S. Player contracts and Team Cap

S.1 Contract Cap (total years available)
Each franchise has a contract cap of 120 years. The sum of all of your player’s contracts CANNOT exceed 120 except for the following exceptions...  

A. In-season, the contract cap is 120 years + the number of players on your IR.

B. From the conclusion of Week 16 until one (1) week after contracts are rolled back there is no contract cap to allow for freedom in trading.


S.2 RWDOC Contracts

A. There is no cap to the years of any individual player.  

B. Owners must sign all rostered players to a RWDOC contract prior to being activated and available for play.


S.3 Signing players to RWDOC contracts
There are multiple ways that players may receive contracts in RWDOC...

A. If at any time, a player has no contract assigned by the RWP's deadline, the player will be given a one (1) year contract by default and if a team does not have a year available one will be made available by reducing the highest contract given during that year’s contract assigning session (with the tiebreaker being alphabetical by player’s last name).
Ex. At the deadline, a player does not have a contract assigned and also has used all 120 years.  In that offseason, two players were given five (5) year deals (the most assigned to one player by that team)...Ray Rice and Tom Brady.  In order to give a one (1) year deal to the forgotten player, Tom Brady will only be given a four (4) year deal as Brady comes before Rice alphabetically.  
** If two (2) years were needed, both players would be reduced by one (1) year.

B. After the annual rookie/FA draft, drafted players may be assigned contracts of any length as long as the total of all players contracts do not exceed the team cap of 120 years and as long as the contracts are assigned by the deadlines set forth by the RWP.  Once a contract is assigned, it is locked in and binding like all others.  You may not change your mind later.

C. During the FCFS period in the non-playing season, players may be assigned contracts of any length as long as the total of all player’s contracts do not exceed the team cap of 120 years and as long as the contracts are assigned by the deadlines set forth by the RWP.  

D. Owners are required to submit all contracts by the contract deadline of July 31st in an alphabetical (by last name) format. Here is a site that may help with accomplishing this... https://www.alphabetize.org/

E. Players acquired via the waiver wire during the playing season will receive one (1) year contracts.  Owners may not sign them to multi-year deals.

F. At the end of each season, there is an extension option for any one player as well as a few other options for players with expired contracts.

G. If a team has sufficient room, players from their own practice squad or another team’s practice squad may be given a contract.  See the practice squad section of the bylaws for exact details.


S.4 Expired RWDOC Contracts

A.  Contract years formally conclude on January 1st each year.

EXAMPLE 1: Peyton Manning signed for five (5) years with Team X in 2004; all five (5) years count against the 120 year contract limit in 2004 leaving 115 years to use on the other players. On February 1, 2005, Manning's contract becomes a four-year contract and now counts only four (4) years against the cap. Now Team X has 116 years to use on the rest of their roster.

B. If a player is reduced to a contract of zero (0) years he will become a restricted free agent (RFA).

EXAMPLE 2: The same team also signed Hines Ward to a one (1) year contract in 2004. On February 1, 2005, Ward's contract is reduced by one year, leaving zero (0) years on the contract. Ward just became a restricted free agent.

C. When a player on your roster has his contract reduced to zero (0) years, he is still eligible to be traded.  His contract remains at zero (0) years and the new team addresses that situation per club rules.  

D. When a player's contract expires on January 1st, that player may NOT be released, even if they become an NFLFA, as they need to go through our RFA process.

E. When a player is acquired with a contract of zero (0) years (through RFA or through our draft) they can be traded and the new team may assign any contract they wish by the deadline set forth by the RWP.


S.5 Contract Status
Every player traded carries his contract status with him, including the current year. This contract will be counted against the total years available to his NEW team.  

A. Any exchange of players between teams cannot leave either team over their team cap except during the window from the beginning of Week 16 through one (1) week after contracts are rolled back.

B. All contracts are frozen from the start of Week 16 through the deadline to announce extensions and tags.  The only exception is an NFL FA may still be released at no charge, unless they have an expired contract prior to RFA.


S.6 Buying Out Contract Years

A.  Players can have their contract years reduced at any time except from the start of Week 16 through the deadline for announcing extensions and tags.  The only exception is an NFL FA may still be released at no charge.

B.  An owner does NOT have to buy out all years of the contract. Each year that is to be bought out will cost 5WBs.  A buyout of contract years should be announced in your respective team thread on the forum.
EX: Ray Rice has a five (5) year contract. Team X buys out three (3) years. Total cost would be 15WBs, and Rice would now have two (2) years on his contract.

C.  An owner that releases a player with insufficient WBs to pay for that release shall be fined.


S.7 Releasing a Player
Players released by any franchise are said to be waived.  The cost for dropping a player from your roster is 5 WBs per year of his contract, unless they are an NFL free agent (NFLFA) in which case the drop is free.  The player must be recognized by MFL as an NFL free agent in order for there to be no cost for the release.
Ex. Team Y are at 113 contract years. John Doe was signed to a 5-year contract and Team Y wants to release him.  They do release him, pay 25WBs and now they are at 108 contract years used.