AFFL Season Update #004 – Taxi Squad Guidelines
As a reminder, I’ll be making more use of the League Page this year for communication. There’s a new League Telex that you can scroll through for the latest updates, and all official email updates like this one are also posted and linked on the League Page. Also, the contract and contract extension forms have not been updated since the contract rules have been updated…I haven’t even looked at them, but I’ll get to them as soon as possible. If there’s any thing in question, just leave a note in the last box…..and you can always just do all of your contract business by email if that works better for you. One other thing I wanted to note is that when you look on the Contract Data Sheet and the Team Data Sheet the numbers for “cap space” for your team does not reflect UFA’s on your roster, just your contract players.
There’s a couple more rules changes I want to run down….just like the position change guidelines in the last email, I have not put the actual rules together yet, but these will be official guidelines.
Trading
- The “Offseason Trading Period” (Aug 1 through Cut Day) will now be known as the “Summer Trading Period”
- A NEW offseason trading period following the same rules as the “Summer Trading Period” (counter offers, etc) will be put in place from April 1 – May 15 and be called the “Spring Trading Period”
- A SECOND, NEW offseason trading period will be put in place from May 25 – July 15 and be called the “Free Agent Trading Period” (it has nothing to do with free agents, but it happens during the auction), and the rules for this will be a modified version (TBD) of the in-season rules (no counter offers, league vote)
- So…..you’re all now free to engage in trading now, during the spring signing period. The procedure is like regular offseason trading – make a deal via email, pass the details on to me, I put it out to the league for 48 hours for teams to offer either party a better deal, then I push it through. The only catch is, you can negotiate with any team, but you can only complete a trade with a team that’s paid their entry.
- btw…..Melvin Gordon’s on the block….looking for picks
Taxi Squad
- The AFFL will be implementing a taxi squad this season
- There will be 6 spots available:
- A spot – Any player is eligible
- B1 spot – Rookies only
- B2 spot – Rookies only
- 3 individual C spots – any player on the NFL covid list
- The A spot
- veteran or rookie
- can be put on-off taxi squad anytime off-season or in-season
- if put on in the off-season, is shielded from the free agent auction, BUT cannot be activated until they spend a minimum of one week of the regular season on the taxi
- only noncontract players (rules for contract players may be added in a future season once everyone’s comfortable with the basic setup)
- Once on taxi, player does not count against position limits or salary cap
- if placed on taxi mid-season, team recoups players entire formula salary minus 5% per week player has been on teams active roster
- If activated during the season, team is charged 20% (of formula salary) as a Call-Up Bonus + the league minimum. Additionally, team pays a 10% (of formula salary) per game Roster Bonus for each week the player remains on the active roster (including week 1)
- EDIT:
- when activated team is charged a one time call up bonus equal to 20% of formula, and commits league minimum
- once activated (and charged as above), player can be moved back and forth from taxi to active at will
- charged a roster bonus for each week player is on active; roster bonus = $1m/wk for players valued under $20m, or $2m/we for players valued over $20m
- if player is active for 6 weeks, on 7th active week, team must pay full formula salary (less the league minimum already paid) and player is no longer eligible to return to taxi
- that means the most teams could be on hook for is formula salary + 20% signing bonus + $6/12m
- also, will make players with less than 7 weeks on roster eligible to be demoted midseason
- Player can be cut from the A spot in the offseason for no charge (only after spending at least one regular season game on the taxi) or can be cut from the A spot DURING the season for a 50% dead money charge
- Player can be traded but takes all activation commitments with them
- B1 and B2
- Rookies only (to include the spring signing period immediately following a rookie’s 1st season)
- Rookies under Rookie contract CAN be placed on a B spot, and if so, the terms of their contract are placed on “pause” until the terms of their taxi commitment ends, at which point they must be activated with an extension based on taxi rules, or cut, also by the taxi rules.
- Players can only be transferred on or off during the off-season (or immediately after acquiring player – in season waiver, for example)
- The B1 spot is a full season commitment – once placed on B1, player cannot be removed until the Spring Signing Period 1 calendar year forward (so a midseason placement means 1.5 seasons)
- The B2 spot is identical to B1 except except it’s a 2 year commitment
- Players on B1 and B2 do not count against position limits or salary caps
- At end of term can be cut owing nothing, can be transferred from B1 to B2 or vise versa (one time only), or can be activated
- If activated, player receives a signing bonus equal to total amount of scheduled salary back due and must be signed to contract at current formula value
- EDIT: If activated, player must be signed to contract at current formula value as base, with total amount of scheduled salary back due as Guaranteed Money, with Guaranteed Money defined as the amount of contract salary that must be paid, before player can be cut; if player is cut before contract ends, dead money charges must complete the Guaranteed Money
- Players can be traded but take all activation commitments with them
- The C Spots
- These, I hope are self explanatory, we’ll use them for covid players instead of IR
I think that’s it. Email me with any questions.