Free Agency

When the season ends, contracts tick down a year. Players whose deals run out go to the free-agent pool, except those waiting on a team-option or qualifying-offer decision. You make those calls first, in the Offseason wizard.

The order is: offseason decisions, staff (coaching) free agency, the rookie draft, player free agency, training camp, then preseason. Player free agency runs in rounds on the league calendar, by default:

Your commissioner runs the calendar and can resolve rounds when the league is ready.

Rounds 1-3 are sealed bids. For each player you want, you offer a salary, a length (one to five years), and how you are paying: cap space, the mid-level, or the low-level exception (see Money). You can change or pull a bid until the round resolves. AI teams bid alongside you.

When a round resolves, each player looks at every offer. If the best one is good enough, they sign. If not, they pass, and every offer on them carries forward to the next round automatically. Players get less picky as the rounds go on, so the best players tend to go early to whoever pays and fits.

In the free-for-all, bids resolve the moment you send them, and older offers on that player get another look at the same time.

Each bid is checked against your cap space when you place it and again when the player signs. If several of your offers land at once and you run out of room, the later ones fail, and your agent will tell you. Your roster also has to have space (see below).

When free agency closes, anyone still unsigned is placed on a one-year minimum deal with the teams that have the fewest players and room under the roster limit.

Every free agent weighs your offer the way a real player would, and each one weighs things a little differently:

• Money. Paying at or above what the market says they are worth gets attention. Well below it rarely works.
• Contract length. Young players want security. Older players prefer shorter deals. An offer close to what they have in mind helps.
• Winning. A good record draws players, and it matters most to younger players.
• Role. A team with an opening at their position is more appealing than a crowded depth chart.
• Loyalty. Players lean toward the team they played for before.

There is always a little unpredictability. On the free-agent page, each player has a read on your offer: Likely to accept, On the fence, or Likely to pass. It comes from your scouts' view of the player, so a player you have not scouted well can surprise you.

Some free agents ask for the minimum: their last deal was a minimum deal (or they've never had one), or that's the number they've asked for. They're tagged Min on the free-agent page with their own Minimums tab, and every GM sees the same tag. Players asking for the minimum sign right away: during the season, a minimum deal to one of them signs on the spot. Your tier does not matter: a minimum offer is always allowed, even over the cap.

You can offer a minimum deal to anyone else too. They don't have to take it, but the longer a free agent sits unsigned, the more likely they are to take a minimum deal. Players near the end of their careers, and players whose last deal was a minimum, come around sooner. A better offer from another team still wins.

A minimum deal can even take you past the hard cap, but only while you have fewer than 15 players.

The pool stays open in preseason and the regular season, and anyone left over can still be signed. Your commissioner can also add fresh free agents: journeymen, an international class, or camp invitees.

In season, a minimum deal to a player asking for the minimum (tagged Min) signs right away. Every other offer waits for the day's games: other teams can bid on the same player that day, and when the games are done each player takes the best offer that works for them (the same things matter as in the offseason). A minimum offer to a player who isn't asking for the minimum waits too: the longer they've sat unsigned, the more likely they are to take it. Everyone who bid gets a notice either way, and your My Offers tab shows each offer as pending, signed or passed. A player who passes stays in the pool, and you can offer again. Outside free agency, preseason and the regular season, signings are closed.

• Offseason and preseason: up to 20 players.
• Regular season and playoffs: up to 15 players, with no more than 12 active. The rest sit on the Inactive list (a player there with an injury shows as IR). The sim will not advance until every team fits.
• Training camp and preseason: up to 20 players, and all of them can be active.
• Minimum: 8 players in the regular season, playoffs, training camp and preseason. A cut or a trade that would leave a team with fewer is refused. In the offseason (through free agency) there is no minimum: a roster can turn over completely. Before camp opens, the league office signs minimum deals for any team short of 8.

A bid is refused if your roster is already full for the phase.

The best time to keep a player is before they reach the market. During the regular season you can offer an extension to anyone in the final year of their deal. Each player shows a stance: Eager, Open, Reluctant or Testing free agency. Long-serving players and veterans lean toward staying. Young standouts on losing teams lean toward testing the market. You get a few rounds to agree. If talks fail, or the player is testing free agency, they head to the pool when the season ends. Early or Full Bird rights let you go over the cap to extend (see Money).

Young players on expiring deals can also get a qualifying offer in the offseason, and first-round rookies come with a team option (see Money). A player with a qualifying offer is a restricted free agent: other teams send an offer sheet (two years or more) instead of a bid, and the team holding their rights has 3 days to match.

Once a player is in the pool, you bid like everyone else. Their loyalty to you still counts in your favour.

Coaches have their own free agency early in the offseason, before the draft. You fill one head coach, two assistants and one scout, bidding a salary and length in rounds that your commissioner opens and resolves. An auto-bid button can fill your open slots for you.

Coaches weigh the money, the talent on your roster, your team's standing, and how their personality fits. Your coaching budget ($15M by default, with a $500K coach minimum) sits at the top of the page, showing what is available, spent and owed in coaching dead money. A luxury tax bill takes its share out of next season's budget, shown as its own line (see Money). When you hire a coach directly, for example to replace one you fired, a team over the luxury tax can only hire at the coach minimum.