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TCMD - Forum Wide GM Mock Draft Discussion


ny92mike

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I understand its early to be discussing a mock draft, but for the person building the workbooks, threads as well as focused on maintaining the original tcmd, I'd like to start talking about this now if at all possible.

I've been kicking a few ideas around with the structure of a forum wide mock draft with some others privately but if the main concern really is, finding a way for the average poster to get involved we can definitely work on that.  I just don't think that ffmd when it was running really made it all that user friendly to the new posters.  For those that knew ffmd, the rules really never changed which allowed them to be vaguely written, which came with a ton of questions.

From all the research I've done the most common issues have been resolved using the tcmd model and workbooks.  Now, the challenge is making those workbooks even easier to manage or at the very least coming up with a system that allows room for the casual poster to comment on things happening within the mock draft.

This first mock draft should be a combination of ffmd II and tcmd.  I still want to provide the forum with a full scale mock draft that allows members to trade, sign free agents of all types to include a waiver wire, erfa, rfa, ufa and udfa.  Most importantly a draft all while maintaining a top 51 salary cap.  Rather than creating "fa transaction workbooks" to manage the free agency we scale the requirements of building contracts that range up to 7 years, we make them all single year contracts   

A typical tcmd mock is one folder that is sent out to each GM privately which contains about 3 to 4 workbooks.  These workbooks allowed the GM to manage his roster and submit free agent bids, create a trade block and big board.  If we trim that down to one workbook, designed for the GM to manage while making other parts of the workbook view only, he can share these more easily.

Using this trimmed down version of tcmd could eventually turn into TCMD I, with the one we currently run becoming the full bang version where teams can submit multi-year contracts.

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Forum Wide Mock Draft Proposed Design

I'll continue to add to this, feel free to voice your suggestions and feedback whenever.

TCMD Leader Responsibilities

With any mock draft there are times were the discussion becomes stagnant.  So having members willing to go the extra mile makes a huge difference in the success of a mock draft.  It’s the little things that we do that make or break it. I suggest having a group of guys that post within the “Inside the Locker” thread which is designed to provide news on the latest transactions, should the moderators wish to get involved this would be the place.  

Inside the Locker

Assigned Writers, will run this thread like a news feed, broadcasting the latest news to their followers.  In addition, to getting creative with their news feeds, you will be the voice of the mock draft by reporting on the following to boost discussion within the GM Mock Draft board.

  • Provide opinionated news on Released, Traded, Tagged & Tendered players.

  • After every 3rd round of bidding, you’ll select your favorite free agent pickups, either using columns with you selection your favorite players or actual indepth writeups.

  • Comment and/or grade each round of the draft.

  • Conduct GM interviews

In addition to managing the “Inside the Locker” you’ll also be assigned to awarding our members at the end of the mock draft, with hopefully badges created by our forum sig designers, but also in a group discussion at the end of the mock draft where we recognize our members for their participation.  We really like doing this because without your participation we wouldn’t have a mock draft.

Based on the GM’s level of participation throughout the mock draft, these TCMD Leaders will also be passing out tokens throughout the mock draft, these tokens are used to sign Undrafted Free Agents (UDFA).

TCMD Leaders are not restricted from participating as GM’s or other team staff members.

Membership

We prefer GM’s actually be a fan of the team that they are representing, but if we can’t find one willing to join we’ll allow non-fans to manage a team but they must make every effort to get forum participation within their war room.

War Room Thread

The initial concept behind the war room thread is the same as in past mock drafts, with adjustments to staff titles and descriptions.  It still provides a local hub for communication from the most active member to the casual poster to provide their opinions on game planning and general discussion, but changing the structure and responsibilities of their war room staff, I think we can get a greater level of participation with less frustration from the GM when each transaction is being put to a vote.

The thought behind this war room concept is that not all members within the group are going to commit to the same degree of participation that the GM is required to put in but giving the staff more control could get them more involved and enhance game planning.  Unlike in previous mocks the positions of Head Coach and Coordinators were mainly titles that simply showed their level of commitment. Where with this proposal, those titles give them actual levels of control and the ability to make draft pick selections without the need to vote.  

This concept does require some very minor navigation through a single workbook, but video tutorials will be provided to make this really easy to figure out.  

  • As General Manager you are required to create a war room thread within your team’s sub-forum and assign your staff using the position titles and descriptions listed below.  A sample initial post will be provided that contains all the links required to run your team’s mock draft.

    • General Manager (One per team)

      • Manages any vacant coaching staff positions and selecting draft picks assigned to those positions.

      • Post war room thread, using sample.

      • Assign coaching staff.

      • Discuss the team needs and game planning within war room thread.

        • Respect the other members opinions.

        • Any private discussion needs to include everyone involved.

      • Determines which draft pick selection based on team need is assigned to the Offensive and Defensive Coordinators

      • Selects the 1st pick in the draft

      • Selects, Votes or hands out draft picks 6 and 7.

    • Head Coach (One per team)

      • Pairs w/ the GM to determine which free agents to target,  based on the information provided by the Coordinators.

        • Free Agency includes

          • ERFA / RFA / UFA / Tags / Tender Offer Sheets / Waiver Wire / UDFA

      • Selects the 2nd pick in the draft.

    • Offensive Coordinator (No more than 2 per team)

      • Total Control over which offensive players are scouted in both the Unrestricted Free Agency (UFA) and the draft.

      • Select the team’s 3rd or 4th draft pick (to be determined by the GM)

    • Defensive Coordinator (No more than 2 per team)

      • Total Control over which defensive players are scouted in both the Unrestricted Free Agency (UFA) and draft.

      • Select the team’s 3rd or 4th draft pick (to be determined by the GM)

    • Director of Player Personnel (One per team)

      • Pairs with the GM in finding potential trades.

        • Must be able to negotiate a deal with not only the other team but the coaches holding the draft picks on your own team.

        • When discussing trades, try to attempt to work the deal publically within the team’s war room threads rather than private message.  Using PM to work a trade when others are required to confirm it is very difficult.

        • Select the 5th  draft pick.

    • Director of College Scouting (No limit)

      • These are your scouting gurus that know the draft well enough to find the talent in the later rounds.

        • They will create your teams big board, with the help from the Coordinators.

        • These Gurus will manage the UDFA (12 player max) to find the best talent to fit your team’s scheme.  

 

  • Getting Fired - Yes, that's right, you could be terminated from your GM or coaching position, should you or your coaching staff fail to follow the guidelines.  Reasons for being terminated include but not limited to:

    • Refusal to follow the guidelines

    • Neglecting to follow the forum guidelines

    • Non-active membership

    • Attempting to Game the System.

 

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Understanding the Free Agency

With this mock draft we use a single free agency system to manage it all.  Blind bidding is done using privately distributed workbooks, linked to a hidden master workbook.  The private workbooks, known as FA Transaction Docs allow you to create error free contracts in a matter of minutes.  These qualifying contracts are automatically collected into the master workbook, which automatically calculates each offer to determine the highest amount being offered.  After each FA submit deadline the workbooks are locked to prevent altering.  The results of each round of bidding is posted in the forum, showing the awarded teams and outbid contracts within the hour.  The workbooks remain locked until I have updated the team rosters and free agency listing and are reopened typically the same day, so that you and your staff can start preparing for the next bidding round.  Each round of FA bidding typically last 3 days, to allow for sound game planning and adequate time to manually update each workbook.  Any longer, we get bored and start looking to trade or release players just to have something to do. 

  • Statistics
    • Number of free agents signed by FA round.  (Data collected from the 2018 TCMD)
    • FA Bidding Round Total # of Contracts Submitted # of Outbids per Rnd UFA Resign Reserve Total # Signed % Signed
      FA BIDDING ROUND 01 131 64 46 18 3 67 51.1%
      FA BIDDING ROUND 02 121 46 50 22 3 75 62.0%
      FA BIDDING ROUND 03 100 34 46 17 3 66 66.0%
      FA BIDDING ROUND 04 84 21 47 14 2 63 75.0%
      FA BIDDING ROUND 05 52 9 33 8 2 43 82.7%
      FA BIDDING ROUND 06 65 8 43 9 5 57 87.7%
      FA BIDDING ROUND 07 28 6 17 4 1 22 78.6%
      FA BIDDING ROUND 08 35 4 23 6 2 31 88.6%
      FA BIDDING ROUND 09 29 2 22 5 0 27 93.1%
      FA BIDDING ROUND 10 11 0 10 1 0 11 100.0%
      FA BIDDING ROUND 11 9 2 7 0 0 7 77.8%
      FA BIDDING ROUND 12 3 0 2 1 0 3 100.0%
        668 196 346 105 21 472 70.7%
                     
      Rnd 1-3 Avg. Signed 117.3 48.0 47.3 19.0 3.0 69.3 59.1%
      Rnd 4-6 Avg. Signed 67.0 12.7 41.0 10.3 3.0 54.3 81.1%
      Rnd 7-9 Avg. Signed 30.7 4.0 20.7 5.0 1.0 26.7 87.0%
      Rnd 10-12 Avg. Signed 7.7 0.7 6.3 0.7 0.0 7.0 91.3%

 

  • Teams are signing on average a total of 14 players under this fa system (not including the waiver wire, tags, erfa, rfa, tender offer sheets, trades and the draft).  

 

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Understanding The Free Agency - continued

Expected APY & SB Values

The workbooks calculate and display all of this information and will flag any issues with the contract, preventing errors when creating the structured contract offer.

Every single player in the mock draft is assigned an Expected APY value.  This value is the minimum amount that an unsigned player will accept, anything less the contract is void.  The Expected APY values are created by taking the higher value of either the previous years salary or using a grading system created by Pro Football Focus (PFF).  This is calculated beforehand and displayed next to each players name, saving you time. 

Most of these APY values are "expected" but there are minimal inaccuracies to the grading system.  In addition, not everyone values players the same, some may be considered to high or low in value. 

  • The system resolves these issues by design.
    • UndervaluedIf a player's Expected APY value is considered to low, GM's will typically find these types and simply increase the APY value, increasing the odds of landing the undervalued talent. 
    • OvervaluedIn the event the player is overvalued, after each round of bidding all UFA Expected APY values are decreased 10% (not to decrease below the player's vet min value).  Waiting for the APY value to decrease is a calculated risk as not every member is going to value players the same.

Aging/Declining talent APY values decrease more rapidly, typically hitting the vet min by Round 6.

Expected APY values are also used in calculating the minimum amount required to extend a players contract.  

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Understanding The Free Agency - continued

FA Bidding Rounds

The workbooks are designed to make creating the contracts easy and error free.  The criteria required is displayed and flags if a contract fails and passes inspection.

There are 12 rounds of bidding, more if needed.  Each round takes approximately 3 days to complete, 2 days for the GM and War Room Staff to game plan and to submit the contract offers, and 1 day to post the results and manually update the roster and fa workbooks.  

There are 3 types of contract offers at your disposal.

  • Reserve Bidding
    • 6 contract slots located in your private workbooks, that you can use to create contracts that are only used should another team make an offer on one of them.  Otherwise, the reserve bids do nothing toward signing the player.  Consider these contracts as a standby or back pocket offers that never hit the table until another team puts money on the table.  
    • You can change the listed player or offered amount of these contracts as you see fit, but must still meet the criteria to be accepted as a qualifying offer.
    • Reserve bidding provides a 6% increase to the amount being offered, this is calculated in the FA Master workbook.
  • Resign Bid
    • There is 1 contract offer available used to resign a player.  Unlike the reserve bid, the resign bid is calculated into the FA Master workbook regardless if another team makes an offer or not.
    • This Resign Bid also provides a 6% increase to the amount being offered to be calculated in the FA Master workbook.
  • UFA/Resign Bid
    • You are provided 3 contract slots used to either sign UFA and/or Resign.  By using the drop down list within the workbook to change the contract type from UFA to Resign, you are given a 8% increase to the amount being offered, calculated in the FA Master workbook.  The percentage used to calculate the resign advantage is higher because you're using one of your limited UFA slots in an attempt to retain the player. 

Basic criteria requirements for submitting a contract

  • Player is eligible to be signed either as UFA or Resign
  • Base Salary is not less than the vet min.
  • Contract amount being offered is greater than or equal to the player's Expected APY value.
  • Contract amount being offered is less than or equal to the team's available salary cap.
  • More criteria is added if we use multi-year contracts, the guidelines are currently being set up for one year deals (to be discussed later).

 

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Getting moderator support is one key factor needed to successfully launch this mock, while I don't think we'll have too many if any teams without a GM thats a fan of the team.  Getting that GM a staff is what concerns me.  Knowing that the moderators planned to step in and help fill those voids would be a huge welcome.

I'm hoping that the moderator selected to monitor this sub forum will help me get more people involved.

 

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On 7/20/2018 at 2:45 PM, ny92mike said:
  • General Manager (One per team)

    • Manages any vacant coaching staff positions and selecting draft picks assigned to those positions.

    • Post war room thread, using sample.

    • Assign coaching staff.

    • Discuss the team needs and game planning within war room thread.

      • Respect the other members opinions.

      • Any private discussion needs to include everyone involved.

    • Determines which draft pick selection based on team need is assigned to the Offensive and Defensive Coordinators

    • Selects the 1st pick in the draft

    • Selects, Votes or hands out draft picks 6 and 7.

  • Head Coach (One per team)

    • Pairs w/ the GM to determine which free agents to target,  based on the information provided by the Coordinators.

      • Free Agency includes

        • ERFA / RFA / UFA / Tags / Tender Offer Sheets / Waiver Wire / UDFA

    • Selects the 2nd pick in the draft.

  • Offensive Coordinator (No more than 2 per team)

    • Total Control over which offensive players are scouted in both the Unrestricted Free Agency (UFA) and the draft.

    • Select the team’s 3rd or 4th draft pick (to be determined by the GM)

  • Defensive Coordinator (No more than 2 per team)

    • Total Control over which defensive players are scouted in both the Unrestricted Free Agency (UFA) and draft.

    • Select the team’s 3rd or 4th draft pick (to be determined by the GM)

  • Director of Player Personnel (One per team)

    • Pairs with the GM in finding potential trades.

      • Must be able to negotiate a deal with not only the other team but the coaches holding the draft picks on your own team.

      • When discussing trades, try to attempt to work the deal publically within the team’s war room threads rather than private message.  Using PM to work a trade when others are required to confirm it is very difficult.

      • Select the 5th  draft pick.

  • Director of College Scouting (No limit)

    • These are your scouting gurus that know the draft well enough to find the talent in the later rounds.

      • They will create your teams big board, with the help from the Coordinators.

      • These Gurus will manage the UDFA (12 player max) to find the best talent to fit your team’s scheme.  

This is a confusing layout to me.  Why are you having different members individually select draft picks per round?  I've never seen any war room function that way.  Usually teams discuss all draft picks and decide on each pick as a collective.  

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8 minutes ago, MKnight82 said:

This is a confusing layout to me.  Why are you having different members individually select draft picks per round?  I've never seen any war room function that way.  Usually teams discuss all draft picks and decide on each pick as a collective.  

I've never used this idea either but the idea behind it is that the voting method doesn't work all that great.  For example, in the Giants forum the majority really wanted a quarterback to be drafted with the 2nd overall pick.  While myself and a select few thought LG Q. Nelson or Barkley should be the pick.  If I'm running the mock as a GM, but my ideas on who the team should select is in the minority then I'm now working against the grain and I'm losing interest in it and likely not willing to put 100% into it, where as if I knew I had the option to pick who I wanted, I'm happy.  Now, I'm not saying that every forum is this way but there are definitely  some that are split.  I strongly believe that the GM shouldn't be required to manage it all with every decision left up to a vote, where the primary person putting in the majority of the work is standing n the minority.  It zaps the fun out of it.

In theory, giving the draft picks to the staff to handle how they want, it creates the want for the war room to have a more engaging game plan discussion with everyone involved.  It limits the potential for frustration, within the war rooms, when voting goes south.  There have also been discussion about GM's going dictator picking who they want and ignoring the other members opinions.  This system would prevent that as well.

There are likely things to workout within a system like this but I do believe that this concept has potential just as I believed that the fa concept for TCMD had potential and with the help of yourself and others coming together to workout the finer details its been a huge success.

 

 

       

    

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3 minutes ago, ny92mike said:

I've never used this idea either but the idea behind it is that the voting method doesn't work all that great.  For example, in the Giants forum the majority really wanted a quarterback to be drafted with the 2nd overall pick.  While myself and a select few thought LG Q. Nelson or Barkley should be the pick.  If I'm running the mock as a GM, but my ideas on who the team should select is in the minority then I'm now working against the grain and I'm losing interest in it and likely not willing to put 100% into it, where as if I knew I had the option to pick who I wanted, I'm happy.  Now, I'm not saying that every forum is this way but there are definitely  some that are split.  I strongly believe that the GM shouldn't be required to manage it all with every decision left up to a vote, where the primary person putting in the majority of the work is standing n the minority.  It zaps the fun out of it.

It generates discussion among-st the members for every pick though.  If I only have say on the 2nd round pick why am I going to log in and discuss the other 6 rounds if I have no say in them?  IMO this is not a good idea.  

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Just now, MKnight82 said:

It generates discussion among-st the members for every pick though.  If I only have say on the 2nd round pick why am I going to log in and discuss the other 6 rounds if I have no say in them?  IMO this is not a good idea.  

I know for a fact that I don't enjoy being the odd man out in voting on something when I'm the one putting in all the work.  It's the main reason why most of us prefer individual owned mock drafts.  My idea kinda married the two.  

The decision making isn't just for the draft picks, it includes free agents as well.  Depending on how involved you want to be determines if you sign up to be HC or a scout.  A lot of the times the person that has signed up to be the cheerleader is dropping their vote against the GM and its frustrating because they contribute very little and the vote counts for so much.  I'm putting in the work to have it knocked down by someone that post once a week just seems unequal.    

 

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I'd be open to offering two forms, the original voting process and the concept version.  Let each sub forum determine which one that they prefer to use.  I just think that some of the sub forums would benefit from this new concept.  Maybe not all of them, but some.

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1 minute ago, ny92mike said:

I know for a fact that I don't enjoy being the odd man out in voting on something when I'm the one putting in all the work.  It's the main reason why most of us prefer individual owned mock drafts.  My idea kinda married the two.  

The decision making isn't just for the draft picks, it includes free agents as well.  Depending on how involved you want to be determines if you sign up to be HC or a scout.  A lot of the times the person that has signed up to be the cheerleader is dropping their vote against the GM and its frustrating because they contribute very little and the vote counts for so much.  I'm putting in the work to have it knocked down by someone that post once a week just seems unequal.    

 

Ok well I will tell you this, 90% of the work is done by the GMs.  Asking them to have no say on all picks after the first round is going to make your volunteers to be GM dry up real fast.  Why would I want to have to do all the grunt work and someone can just log in for 10 min and make the pick?  That is ridiculous.  All picks should be discussed and voted on by all members.  

I also think your method will hurt participation not help it.  This method is a mistake IMO.  I get that you're trying to think out of the box, but this is not a good idea.

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1 minute ago, MKnight82 said:

Ok well I will tell you this, 90% of the work is done by the GMs.  Asking them to have no say on all picks after the first round is going to make your volunteers to be GM dry up real fast.  Why would I want to have to do all the grunt work and someone can just log in for 10 min and make the pick?  That is ridiculous.  All picks should be discussed and voted on by all members.  

I also think your method will hurt participation not help it.  This method is a mistake IMO.  I get that you're trying to think out of the box, but this is not a good idea.

See I wouldn't have any problem with this as a GM.  

I get to make the first pick in the draft, which dictates the game plan direction for the rest of the draft.

I'm still a huge part of the decision making with free agency.

Also, there isn't anything within the rules preventing me from voicing my opinion on the positions or from dropping prospect names to the coach and other staff.  

Anything I do is better than where participation is right now with a forum wide mock draft.

Again, if I'm the GM standing in a position where I'm being voted down on the majority of my ideas, where is the fun it that?  I'd rather know that I control the top pick than no picks.

   

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21 minutes ago, ny92mike said:

Anything I do is better than where participation is right now with a forum wide mock draft.

This is false.  There are a lot of team forums that have a ton of participation.  The Redskins war room in the last TCMD had more than 10 active members voting on picks.

edit - btw by "last one" I mean the year before.  Because we boycotted this year's TCMD because you had too many draconian rules that ruined the fun of the mock. 

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