hoospack wrote: I really screwed myself last season by letting my developmental salaries get out of control. I didn't realize that I was losing about $500K-$600K in developmental players. I quite literally had 2 full teams that could play.

Ultimately this was what got me to the point of needing to rebuild once I dropped out of AFLC contention. It got to the point where I had almost 3 full teams, one @ TD/AFLC level, one at ~Div.II level (in NA) and a developmental team. Plus I was carrying around 4-5 youth players just training physicals and not playing at all.

However, the one thing that really, really killed me was the GE changes. I spent seasons upon seasons building for a passing based offense. Multiple $80K CBs, WRs and TEs. At one point I was almost 4 levels deep with WRs and TEs that could have played at a Div II level anywhere in this game.

All my choices so no complaints but it had an impact. The only thing that kept me going as long as I did without tearing my roster down was the fact that I trained RB's just as high was I did WR/TE's.

simpathia wrote: hoospack wrote: Should be!! As long as they don't kneel for the national anthem. OMG! First you start a very interesting thread then you ruin it by bringing up politics

Nope.
I made a sarcastic comment about Grid Iron players. It seems everyone else made it political.
Wowza!

lvess wrote: hoospack wrote: I really screwed myself last season by letting my developmental salaries get out of control. I didn't realize that I was losing about $500K-$600K in developmental players. I quite literally had 2 full teams that could play. Ultimately this was what got me to the point of needing to rebuild once I dropped out of AFLC contention. It got to the point where I had almost 3 full teams, one @ TD/AFLC level, one at ~Div.II level (in NA) and a developmental team. Plus I was carrying around 4-5 youth players just training physicals and not playing at all. However, the one thing that really, really killed me was the GE changes. I spent seasons upon seasons building for a passing based offense. Multiple $80K CBs, WRs and TEs. At one point I was almost 4 levels deep with WRs and TEs that could have played at a Div II level anywhere in this game. All my choices so no complaints but it had an impact. The only thing that kept me going as long as I did without tearing my roster down was the fact that I trained RB's just as high was I did WR/TE's.

BACK TO THE MAIN TOPIC OF THIS THREAD....

Yes I think you also highlight something that cost me dearly as well. I was in the last portion of completing a rebuild when the GI Engine was updated to favor the running game. I had a similar team construct of heavy WRs, TEs, CBs, and Safeties. I had to pivot quickly to add to my running game and running defense and completely changed my team strategically and financially after spending 4-5 seasons completing a rebuild. It really ticked me off....

One of the things I failed to do was cut some of those developmental players who were "close" to playing but not quite ready. Having 7-8 players sucking up $30-50k in dead salary was costly.

Glad you brought up the engine change into the discussion, because that was also a big factor into the financial revamp of my team.

Looks like it was a big factor into others as well.

Duckman18 wrote: It's free speech and an important issue. Those kneeling feel like the social contract is failing them, that the policing system bound to protect them isn't. I recommend this commentary from Malcolm Jenkins that helped persuade Drew Brees to take another look: https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/sports/eagles/malcolm-jenkins-drew-brees-national-anthem-comments/2419169/

It's always a good idea to listen to Malcolm Jenkins. Or Richard Sherman. Or Marshawn Lynch (when he choses to speak).

On topic: Right now I'm at 1,786. Will go down ~ 200k next Wednesday, though. But since I finally reached the AFLC, I'm willing to go on the higher side regarding the Salaries. Normally, I'm between 1,5 and 1,6m. If you survive long enough in the Cup, it's doable. If not, you need to react.

lvess wrote: hoospack wrote: Glad you brought up the engine change into the discussion, because that was also a big factor into the financial revamp of my team. Looks like it was a big factor into others as well. Honestly after I upset Hungary as the manager of Bosnia in this game, and nearly dragged Bosnia into the knockout round of the WC with a rushing based attack, I should have seen the writing on the wall and moved over to a full rushing attack permanently. I still remember how much this match pissed off some people to the point where they purposely posted the entire skills of my RB and FB for the entire forum to see. Believe me, those Bosnia players were not very skilled but it proved to everyone how much more efficient a full rushing attack was even with mediocre players. Prior to that Hungary/Bosnia match, my scouting indicated that most managers used the running game as a way to throw off the defensive game settings of the other teams (i.e. getting them to guess pass when you run). In hindsight, that really didn't matter. Instead, I waited over a full calendar year before dumping most of my expensive WRs, TEs and CBs. Hindsight is always 20/20 I guess.

You make some interesting points here...I would also add that the Running game tweak to the GI engine was huge, but also the Home Field Advantage tweak was almost as impactful.

I have noticed that sometimes the home team is virtually unstoppable. In fact, I have had some games where my team was completely unstoppable at home as well. Last season is a perfect illustration of this as my team was 6-3 at home but a terrible 2-7 on the road. In fact, 4 weeks ago Orlanda Gators beat me 52-17 at his place. Then last week I beat him 77-45 at my place. Both times it seemed that the home team offense was completely unstoppable. Interestingly, both times the home team played a predominantly pass attack.

Furthermore, I have observed that when the defensive strategy "guesses" wrong (pass instead of run), it is much more effective for the home team and also much more forgiving for the home team defense.

This is a long-winded way of saying that the home field tweak was also a big deal.