Good Keeper Rules (1 Viewer)

[ookook]

A league I have run for the past 10 years has just voted to adopt some sort of keeper format.

A big concern is that the draft still be lots of fun, not one where there is no one worth drafting in the first round anymore.

I am looking for good keeper rules that will not be TOO much work for me.

Please help us out with your suggestions.

 

[offdee]

My 10 team league, 2 player keeper rules:

Supplemental Draft (2 rounds):

All GM's have the option to tag 2 players from last year's roster as "Franchise Players" which will allow them to have rights to that player for the upcoming season.

**Franchise Players can only be claimed by one GM for a maximum of two consecutive seasons

**A player labeled as "Franchise" for two consec. seasons by one GM is not allowed to be traded

Any GM that chooses not to retain rights to the maximum two "Franchise Players" will have the right to participate in the Supplemental Draft. By tagging one "Franchise Player" allows one pick (end of Round 2) in the Supplemental Draft. By tagging no "Franchise Players" from last year's squad allows two picks (Round 1 & Round 2) in the Supplemental Draft.

Order of Supplemental Draft will go in accordance to the GM's record last season, and will be Serpentine format for teams with two picks. Worst to First Order

Regular Draft (18 Rounds):

Once the Supplemental Draft is completed and all 10 GM's have a total of 2 players on their roster, the draft order will proceed as follows in accordance with the overall record and playoff results from last season: Reverse Order for all NON-PLAYOFF teams

---------------------

So, basically the studs will only be on the same team for a max. 3 consecutive seasons (year 1 drafted, year 2 franchised, year 3 franchised again......if this happens that player cannot be traded and will automatically be available to be chosen in the Supplemental Draft the following year.

The Supplemental Draft also doesn't "force" somebody to keep players...they have the option to only keep one guy if they want or none.

 

[Seehawk]

My league uses what we call "Draft Value" or "DV" rules.

In a nutshell; players are assigned a DV based on the round they are drafted in. At the end of the season all DVs have 3 subtracted by them. The new DV is the pick in next year's draft you must forfiet to protect that player. Players with a DV of 0 or a negative cannot be protected

EXAMPLE:

This year you draft Gore in the 1st (DV1), McNabb in the 4th (DV4), Colston in the 6th (DV6) and Mike Turner in the 10th (DV10). After completion of the season Gore's DV becomes -2 and he is unprotectable. McNabb's becomes 1 meaning you'd have to give up your 1st round pick in 2008 to keep him (not bloodly likely). Colston becomes a 3. Perhaps he becomes and elite top 5 WR and giving up a 3rd round pick is a good move. Turner becomes a 7. He finally leaves the Chargers & becomes the starting RB someplace and giving up a 7th round pick makes sense....

THE REASON THIS SYSTEM WORKS:

It specifically addresses your concern about keeping the draft interesting and stocked with players. Anybody drafted in the first 3 rounds is automatically UNPROTECTABLE. So every year there is plenty of talent in the draft pool. Better yet, it makes the mid and late rounds of the draft even MORE interesting because those picks can pay dividends for several seasons. Three seasons ago I picked up Larry Johnson late to handcuff Priest Holmes. Holmes is long gone but LJ is still paying off for me (giving up a 2nd round pick to protect him this season). The owner in our league who took a chance on Tom Brady got a lottery ticket that paid for several seasons. My last round flyer on Marques Colston last season could give me a solid WR2 for the next 3 seasons. It makes every selection of every round valuable.

BTW - DV also plays a role in waiver picks.

When you cut a player to pick up a free agent the new player assumes the DV of the player you dropped. This allows you to continually tweak your "deep bench' (read: protectable players) as the season progresses as you try to stock up for next year. If more then one team tries to pick up the same free agent the team offering the lower (better) DV gets the player. This means that when making waivers you have to weigh how badly you want the guy against whether or not you'll be able to protect him in the future. Cutting an injured or underperforming early draft pick with a DV or 2 or 3 practically guarantees you that free agent rookie WR, but he won't be protectable for you. Offering a late 11 or 12 DV would put him in a protectable spot but could also allow another team to pick him up with a better offer.

I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have

The Seehawk

 

[salmonstud]

This is all you will need:

http://football9.myfantasyleague.com/2007/...=15998&O=26

 

[Beau Tocks]

This is sweet and simple.

I too have had a long standing league and we started a keeper format just three years ago. I did not want to lose the excitement of the draft and having all the big name players taken so this is what we did.

We have an Auction format (which I highly recommend by the way) and we keep just ONE player from the previous year with the Auction price of that player subtracted from our starting bid amount, we use $200 for 16 roster spots. To entice owners to keep younger players this works out well because you don't take much of a hit in your auction dollars the following year. We do make it a rule that if you get a waiver find or a surprise draft stud from the previous season it will go $30 against your auction starting $200, so the other owners are not quite at such a disadvantage.

Good Luck

 

[simey]

I'm in a 10 team keeper league. We can keep 3 players for 3 years. We can only keep one player per position. We can keep 3 of the following: QB, RB, WR, TE, K, or D. If you don't want to keep a player for the whole 3 years, you can keep someone else on your roster. The year you declare someone as your keeper, that counts as the 2nd year having him, because the person had to have been on your roster the following year. If you keep a player for 3 years, that player goes back into the draft pool after the 3rd year is done. If you trade a keeper to another team owner, that players contract goes with him. Which means if you trade a keeper who is in his second year as a keeper, the owner who gets him has him as a 2nd year keeper. If you drop a keeper during the season, they are still bound to their contract if someone picks them up off the waiver wire. We declare our keepers the Wed before our draft, which is always on a Saturday.

 

[smcindoe]

I stole this format from somebody else on this forum... wish I could remember who because it works beautifully.

Each player from your initial draft gets a point value based on the round he's taken in. In a 16-round draft, a first round pick is worth 16 and a last round pick is worth 1.

Every team gets to keep 30 points worth of players per year. If a player is kept, his value goes up by five points next year. Any waiver or free agent pickup gets a value of ten points. No trading of points is allowed.

That's it. The beauty of it, other than the simplicity, is that it has an uncanny habit of forcing guys into tough decision, since you always seem to be one or two points away from doing what you really want to do. For example, your first two picks from the initial draft will total 31 points, so you're already facing a tough decision down the road. If you keep your first round pick next year and he goes up to 21 points, now you can't keep that sneaky 10-point waiver pickup, etc.

Highly recommended.

 

[ookook]

Here is what I am thinking about.

18 round draft.

All players get DV = round drafted.

Each will get 1 Franchise Tag, 2 Transition Tags, and 2 Restericted Free Agent

1 Franchise Tag: Give up pick = to DV - 1. Therefore cannot keep 1st round pick. Can only be used on same player twice, second year of franchise tag cannot be traded.

2 Transition Tags: Give up pick = to DV - 3. Therefore cannot keep 1st, 2nd, or 3rd round pick.

2 Restricted Free Agents. The team offers to give up pick = to DV to keep the player. All RFAs can be bidded on in message board auction threads. Bids are made by other teams in the form of picks that are earlier than the DV. At the end of bidding the former owner can match by bidding lower. Other team that bids lowest pick must give that pick to the former owner who keeps that pick in place of pick = DV. If the original team has lowest offer that pick is given up.

Keepers are determined before draft order. Waivers have DV of 7.

Too complicated?

Seems like it woud make it interesting/fun but there would still be a lot of good players in the draft.

 

[strykerpks]

We've implemented the Square Root method from Davies' old Commissioner's Court articles. We're in year 2 and it seems to be working so far

We were faced with this question several times last year. Most leagues wanted to both make owners pay a healthy ransom for protecting a player AND reward owners for finding diamonds in the rough. We think we found a solution that fits everyone's needs. It requires a bit of math, but provides a comfortable solution that meets the requirements.In order to protect a player, a team must give up a draft pick that is the square root of the round in which the player was selected. For instance, in order to protect a player selected in the 16th round, you must give up a 4th round pick (4 is the square root of 16). Since 1 is the square root of 1, you can always keep your first round pick. The number of players you may keep is dependent upon the size of your roster. Leagues with a roster size of 36, could keep 6 players, for example. Here is a chart of the required compensation for players:Round Drafted Pick Forfeited to Protect 1st - 2nd 1st rounder 3rd - 6th 2nd rounder 7th - 12th 3rd rounder 13th - 20th 4th rounder 21st - 30th 5th rounder 31st - 42nd 6th rounder 43rd or higher 7th rounder As you can tell by the chart above, you'd only be able to keep one of your first or second round picks since you only have one first round pick to give up. If you trade away your first round pick, you may not protect a player in that spot. Keeping players would be optional. If you elect to keep no players from a particular slot, you'd retain the draft pick. Players picked up off the waiver wire would be treated as a pick in the last round of your draft. Finally, the calculation would be redone every year and the revised assigned draft pick value would stick with the player. For example, a player is drafted in 2004 with the 25th round pick. He is golden so you protect him in 2005 by giving up a 5th round pick and for purposes of that season, this player is viewed as a 5th round pick. He continues to develop so in 2006 you have to give up a second round pick. If you choose to retain this player in 2007, you'd have to give up your first round pick. Teams may not trade for extra picks for purposes of keeping more than one player in a given slot. Traded draft picks that result in multiple picks in a given round are required to be used for purposes of drafting a player, not protecting a player. Under no circumstance would a player be able to be kept for four consecutive years without costing the team a 1st round pick to retain him. A separate category would need to be added on your team rosters - ROUND. This will assist the Commissioner in keeping track of that designation.Although not perfect, the Square Root Solution allows teams to get a year or two of tremendous value for players they draft late or pick up mid-season. It also allows for them to retain their studs. Yet, it also ensures that the draft is populated with exceptional players each year, also. We feel it escalates compensation and restricts uncompetitive dynasties in a way that is healthy for your league.

 

[streamkeeper]

You said you wanted a low overhead keeper setup that did not devalue the draft.

This was our intent as well.

We keep 2 players w/o contracts or assigned values.

We do everything possible to encourage fair trading.

Our keeper deadline is May 31st which roughly correspondes with the NFL trade deadline.

This is the best time of year to migrate to a keeper setup, prior to yuor draft.

 

[Utter Chaos]

We're allowed to keep one player from last year's final roster based on the following rules:

1) You lose this year's draft pick for the round he was chosen in last year. For instance I'll be keeping Travis Henry this year and losing my 12th round pick.

2) You can only keep the player one time. The next year he goes back in the draft. Doesn't matter if he's traded from your roster or not.

3) Free Agents will be assigned a draft position depending on which week of the season they were picked up. For instance if Jay Cutler was picked up as a free agent in week 11 last year then he will cost the owner an 11th round pick this year.

4) Players who were drafted last year, cut, and then picked up by another team will maintain their initial draft position and not the week they were re-acquired.

5) Keepers must be announced before the draft order is determined. This enables more 1st rounders not to be kept. People don't want to lose their 1st round pick by keeping Willie Parker only to find out they draw draft position 1.1