Free Agency in the Playoffs

[Colts GM (Ben)]

I would like to see free agency in the playoffs be limited to just one-year deals. I have no problem with teams signing players for the stretch run. However, it feels too late to be signing multi-year deals at that point.

[Dolphins GM (John)]

In a league where discovering and signing young talent to multi-year deals is imperative to long-term success, I feel limiting transactions once the playoffs begin is a mistake. The league has obviously operated for years with this in place, and kind of like throwing the red flag in the NFL, I don’t see enough evidence to overturn the ruling on the field. There are 5 weeks of the regular NFL season left when the Blitz playoffs begin, which is often the time that teams start to play and develop those rookie late round picks that sometimes turn into starters. Blitz members should be given the opportunity to sign those players to whatever contract length they are willing to bid if they are following their progression and believe in their futures. If a team wants to stay active in developing their roster until the end of the fantasy season, I believe that they should be able to do so. I do believe that there should be a restriction on eliminated teams requiring them to make multi-year offers on any free agent so that someone can’t aimlessly block a contender from acquiring short term needs for their playoff run.

[Colts GM (Ben)]

Jan 20, 2022 21:11:59 GMT -6 Dolphins GM (John) said:

In a league where discovering and signing young talent to multi-year deals is imperative to long-term success, I feel limiting transactions once the playoffs begin is a mistake. The league has obviously operated for years with this in place, and kind of like throwing the red flag in the NFL, I don’t see enough evidence to overturn the ruling on the field. There are 5 weeks of the regular NFL season left when the Blitz playoffs begin, which is often the time that teams start to play and develop those rookie late round picks that sometimes turn into starters. Blitz members should be given the opportunity to sign those players to whatever contract length they are willing to bid if they are following their progression and believe in their futures. If a team wants to stay active in developing their roster until the end of the fantasy season, I believe that they should be able to do so. I do believe that there should be a restriction on eliminated teams requiring them to make multi-year offers on any free agent so that someone can’t aimlessly block a contender from acquiring short term needs for their playoff run.

Just seeing this. I don’t disagree with most of it. Historically, I’ve benefitted from it—because I stay active. The problem is that most teams naturally check out once they’re eliminated. They likely shift from fantasy to focusing on the actual NFL and basically check back in around March. The pool of teams actively bidding on FAs decreases substantially in December. This creates inequality (which is nobody’s fault but theirs, I know). I’m just not sure if it’s good for the league, especially when we periodically have to replace GMs and those teams tend to be void of depth.