Dynasty League Football Forum

Signing Contracts

Any player drafted or acquired via any form of free agency MUST be assigned at least a one year contract. When a team owner assigns a number of contract years to a player by posting it on the DLF message board, the contract is fixed and may not be altered.

Contract years must be assigned within 48 hours of the conclusion of the bid process. If this time limit is not met then a 1 year contract will be assigned to that player.

Contracts are signed in 1 year increments. After the end of the year on a date decided by the commissioner contracts are “cycled”, and one year is rolled off of each player’s contract. All players with 0 years left after contracts are cycled are considered UFA and the previous owner loses all rights to these players unless the owner chooses to use the Franchise/Transition Tag on a player.

Prior to the 2016 league year all drafted rookies were given a 4 year contract with a 5th year option. Beginning with the 2016 league year all rookies drafted in the 1st round are given a 4 year contract with a 5th year option. All rookies drafted in the 2nd and 3rd rounds are given a 4 year contract without the 5th year option. This 5th year option must be exercised prior to the start of the UFA period. Typically, this decision will need to be made at or around the same time as DS designations. Drafted rookies are eligible to be placed on the DS prior to the automatic 4 year contract option being applied. Once a drafted rookie is placed on the DS the DS rules apply.

Contracts for veteran players are capped at 5 years. Veteran players are defined as any player not considered a drafted rookie in the current year.

All free agents added during the regular season will be assigned an automatic 1 year contract.

Players acquired via trade come with a predetermined contract that cannot be altered by the new owner during the regular season. Players acquired during the off-season do not have to be signed to a contract until a date assigned by the commissioner approximately one week before the first game of the NFL season. During the off-season the number of players on a team’s roster may not exceed 21 even if all of the players are not signed to contracts. A team is also unable to have more unsigned players on their roster than they are able sign to legal contracts. This is to prevent teams from drafting or picking up players as free agents merely to remove them from the talent pool.