookie picks because this was how the league was set up. I traded away Hopkins because of the current rules. I really wish this rule was in effect from the beginning but I believe it is unfair to implement it after players and future picks have been traded.

[lukebroncos]

There are ways around this. This is a long term dynasty league and good rule changes probably shouldn't be avoided for the sake of short term roster moves/trades etc. For example we could agree to adjust the rule 2 years from now.

[ZekeAVirus]

I agree. A player like saqoun should not be had at $1 for his second season. Even $9 for his second season is cheap. As James stated this isn’t something that will go into effect for This season due to the huge ramifications. So we will all have time to adjust. We also have to consider how many saqouns will there be.

[Commissioner]

Broncos is correct. You can vote yes for a suggestion with a stipulation added such as "starts in two seasons from now". As a rule, these types of changes have a minimum one year waiting period anyway, but since 2020 picks have been traded as well one can argue a rule like this should wait two seasons. If you agree in principle to the rule just state that and what sort of time frame you think it should be implemented in.

And Actually I just updated the proposed suggestion. Didn't even realize it stated "let's put this into effect this upcoming season". It would have needed to wait a year at least, but I went ahead and pushed it to 2021. I know we've had two picks traded already for 2021, but that is two years out so I think teams can adjust to it.

[tbparker]

I’m in favor of this starting with the 2021 season so it doesn’t affect the value of any picks that have already been traded.

It’s a positive rule change long term, but isn’t an immediate need so no need to change valuations on currently tradable assets.

[bthoman]

I would vote yes to implementing for the 2021 season.

[rboyer34]

I vote yes for this

[ThunderingLlama]

I would vote yes to implementing for the 2021 season.

[PackerSteve]

I'm totally against this change for obvious reasons....as I built my team around almost all young players based on the initial rules and the long term incentive to land Barkley over bidding wars that went on in the initial auction. Seems like a fairly big change to make without even 1 year under our belt here, even if its 2 years out.

To me players that fall under the 24 game "minors" limit should be exempt from salary bonuses.

[Patriots]

NOOOOOOOOOO!

[jamesosteen]

I really dont feel strongly about it one way or another. I think Barkley was the exception and not many rookies will qualify for top bonuses or any bonus at all. So it won't come up much. If we want to make a change for those few instances then I'm fine with it, but I also don't think it's needed much.

I would definitely say no sooner than 2021 since 2019 and 2020 picks have been traded a lot. So that means any players taken before 2021 this would not apply to. So GreenBay all of your young players would be exempt from thisif it is passed. It would only affect those players selected in 2021 and beyond.

[PhiladelphiaEagles]

I vote yes for 2021 season

[Ragnark78]

yes

[rafastw]

Packers really has a point there.

However, this topic has been discussed forever, even before the initial draft I believe. I think it was Lions who had a strong opinion about it and I actually agreed with him back then. Way too unbalanced the way it is right now. This change would be unfortunate for some. I actually have quite a few $1 starters myself (Chubb, Moore, Ridley...), although I understand it is really not the same situation as Packers.

Count me as YES for 2021.

[ennelson7]

I am fine either way but slightly leaning towards yes.

[Washington Redskins]

A strong no on this one. Rookie contracts are supposed to be a bargain.
If this does happen it should only apply to players drafted in 2021 and after.

[detroitlions]

This is the issue i have been banging my head around. I spent a lot of time simulating contracts of the most relevant players in the league right now to check what would their salaries be at this point with our league system. Just as an exemple: (Using the starting salaries at $5, which we are discussing about on a different topic).

Deandre Hopkins salary for 2019 would be $36.
Davante Adams salary for 2019 would be $23.
Mike Evans salary for 2019 would be $27.

I believe such salaries would make our league unbalanced. And make the Salary Cap basically useless because every team will have a lot of cap left as soon as the players we drafted in year 1 retire. And this cap is not going to be used in free agency because there will be no viable player out there because there will be NO reason for anyone to drop any player with any little potential of actually starting.
For RBs i think is even worst because the average length of their careers is way shorter and most of them will NEVER reach real market value in our league.

In my simulations it would take 7 years to a player reach their market value, IF he gets Tier 1 bonuses every single year, and starts with $5 as a rookie.
And its veeeeery rare that this is the case as players get injured or have a couple of down years in most cases. Dhops for exemple was WR #36 in 2016 which would give him no bonus and delay the time for him to reach market value. I believe the most fun about this league for me other than its participants is the Salary Cap system. The way we need to consider it in every trade.
Lets say that in about 5 years, most of the relevant players will have been drafted after our league started, every team will have so much cap left, that the cap will mean almost nothing.
I believe there is a way for us to still benefit teams for drafting well and still keep the balance of the league. If we run 3 years with this system we will have some bizarre salaries by the end of this.

I have no problem with leaving the rookie contracts at $1 for the first 24 games as it is, benefiting teams for their draft pick. But as it is in the NFL, their contracts jump up after that point proportionally to what they have done during that period, and i believe our best solution is somewhere around this. Lets take barkley as an exemple cause he is the best case for it right now: i thing is fine for him to stay at $1 for 2 seasons, and we dont need to take his salary up to $65 (average tier 1 salary at initial draft) afterward. But we need to bring it closer to it otherwise the cap WILL be useless in our league in a few years.

Calculate the salaries of the players in your own teams as an exemple to see how much cap left you would have and imagine everyone with that same cap.

Well i believe this is the biggest issue in our league. And i dont think people are actually understanding the impact that this is gonna have in our league even a couple years from now. The league would be way less fun if this stays as it is. Just take the time and simulate a league in which every players salary is calculated like our rookies. I dont have the solution for it yet but i think we need to find one soon. Just spend a little time and look into it a little.

Sorry about my english. its been a while.

[detroitlions]

So, my vote is yes, starting as soon as possible. But i still dont think its the best way to deal with the problem. I will try to present a different solution for us to vote on as soon as i get some time to do it. Hopefully this next week.

[Seahawks]

Lions makes a great point. If teams can keep players on rookie contracts for too long of period because of beneficial contracts, it will make competitive balance impossible. It'll create a situation where the top teams may be able to stay at the top for several years, while teams at the bottom will struggle to become competitive for too long of period. Those results will in turn cause a larger than desired turnover of managers and make it much more difficult to replace those who have left. Another option to salary increase for rookies would be term limits of 5 years. If a team is allowed to keep a player for a max of 5 years, we will see a significant increase in league trading, which is always desirable. Either way, this issue needs to be addressed.

[rafastw]

I 100% agree with Lions. The way this works right now, in 5 years max, this will basically be a regular dynasty league, with no salaries and cap, for it will be completely irrelevant.
I also do not see a solution that would be fair for everyone. But those who vote NO because they feel this would harm their current teams which are cheap but also competitive and/or with upside, gotta remember: if there is no cap, there are no cheap teams.

[EKuz3082]

Yes for 2021.

[tbparker]

I like the Seahawks idea of a maximum length you can hold a player. That I think is worth discussion. Could be instituted starting with players signed of drafted in 2021+ Or something like that to not cause issues with current setups?

[Jash13]

My vote is Yes as long as we wait 2 full seasons prior to implementing since it would be a drastic change to the current value of rookies with their cheap longterm contracts.

My vote would be no if we are proposing to implement any sooner than 2 full seasons from now.

[Bucs Freemann]

Voting for this

[Taxman14]

Yes with a years limit

[BadWolf13]

Undecided on this issue

[ennelson7]

I feel same as i posted before

[ThunderingLlama]

I would vote yes to implementing for the 2021 season.