Total Control GM Mock Draft Suggestions / Feedback

[ny92mike]

I like to keep you all updated on where I'm at with these new workbooks, I'm finished with the fa transaction workbooks and currently working on the team roster workbooks.  Basically, I'm on schedule to having them sent out on the 29th this Friday or as early as the 28th, Thursday.

Also, @swoosh I appreciate you letting me know you can't continue, maybe next year.  Replacing him as the new GM for the Atlanta Falcons is @whodatOL.

Special shout out to @JetsandI for assisting me in finding formula errors.  

 

@LuckyNumber11 @whodatOL @ravens5520 @KingOfNewYork @BringinDaPain @Forge @sparky151 @cortes02 @D82 @BowserBroncos @winitall @squire12 @jch1911 @Counselor @pwny @samsel23 @Trojan @carrolljcmc @dcat @FinneasGage @Uncle Buck @DoleINGout @JetsandI @ny92mike @bcb1213 @T-rade @Cbrunn @Justone2 @Heymangold @mountainpd @Daniel @MikeT14

[Scoundrel]

@swoosh you little termite 

[whodatOL]

Just a little idea for the Trade Block. I would be interested in a column that indicates when the player was placed on the trade block. I look at it relatively regularly, but still find it difficult to always recognize here whether a player is new. Alternatively, the list could be sorted in the order of the entries.

[ny92mike]

3 minutes ago, whodatOL said:

Just a little idea for the Trade Block. I would be interested in a column that indicates when the player was placed on the trade block. I look at it relatively regularly, but still find it difficult to always recognize here whether a player is new. Alternatively, the list could be sorted in the order of the entries.

I like that idea, I find myself doing the same thing...see if I can't add that in the next one.

[JetsandI]

1 hour ago, whodatOL said:

Just a little idea for the Trade Block. I would be interested in a column that indicates when the player was placed on the trade block. I look at it relatively regularly, but still find it difficult to always recognize here whether a player is new. Alternatively, the list could be sorted in the order of the entries.

Point off,  don't forget to tag Ny92mike in the locker. 

[ny92mike]

If I'm up for it after this mock draft is over, I'd like to get some ideas for redesigning these workbooks if anyone with a knack for layout and design is interested.

[ny92mike]

As you guys are using the workbooks whether it be the public or private; official or unofficial please think of ways that I could better structure the design and operation of them. 

I also know that the guidelines are a ***** to read over.  Perhaps a Cliffs notes version would be beneficial for the war rooms while the longer version would be for the GM/coGM.

So please get involved with helping me make improvements to the future workbooks but also the entire structure of the mock draft.  

In closing, I just want to say that I appreciate you all for joining tcmd.

 

@LuckyNumber11 @whodatOL @mike23md @KingOfNewYork @BringinDaPain @Forge @sparky151 @cortes02 @D82 @BowserBroncos @winitall @squire12 @jch1911 @Counselor @pwny @samsel23 @Trojan @carrolljcmc @dcat @FinneasGage @Uncle Buck @DoleINGout @JetsandI @ny92mike @bcb1213 @T-rade @Cbrunn @Justone2 @Heymangold @mountainpd @Daniel @MikeT14

[KC_Guy]

As a non-GM I'm still trying to figure out the overall FAs ... can see our own, those our GM put on the watch list  ... but not those of other teams in general. Am I missing something - or would that be a reasonable addition to the public workbooks?

[squire12]

7 minutes ago, KC_Guy said:

As a non-GM I'm still trying to figure out the overall FAs ... can see our own, those our GM put on the watch list  ... but not those of other teams in general. Am I missing something - or would that be a reasonable addition to the public workbooks?

Are you asking about league wide players that are UFA ( unrestricted free agents)?

Opening post in league office thread has links

 

[KC_Guy]

8 minutes ago, squire12 said:

Are you asking about league wide players that are UFA ( unrestricted free agents)?

Opening post in league office thread has links

 

Thanks  .. didn't check there .. only the links in our forum ...

[JetsandI]

For personal unofficial roster WB, I think we should add trade to dropdown menu for Status column.   I have to go to FA transaction to find current cap number.

[ny92mike]

15 hours ago, JetsandI said:

For personal unofficial roster WB, I think we should add trade to dropdown menu for Status column.   I have to go to FA transaction to find current cap number.

The cap savings column is only for releasing players but if you use the Obtained column it has the Traded in the drop down that will adjust the top 51. 

[ny92mike]

@KC_Guy

Hey bud I'm moving this topic to the suggestion/feedback thread.  I meant to post my question here instead of the discussion thread.

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Mike, we discussed your approach a long time ago even before TCMD materialized. I didn't really buy into it back then and thought refitting FFMD would get the job done. Well, for me FFMD is an afterthought now.

I appreciate that and would welcome working with you again if you are available for such a thing.  As for FFMD, I'm leaving that to the moderators of the forum.  I put the work in to bring it back, and I believe that was achieved last year, in the draft only version.  I'm focused on total control these days. 

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What I like:

Strict rules, enforced by the books. So no discussion about who favors whom. Sometimes the rules/numbers are weird .. but so be it. Same in real life.

That's a short list of likes...haha.  This redneck may not understand what you're saying all the time but I love your direct approach.  

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What I don't like (and that may be the part to consider when redoing this):

1. Information for non-GM seems to be limited which hampers providing input to the discussion. So ALL workbooks should be available to everyone in read-only mode. Thus non-GMs can make informed recommendations to their GMs.

@squire12 hit on this earlier it looks like.  So when I send out the private/unofficial workbooks to the GM's via private message.  I attach several other links to the message.  I do this so that the GM, if they are including a war room so that they can post that in the OP of their team war room thread.  Not all of them do this unfortunately.  When @EaglesPeteC and I operated ffmd II last year we created war room threads for each forum and included all of the free agency links, guidelines, schedule, etc. in each of these team war room threads.  It worked out great as I recall.

Anyway this is what I send out to the GM via PM, deleted the link to my team's private workbooks, but everything is linked as they would receive it in their inbox.  The only thing not included is links to all 32 Official Rosters, but those are available in the OP of the League Office thread.

Total Control GM Mock Draft Personal Team Workbooks

Official start date Feb 8th

New York Giants

New York Giants - Official Roster

***NEW***Unofficial Team Workbooks***NEW***

New York Giants - Unofficial Roster

New York Giants - FA Transaction Workbook

Transaction WB Guide

Other useful links

Schedule

Guidelines

NFL Draft Board

League Trade Block

Waiver Wire - WW

Unrestricted Free Agency - UFA

Restricted Free Agency - RFA

Exclusive Rights Free Agency - ERFA

Forum Links

League Office

Discussion Thread

Inside the Locker

Draft Thread

TCMD Staff Members

@ny92mike

@squire12

@BowserBroncos

NFL Total Control 2021®

General Manager Mock Draft

Created for the fan - by the fan

Welcome to another installment of NFL Total Control GM Mock Draft! My first mock draft in this forum was in 2014 and with the support and help of so many, TCMD has emerged as one of the leading GM mock drafts in this forum. We understand that without your support and commitment this mock draft wouldn’t exist....Thank you for keeping it going! For those not familiar with Total Control, what we’ve developed is a GM mock draft using the google drive spreadsheet software and designed it so that the workload of managing such a task is greatly reduced while still providing its members with a fully comprehensive mock draft experience. Using thousands of formulas built into these workbooks, allows you to focus more on having fun than scrabbling around searching for information or stressing over if you’ve made the correct calculations for your Top 51 salary cap, With this mock draft, you’ll be able to build your favorite team utilizing the workbooks to keep track of not only your own transactions but all 32 teams. Total Control GM Mock Draft is designed to operate as close to a real offseason as possible, while maintaining an unbiased and fair approach from start to finish. The free agency is designed around the concept of blind bidding, where you aren’t limited to which players you can bid on during the free agency, but you are restricted to the number of offers you can make within each round of free agent bidding. This process allows each team the luxury to bid on any available player within the free agency, regardless of rank or position. So teams with limited funds are still able to enjoy the mock draft without the need to wait patiently while the top talent is removed from the board. To keep it fair, the team that offers up the highest amount of money is awarded the player, eliminating the need for “agents” as well as the need to create contract “pitches”. It's a solid and simple, tried and tested system for a complex process. The Draft phase of TCMD was also upgraded, in that rather than you having to keep track of players as they are selected, we track each pick in a timely manner eliminating mistakes of selecting players that have already be drafted. We’ve also included an easy way for each team to privately build their big board, making it easier to game plan with your fellow teammates if you wish to conduct your business with others in a sub forum ran mock draft. Thanks Mike

Will address the other later tonight, when I've got more time.  Really appreciate you providing me your thoughts on how to improve tcmd. 

Thanks

Mike

More to follow... 

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2. Make simulation (mirrored) workbooks available to other members. As TCMD base data are different from the real world environment - moves may provide odd outcomes. This is even more true once TCMD data deviate from the real world situation more and more over time. Thus good recommendations in real life may be counterproductive to TCMD proceedings. Not sure how that works on Excel .. but my idea: if you want to do a simulation .. you create a temporary mirror of the official TCMD database to work in.

3. Prior to setting the base data: Have a run through the teams. Neither OTC or other sites capture all moves. Sometimes you have corpses float for a year or more. Set a hard deadline - any move prior to ... XXX will be accepted. May avoid some discussion. (To your credit: most irregularities are at the back end of the roster and can be solved via TCMD roster action without impact on the whole thing)

4. And finally, this may be the most challenging one: The complexity of the workbooks is turning some folks off. They sign up ... and then figure out how much work goes into keeping up to speed. And if you are not used to Excel .. wow, this may be a hard thingy to do. This was my major concern way back when you set this up ... Not sure how to solve it though.

 

 

[ny92mike]

32 minutes ago, ny92mike said:

2. Make simulation (mirrored) workbooks available to other members. As TCMD base data are different from the real world environment - moves may provide odd outcomes. This is even more true once TCMD data deviate from the real world situation more and more over time. Thus good recommendations in real life may be counterproductive to TCMD proceedings. Not sure how that works on Excel .. but my idea: if you want to do a simulation .. you create a temporary mirror of the official TCMD database to work in.

@KC_Guy

When I send out the unofficial/ personal workbooks, I just assume that the GM's are passing these out to their war room staff, so if that isn't the case then I can definitely see why the team staff feel left in the dark.  The purpose of the personal workbooks is so that you all can work together as a team.  It allows everyone to work out ufa contracts, see how these changes effect the cap in real time.  There are sheets designed for scouting the free agency and draftees, trade value chart.  I never intended these sheets to be used by just the GM if they have a war room.  When they get their staff together, the general manager should be sending those links via private message to their war room group.

 

[ny92mike]

41 minutes ago, ny92mike said:

3. Prior to setting the base data: Have a run through the teams. Neither OTC or other sites capture all moves. Sometimes you have corpses float for a year or more. Set a hard deadline - any move prior to ... XXX will be accepted. May avoid some discussion. (To your credit: most irregularities are at the back end of the roster and can be solved via TCMD roster action without impact on the whole thing)

@KC_Guy This is difficult for me for a couple of reasons, the big one is I don't follow every team so running through the rosters after I've pulled them does me no good I couldn't even tell you who the Giants backups are these days.  The other reason is by the time I pull the rosters I'm typically ready to toss my hands up.  I love creating these workbooks but I hate data entry which is a very time consuming, mind numbing task that No one really enjoys doing.

TCMD has grown to the point where I need help managing it, problem is everyone is terrified of excel or simply knows how boring data entry can be so I typically don't get help in the building of these mocks, which sucks because that is when I really need it. I get it though, it's a tremendous amount of work.