In preparation for the upcoming End of Season in CUST-35 I cut all 13 of the pending FAs that I don't want to keep. I did this, of course, because of the semi-recent change that leaves your FAs listed on your default roster if you just let their contract expire which can be very confusing when trying to assess your roster. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the 45-man roster minimum was in effect for teams eliminated from the playoffs and I made these cuts 1 sim early, during the Championship game sim (which I was not playing in). As a result, after performing the cuts, the AI went ahead signed new 5 players to get my roster back to 45 players. But here's the real kick in the nuts:

Every single player signed was signed to a multi-year deal with signing bonuses!

Why would this possibly be the way this is handled? Here's an idea...maybe sign players to 1-year minimum salary deals?!? Ya think?

The system has signed these players to contracts that will add $3,472,433 in dead money to my salary cap next season after I cut them all for tonight's EoS (beause I sure as **** don't want these scrubs). That's 2.2% of next year's cap. That is ridiculous.

ETA: Oh, and as a special bonus...I can't resign the one guy I do want to resign because those contracts ate up most of my remaining cap space. Thanks, MFN!

This is how it's been since day one, I'll change it soon but this is not new. You can change your roster filter to only show players under contract during early free agency to avoid seeing those players that are not currently under contract as you are wanting to see.

The roster requirements are enforced for all teams all the way through the league championship game, which is also how it's always been.

You seem to have missed my point entirely. I understand all that about roster requirments and roster filters. My complaint is the ridiculous contracts the AI offered to fill the roster requirements. New or not, that sucks.

This. This my friends is the best example of AI roster management and cap destruction I have ever seen. When I took this team over, it had 17 players ON THE ROSTER and 240m in DEAD CAP out of a possible 320m total cap. Why? Because the AI was stuck in a loop and signing EVERY available FA at certain positions no matter if it had signed a player at that position. The majority of these transactions took place during Week 15 when the AI was still the owner of the team, and when the AI decided to churn the ENTIRE roster: https://mfn16.myfootballnow.com/team/16

Here's what's going to happen.

1) I barely have cap for draft picks, and will need to trade at least 1 draft pick to get UNDER the cap before the season rolls over.

2) I WON'T get a dead cap reduction because my dead cap is not OVER the cap.

3) I'll end up with a roster filled with 1 year, minimum deals.

This is why no one wants to join the game.

I'll be curious to see if JDB's hot fix effectively blunts this, but it may take a year in real time to undo the mass casualties already inflicted

In Anarchy, I let my ownership lapse. That is I WAS THE ACTIVE OWNER until the EOS sim. I re-joined the team to get the league back above 16 players only to find out that SOMEHOW the AI RE-SIGNED a bunch of players on that same sim when I stopped being the owner. INCLUDING ... SOMEHOW ... two players that RETIRED.

1911 1911 End of Season
LG Dale Collins
Signed contract with Gangsters ($21,935,471, 4 yrs)
1911 1911 End of Season
MLB Alfred Davidson
Signed contract with Gangsters ($18,818,023, 3 yrs)
1911 1911 End of Season
LDE Jerome Drake
Signed contract with Gangsters ($28,281,601, 4 yrs)
1911 1911 End of Season
RG Ryan Freeman
Signed contract with Gangsters ($19,796,096, 4 yrs)
1911 1911 End of Season
K Joseph Gaylord
Signed contract with Gangsters ($15,243,787, 5 yrs)
1911 1911 End of Season
RB Arturo Hall
Signed contract with Gangsters ($46,259,978, 5 yrs)
1911 1911 End of Season
RDE Dominic Lance
Signed contract with Gangsters ($15,049,628, 3 yrs)
1911 1911 End of Season
QB Peter Lopez
Retired
1911 1911 End of Season
QB Peter Lopez
Signed contract with Gangsters ($45,857,874, 4 yrs)
1911 1911 End of Season
TE Richard Wilson
Retired
1911 1911 End of Season
TE Richard Wilson
Signed contract with Gangsters ($29,613,809, 5 yrs)

That's almost comical.

I think that the AI should only be signing one year deals without signing bonuses. There's no logical reason to argue against that.

Maybe instead of AI we should call it the AM. Artificial Manager? Doesn't seem too intelligent sometimes. Hehehe

1 year with no bonus cannot be renegotiated during the season

1 year with minimum bonus (6%) can be renegotiated during the season

MFN 26 has you beat = https://mfn26.myfootballnow.com/community/6/6123?page=1#37496