Anyone else in a contract-limited dynasty league? (1 Viewer)

I'm in a dynasty league in which we assign players contracts of between one year and four years, then when those contracts end the players become free agents.  As such, it's hard to compare my league to others that can hold players indefinitely, especially when dynasty rankings often take such a long-term view as to not be as useful in my league.

Anyway, I'm just curious if other people in this community are in leagues similar to mine.  Depending on the responses, it might be helpful to talk about strategy in these leagues or even modify whatever dynasty rankings we find to be more short-term focused (but not as short-term as redraft leagues).  Just a thought, but we'll see what happens.

Was.  Then it folded after the season.  The format is fun and requires doing your homework more than most others.  It also encourages a shorter term mindset which can be good or bad, but overall I like it and may join another soon. 

kind of similar league...can sign players to contracts 1-5 yrs and then can franchise 1 player per year after the contract is up. It is a salary cap league as well, so player salaries do come into play.

We play in a contract capped league.  We  can assign up to 17 contract years each year so in the first offseason of year 1 (August 2013) each owner got to assign up to 17 years to anyone they wanted from their 17 player roster.  Most owners would keep anywhere from 7-11 players with studs obviously getting longer term deals.  Once a player's contract was up we have an opportunity to re-sign them to an extension but it costs double (1 year costs 2, 2 years costs 4, etc) and then one a player comes off an extension they go back to the draft.  So our draft is made up of both rookies and also players with expiring deals and of course those not worthy of being on a roster in the offseason (free agency stops Feb 28/29).

I've pretty much been using redraft rankings for the most part instead of dynasty since I'm probably mostly focused on a 3 year window.  I'll obviously look at dynasty rankings and the forums here as well for the outlook on players but I have to use a mix of both in my league.

All three of my leagues are contract year leagues.  40 players, 100 cap years, 13 man taxi squad (no contracts, cannot start until promoted and given a contract), each with a different Franchise Tag rule.  Love it, and I don't think I'd do a dynasty league without it any more.  This format creates a ton more opportunities to manage your team well and it makes it much easier to line up trade value.  Strategy can get all over the place depending on league rules though, especially how you handle the expiration of the contract and subsequent Free Agency/Franchise Tag options.   In one league with no Franchise Tag a guy like Julio on a one year contract can be gotten for a late 1st (or cheaper) since you'll have to pay through the nose to keep him the next year and you could have just waited one year and bid your *** off then.  In another with a lockdown FT he's priced pretty normally.

Contract league with 1-6 year contracts and salary cap. Salaries are split by Guaranteed and Non-Guaranteed. Free agents can be extend by a number of methods including franchise tagging. Offers a different challenge with a bit of a shorter term focus than normal dynasty leagues

I am in two.  Both operate the same (one spawned out of the other), just with different numbers and roster sizes.

We can assign players 1-7 years, but have an overall contract cap (so it is rare to see a player signed over 5).  At the end of every year you can franchise one player on your team that has an expired contract who you get to keep and sign to a new contract.  The rest go to restricted free agency for all to bid on.

I like it.  It helps with parity (great teams can't keep everyone together forever, teams without a good expired player that year can usually trade for one on the cheap) and encourages trading with teams looking to move players on similar contract years, etc.

I don't actually play in any "true" (non-contract) dynasty leagues.  The only major difference when I look at and discuss dynasty stuff is that I don't put as much stock into the long-shot type players since they lose value in often having to assign them a contract before you know if they're going to pan out.

I play in one, in which you not only have a salary cap, but also have to manage cash on hand, which can be used for signing bonuses and mid-season signings. Rookies are drafted under set contracts first, then veterans are bid on by offering contracts from 1-5 years. The longer the contract, the higher the minimum required signing bonus is (so cutting people from long-term contracts can be painful). Contracts are required to increase each year (the amount depending on the length of the contract), and long-term contracts have a minimum first-year salary, so you can't lock up a guy for 5 years on a dirt-cheap contract once people run out of money at the veteran auction.

Free agents can be picked up during the year through a blind-bidding process, but can only be given a contract that runs through the end of the year.  

Prizes are paid out for both the current year, and the average standing over three years, so tanking to accumulate money and high draft picks can be very painful.

I like it a lot, as there are lots of different strategies in play during the drafts and throughout the year. This year, I managed to load up on a glut of stud runningbacks, and then proceeded to finish near the bottom of the league after they either all got hurt (Peterson, Anderson, Lacy), or just plain sucked (Gurley).