Intro
Path to Canton is a 32 team free NFL Dynasty League. This league includes idp, contracts, custom scoring, etc.
The league will run on fantrax in a premium league. Participation in this league will be completely free and the premium fee on fantrax will be covered by me. If you would like to donate towards the league fee, feel free to contact me and it would be greatly appreciated
Original team selection will not be first come first served. Once all 32 are signed up, the draft order will be randomized to select teams.
Initial Rosters
You will take your drafted team?s entire roster according to spotrac (rosters will be posted on the google spreadsheet so you can see the roster of each team before you draft). Contracts will be taken as the average annual salary rounders to the nearest tenth of a million. If you have someone with more than 5 years on their contract, the average will be taken up to the 5th year and that will be his yearly salary.
You will be allowed to cut 3 players from your beginning roster with no cap hit (not including $1m and under cuts as those are always no penalty)
Salary Cap
$165m per team
Roster Guidelines
Each team?s roster must have at least 30 players on the team (IR players will count to the 30 minimum) from Week 1 till the end of the season. No roster may ever have more than 50 active players (with the exception of IR players)
Active Roster
Offense
1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 WR/TE, 2 RB/WR/TE, 1 K
Defense
2 DE, 1 DT, 1 DE/LB, 3 LB, 2 S, 2 CB
Total Roster= 50 (28 bench spots)
Injured Reserve/Suspended Players
There are 5 IR spots. Suspended players may also be placed on the IR. Both are out of the control of the fantasy GM and a fantasy GM should not be penalized by the actions of a player or rogue commissioner and his agenda. IR players DO count against a teams cap.
Scoring
Scoring will be H2H Points.
Offense
Offense First Downs (1D) 0.05
Offense Fumbles Lost (FL) -1
Offense Interceptions Thrown (Int) -1
Offense Touchdowns - All (TD) 6
Offense Passing Yards (PaY) 0.05
Offense Receiving Yards (RcY) 0.1
Offense Yards After the Catch (YAC) 0.05
Offense Receptions (Rc) 1
Offense Rushing Yards (RuY) 0.1
Offense Two Point Conversions (2Pt) 2
Offense Kickoff/Punt Return Yards (RtY) 0.1
Offense Tackles - Assisted (TkA) 0.5
Offense Tackles - Solo (TkS) 1.5
Offense Blocked Kicks (BK) 6
Individual Defense
Individual Defense Blocked Kicks (BK) 6
Individual Defense Interceptions + Forced Fumbles (I+FF) 6
Individual Defense Fumbles Recovered (FR) 3
Individual Defense Hurries (Hur) 6
Individual Defense Passes Defensed (PD) 1.5
Individual Defense Sacks (Sk) 6
Individual Defense Safeties by the Defense (Sft) 10
Individual Defense Tackles - Assisted (TkA) 0.5
Individual Defense Tackles - Solo (TkS) 1.5
Individual Defense Stuff Yards (StY) 0.1
Individual Defense Touchdowns - All (TD) 6
Individual Defense Kickoff/Punt Return Yards (RtY) 0.1
Individual Defense Fumbles Recovered Yards (FRYd) 0.1
Individual Defense Interception Yards (IntYd) 0.1
Kicking
Kicking Extra Points Made (XP) 0.5
Kicking Field Goals Made (FG) 0.5
Kicking Field Goals 20-29 Yards (FG20-29) 2
Kicking Field Goals 30-39 Yards (FG30-39) 3
Kicking Field Goals 40-49 Yards (FG40-49) 4
Kicking Field Goals 60+ Yards (FG60+) 6
Kicking Field Goals 50-59 Yards (FG50-59) 5
Kicking Field Goals Missed (FGM) -1
Free Agency
Free Agency Period
Free agency will open up on a determined DATE. Free agency will close at the start of the playoffs. That means no more new player bids once Week 13 comes around.
Bidding
- A bid on a player is considered closed and final when 48 hours has passed since the last bid.
- All bids are for the amount of the total contract.
- Bids must be in multiples of $100k.
- The minimum annual salary is $600k.
- Once a bid is closed, the GM must decide on a contract for the player.
Minimum bid raises:
Less than $5.0m = $200k min raise
Between $5.1m and $9.9m = $500k min raise
$10.0m and over = $1.0m min raise
A manager does not have to have the roster space or cap space to bid on a player. This is due to the non-guaranteed contracts utilized in this league, a manager can make a couple quick moves to get under the roster limit and salary cap to take on their new free agent signing.
After a bid is won:
Teams have 48hrs to post roster moves to make room either for salary, roster spot or both for a winning FA bid. (Clock starts from the time we ask for contract or corresponding roster move)
If a team does not make the necessary moves, the team will be assessed the bonus cap hit associated with dropping a player of the winning bid's contract. The player will then go back into the FA pool.
Contracts
Contracts are always in terms of flat salary and the last season of such contract. For example, $10m (2024) is a contract the pays $10m each season through the 2024 season.
All contracts must be no longer than five years. Any inherited contracts that are longer than 5 years will be shortened to 5 years and the annual salary will be the average of those first 5 years. Also, for a given salary, all contacts have term limits (max years contract can be per the salary) as provided below.
Salary range, Maximum Years
$1m or less = 2 years
$1.1m - $4.9m = 3 years
$5.0m - $9.9mm = 4 years
$10m or higher = 5 years (max years is 5)
Releasing Players Under Contract
The league will follow the 75/50/50/25/25 percent rule. Example: $10M(2024) contract bought out in 2020 will have the following cap hits; $7.5M(2020), $5M(2021), $5M(2022), $2.5M(2023), $2.5M(2024) totaling $22.5M. The cap hit can be paid in the current year or spread across the life of the original contract years, not to exceed the length of the original contract. Contracts $1M or less per season incur no cap hit.
-If a team releases a player, that team may not re-sign said player for 30 days.
-Any new owner can use one free drop on a player
-Retired players can be dropped for no penalty
Restructuring Contracts
Restructuring allows annual salary to be reduced if player's market value (extension price) is less than or equal to half of his current annual salary. Total reduction in salary is converted into a guaranteed signing bonus during the current (or upcoming for off-season) year. Annual salary after such restructuring must be over $4m and also no less than 50% of current annual salary. Restructuring of contracts is not allowed during the period after the trade deadline and before the off-season. Here is an example using hypothetical rankings and market values with a real contract.
Clay Matthews Jr., $13.2m (2019)
Let's say his market value is $4m, and the team owning him at the time has plenty of cap space. The restructuring says that his new annual say is $6.6m (at least 50% of current contract, no less than $4m). However, the leftover money now front-loaded to him in the form of a bonus (100% guaranteed). The signing bonus is then $13.2m.
Now, let's say the team doesn't have that cap room, but they want to restructure the contract a little bit. Well, that example is the extreme... the team can play the middle ground and reduce the annual salary to $8m per say for a signing bonus of $10.4m.
Such restructuring of contracts is not allowed from August 1st to the end of the playoffs to prevent teams from abusing the restructuring to make it count for an additional season.
Contract Buyout
For a contract buyout, a GM must pay his bonus salary for the current season, plus all salary bonuses in each year after in the current season. This will allow a GM to not accrue any cap hits for any future years of a forfeited contract.
-Once the playoffs start, you cannot buyout a player using the current season to get them off the books.
Extensions
Extensions can only be given in the last season of a player's contract or after the final season of a player's contract before the league rolls over to the next league year. Salary is based on player's top positional ranking from the last two complete seasons if in off season, last two complete seasons and current season if before week 8 of current season, after week 8 of NFL season then it will be last complete season and current season. A contract extension can be no less than 50% of a player's current annual salary and contract term limits apply. Contracts are subject to maximum years and bonus guidelines, as follows:
REGULAR SEASON, PRE-NFL WEEK 8 (2021): 2019, 2020, and 2021 rankings are used
REGULAR SEASON, AFTER NFL WEEK 8 (2021): 2020 and 2021 rankings are used
OFFSEASON (2021-22); 2020 and 2021 rankings are used
Note: Values will be adjusted every two years based on contracts within the league. The highest paid player at that position will set the top value and the next 19 actual values will be posted, then the rest will go down from there in groupings. In the inaugural season, the top salaries where utilized as a base, slight modifications were made to make the scale flow down the rankings. Next value update will be after the 2023 P2C Offseason Free Agency Period.
Extension Table TBD
Trades
The trade deadline will be Tuesday Morning 12:01 EST that completes week 8
- All players can be traded.
- - Cash can be exchanged on a contract as long as the cash is equal to or less than the contract of the player/players being traded. And you cannot pay more on a player than any on of their salary dictates (meaning if a player makes $2m in one season then you cannot pay more than $2m on their salary in one season)
- Draft picks can be traded in the next 2 drafts. Meaning during the 2021 season, 2022 and 2023 draft picks can be dealt. Once 1 draft is completed, another year of picks will open up.
- If a team is deemed to be depleted and abandoned, league management reserves the right to award compensation picks to the depleted team in the new owner process.
30 Day Trade Rule: Players acquired through the OFFSEASON Free Agency period may not be traded for 30 days. Players sign via free agency all the time, but they do not sign with one team to be insta-traded. In an effort to reign in this unrealistic practice, players signed through offseason free agency will be subject to this rule. Players acquired via trade, through the draft or through INSEASON Free Agency are NOT subject to the 30 Day Trade Rule.
A trade committee of 7 members will vote on trades. There must be 4 approvals to approve the trade.
- Trades will be voted on for a period of 48 hours (from the time that both parties involved have accepted trade). If after 48 hours, not all 7 committee members have then the trade will be passed if majority votes are for approval.
Regular Season Schedule
Path to Canton will follow your real life team?s schedule for 2021. All future seasons will follow the same format as the real NFL. IE your team will play 6 games against your division, 4 games against division in your conference, 4 games against division in the opposite conference, 2 games against remaining divisions in your conference based on division ranking from previous season, & 1 game against non-conference opponent you are not scheduled to play based on division ranking.
12 regular season weeks (5 weeks you will play a 2nd team). In 2021, weeks 1 through 5 are no bye weeks so those 5 weeks will be the 2 game weeks to avoid 2 games during a bye week)
Playoffs
Playoffs will be NFL style.
Seeding and format will be determined by P2C results & mimic the real NFL format.
Division winners determined by:
1. Best record overall.
2. H2H
3. Division record
4. Total season points
The 2 Conference Champions in P2C will meet "week 16" in the P2C SUPERBOWL.
1st round Wildcard
#1 seed 1st rd bye
#2 Div 1 vs #7 WC
#3 Div 2 vs #6 WC
#4 Div 3 vs #5 WC
2nd round Division
#1 vs lowest remaining
Highest vs Next Highest
3rd round Conference Championship
Conference Champions are Crowned
P2C SUPERBOWL
League Champion is Crowned
Rookie Draft
Rookie Draft (No rookie draft in 2021)
The Draft will as early as the first week of June and will last 5 Rounds. The draft is non-snaking
Draft Order based on following factors:
1. Record
2. Points Scored (fewer points scored between tied teams would get the higher pick)
3. Super Bowl Winner picks last. The Runner-up picks 2nd to last.
Draft Picks are tradable. If a team misses their pick time, then they will be skipped. The team can make up the pick anytime, but the draft will continue. Just like real life. For the first round, each pick will have 12 hours. 2nd round and on will have 8 hour clocks.
*In order to protect franchises with owners who are unresponsive, players will be assigned to teams if their owner does not make up a pick by the end of the following round*
Rookie Wage Scale
All drafted players in rounds 1-3 are immediately assigned a 4-year contract with annual salary based on their slot they were drafted in. Players drafted in rounds 4-5 will assume a 3 yr deal.
- These are slotted salaries not based on a player's real life draft position.
Rookie Wage Scale TBD
Questions/Comments? PM me or post in the questions/suggestions thread
