Free Agency 2012

[bonesman]

I have a feeling this year's auction will be uniquely interesting.

Can't wait to see how it develops.

[Wascawy Wabbits]

Looking forward to it!

Be interesting to see how I've got my values for various players compared to everyone else... Hopefully I don't miss out on every player I'm targeting with all you guys and your full rosters only needing to fill a few spots!

[Poker in the Rear]

If I were you WW i would keep 20 million in the bank for in-season pickups... You never know what can happen

[bonscott]

Yep, it's always interesting. First off we have several new owners which will always toss a wrench in the works. Then we have the typical....teams which needs just 1 or 2 players to compete and will overpay to get them as well as rebuilding teams looking for prospects and bargains.

[bonesman]

whooooooooooo! It's ON

[Wascawy Wabbits]

Be interesting to see who ends up costing the most $$$$

I've already deviated from my FA plan

[Poker in the Rear]

Uh Oh, the Wabbits war room is already in disarray!

[bonesman]

Be interesting to see who ends up costing the most $$$$

Brady out to an early lead

[bonesman]

Brady, Welker and Gronk... and Welker and Brady didn't really go for that much over market value.

[braven112]

I'll take it. Its a lot to pay for Brady but its Brady. I just need him to stay healthy.

[Wascawy Wabbits]

Franchise tag for a QB next season will be like $9m or higher...

Coming into this league it surprised me the way that spending big dollars on a QB wasn't really done... You'd think that securing one of the top guys would be a major priority?

This was very much a learning experience... I definitely got my tail whipped in FA... Next up, the draft!

[griblets]

Can I just grade my first FA experience in this league as an F?

I can't believe I paid more for SJax than MJD went for. That was NOT the plan!

$3M for Santurdio?



Here's hoping my starting lineup stays healthy all season, because it's all I'll have.

[bocious]

Well, I didn't have a lot of roster space going into FA, so I really would've liked it if the whole league hadn't called my bluff when I bid on 5 defenses right out the gates (thanks, Degenerates, for relieving me of the Green Bay Packers). I thought it would be funny to see Vit's WTF expression when he saw what I had done, but I figured folks would come along and outbid me later in the auction. Instead, you guys were all too willing to make me eat those roster spots. Well done, everyone.

[bonscott]

Well, I didn't have a lot of roster space going into FA, so I really would've liked it if the whole league hadn't called my bluff when I bid on 5 defenses right out the gates (thanks, Degenerates, for relieving me of the Green Bay Packers). I thought it would be funny to see Vit's WTF expression when he saw what I had done, but I figured folks would come along and outbid me later in the auction. Instead, you guys were all too willing to make me eat those roster spots. Well done, everyone.

Well, you do have all summer to trade those extra defenses and remember there is no roster limit right now, you can have 40 players on your team if you want.

[bonscott]

As for my FA auction this year, I give myself an A- as I got every player I targeted other then Brady. He went way too expensive too quick so I quickly turned to Romo and stuck to my guns. I didn't get any big name guys outside of Romo but I got a couple guys as decent backups to my starters and if just a couple of my young guys pan out I'll be doing pretty good this year I think. This season was more of a hole filling season for another run at the playoffs.

The change this year in the auction for me was I had my proxy bids high enough that they didn't get overbid in the first wave, thus I won them out of the gate and that kept me out of major bidding wars. In the past I've almost always been in bidding wars so it was a nice change of pace.

[Wascawy Wabbits]

Gotta give myself a C- with my first FA auction experience...

The only starter that I got at the price that I was valued him at was Cutler...

I missed out on everyone else that I wanted, and had to overpay for DWill and Best (I really didn't wanna pay more than $2m for him) who both have some serious question marks heading into next season.

Had I known that the TEs were gonna go for as cheap as they did, I would've put more effort into obtaining a top 10 guy... Instead I'm hoping that Rudolph takes major strides this year and one of the 3 TEs I picked up can be half decent. Next season, the TE crop is gonna be SLIM PICKIN'S!

My saving grace is that we I can run with a 1-4-1 roster, so hopefully my young WR core along with the additions of Boldin, most likely Moss (why oh why did I raise the bid on him the night before Peyton made his decision???), and Easley (hoping for him to become the #2 in BUF) can help lead my team.

I spread my cap dollars WAY too thin by bidding on too many guys at once. I was happy to get Boldin at only 800k though. Bargain signing for a guy that can put up 1000/7 as long as Flacco can get the ball to him.

Trent Richardson should help a little bit as well

As long as I can finish with a better record than Poker and Treasure Coast, I'll be happy

[griblets]

You can shoot for King of Newbs. My goals are slightly higher for this season.

[Poker in the Rear]

I'd have to give myself a B+. AP at $7 was huge, Mallet could be the future, and I think Ausberry is a guy to watch. We'll see!

[Devil Dogs]

Really like my auction results. Got the guys I targeted at much lower prices than expected. Gates, Vernon, and Winslow can and most likely will all be started.

Gates averaged 14 PPG when healthy, which is equivalent to a WR1. Vernon scored 11 PPG and they really got to using him more later in the season and playoffs, I think that will improve. 11 PPG is good enough to compare to a top 20 WR. Winslow scored 10 PPG and, again, I think he will improve slightly. TB is more motivated as a team now and he did have a low amount of TD's. 10 PPG is good enough to compare to a top 30 WR. Pretty happy with my results.

Starting lineup of:
Matt Ryan
Mark Ingram or Blount
Dez Bryant
Demaryius Thomas
Gates
Vernon
Winslow
Prater
CLE Def

Possible addition of 1.04 palyer into my lineup as well. I like the results. I did miss on a RB though. I had planned to snag Gore at about Winslow's price while everyone else bid on ADP, Charles, and MJD. Plan almost worked, Gore was at 3 million with 10 minutes to go...then LV Elites stepped in to bid him up to 7 million. B+ for me

[bonesman]

I don't know about a letter grade but I'm happy about how FA went for me. I'm not a super huge Vjax fan... he can be too boom/bust... but I like what I paid for Fred Davis and Marty Bennett... especially after seeing Winslow go for 4+mill. Getting Olsen in a trade meant I didn't *have* to go after TE's... but I guess I was set on it. Should've kept on Cutler... not gonna have a back up for Cam to start the season, but I have plenty of cap space to go after someone midseason or maybe trade (doubt it)... we'll see what happens... gonna be hard to pick a lineup with at least 3/4/3 that should be startable most weeks. I'm sure injuries will help with that though.

[braven112]

I thought it went fairly well. Going into the auction I was going to get Brady for sure. After that it was either Welker or MJD, but MJD went up to 8million too quickly and I was pretty sure he would go for even more. I didn't want to get into a bidding war with Bring the Pain either, who had a lot of cap room. So I went strong for Welker. I would have liked to to get one more guy but I couldn't afford to get greedy and lose out on my top 2 guys.

After that the prices just got to high, and I didn't have enough cap room to overpay for 3 guys

[Achon44]

MJD went up to 8million too quickly and I was pretty sure he would go for even more. I didn't want to get into a bidding war with Bring the Pain either, who had a lot of cap room.

My proxy on MJD was set at $14M to be exact. When Treasure Coast approached me about Megatron my first thought was "no way", but then I looked over the FA pool and added in Calvin's salary to what I already had to play with and figured with all that money and the fact I only needed to fill two spots at the least why not pick up Ponder and the 2013 picks and go after MJD to replace Calvin. I was shocked to get him for only $9M....SHOCKED. Then as soon as he came off the board to me I went ahead and set a $12M proxy on Charles. I couldn't be happier with the way things went for me. Now I'm just sitting back hoping Dallas Clark signs with Denver. Grade = Solid A