Hey Jon...

My brother picked up on something. He was able to sign an 81/91 RT that Seattle just dropped for reasons unknown during the last sim.

Since I'm guessing that most players don't check the transaction logs on a sim by sim basis this becomes a way for two teams to transfer players to one another under the radar, because who in their right mind would waive a stud RT during a week 10 midweek.

More than anything, it hurts the integrity of the league and team balance so I think we need to implement some sort of measure. While not my favorite idea, the first thing that occurs to me is that starters shouldn't be able to be waived mid-season, a "can't cut list" such as those in online fantasy leagues.

I'll keep trying to come up with some ideas, but I'm sure that this needs to be prevented especially if an owner is thinking of ditching after the season is over, not that I know this to be the case, or even if it wasn't the AI that did this.

It's possible it was an AI cap kill, the AI will cut the highest base salary players until you're under the cap, and I do think Seattle was over the cap with some recent signings. In that kind of a situation, it's very difficult to get the team under the cap via AI without cutting some very good players, already there is a tendency to get into a loop trying to cut enough players and still have enough on the roster.

I'm open to suggestions, though.

How many players at what contract levels are being signed midseason to push them that far over the cap?

Another idea, why not have the AI detect how much needs to be saved and show you 2 or 3 players on your team who are willing to renegotiate to clear up that space. It happens all the time in the NFL but you never see a team cut Jerry Rice to make room for 4 midseason signings.

I know you hate it when I agree, but I do agree with this.

A team shouldn't be allowed to sign a player in midseason that puts them over the cap. This should include renegotiations. A team should be allowed to do whatever it wants. However, it should also not affect the balance of the game. Dropping a top notch tackle would have to fall into that category.

Now, I've looked at Seattle. He was dropped as well as the other 3 tackles on the team. Seattle has done a bunch of resignings, and gotten himself over the cap through these resignings. But these guys that were released were not the highest paid players on the team. The one RT in question, Burton, was JUST resigned by the team. So it couldn't have been on purpose.

So, I think the problem is allowed resignings to go over the cap. I was careful with my resignings, by only doing a few at a time to insure I didn't go over the cap. The game should disallow any signing, once the preseason starts, that will put a team over the cap.

As far as being able to release players, I think the problem is this: Where do you draw the line between freedom of choice for your team and big brother telling you what you can and can't do? It's a fine line, and I hope you can negotiate that line, JDB.

That didn't occur to me but it's the cleanest and simplest solution. This prevents the AI from doing any damage and allows a human owner to renegotiate manually before making any moves.

I agree. I had that initially across the board but it made free agency a challenge, so I allowed you to overspend and in turn hurt yourself in this manner. Turning a block on during the season to prevent renegotiations from exceeding the cap totally makes sense. I'll see if I can get something like that in place before this hits MFN-2.

You may want to see if you can reset Seattle's team also... so that he doesn't lose half his offensive line.

Just be careful with this since some of his players might have been signed by other teams, and one for certain by the &/%&%/ Jets.

I put back on his team the three players that were cut and were not signed by another team.

Ah man that sucks! The AI cut all my tackles hah