For those of you who didn't play NFL Head Coach 09 - KalimbeNaire's Blog

KalimbeNaire's Blog

For those of you who didn't play NFL Head Coach 09

Posted on June 21, 2011 at 09:53 PM.

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How re-signing players works:

When a player on your team has a contract running out, they will come to you at some point in that last season and want to negotiate a contract extension. They come to you with a contract package they want. Depending on your GM and the player, there might be 30 different packages to choose from, but the player is most likely going to select the very last one which is the most lucrative for him. You can low ball him with the very first offer which would be the cheapest for you, but some players will get upset and end negotiations right there.

If the player is not upset, he might suggest another deal that is closer to the very last one, like maybe package 27 instead of 30. You can keep going back and forth and maybe you can meet in the middle at package 19 or 20.

The thing is, you don't really get to put a money value on the deal, it is all pre-determined. Contracts include: Salary, Signing bonues (some packages won't have one if you are lucky) and contract incentives. The most I have seen are two incentives on a contract and most often they are to start in 16 games, and then for a RB it might be to rush for 1000 yards or to make a pro bowl. Pretty neat feature and I actually used this to get better deals for myself for back up players on my team that I knew weren't going to start every game or make the 1,000 yard mark.

If you ignored a player's demand to talk about a contract, that player would lose approval with you. If you angered him in negotiations, there is a chance he would just stop negotiating all together and opt for free agency.

Generally speaking, the better at negotiating your GM is, the better contracts you can work out for your team and the more flexibility you have while negotiating contracts.

Off season Free Agency:

A note about a player on free agency would pop up and you had an option to either pass on the bidding, or enter the bidding. If you entered the bidding a new window would pop up with that player and his basic info like position, ht, wt, and OVR. If he is a great player, chances are there would be up to 20+ teams interested in him and somebody would be the high bidder. In order to sign the player, you have to be the highest bidder. As the bids rise, teams start dropping out of contention because they don't want to spend that much. Eventually if you keep bidding, you will win the rights to negotiate a contract with that player, which operates just like the re-signing player mode I mentioned earlier.

What you have to watch out for though is that the bid only gives you the exclusive rights to negotiate a contract. Fail to agree to terms and that guy goes back to the FA market. Usually the winning bid is the starting value for contract negotiations. Just for instance say you wanted Nnamdi Asomugah. He is a very good corner and 16 teams were interested in him. In order to win the bidding, you had to bid $35 million with a $10 million signing bonus. The bidding would start, and maybe Nnamdi wants that $35 million over a 6 year contract...and he's already 29. That would make him 35 at the end of that deal and you can count on him starting to regress at that age. So maybe now you don't want him so much.

Trades:

This didn't work at all like Madden where you could trade anyone to anybody for whatever pick or other player you wanted as long as that little meter was in the green.

In Head Coach you could put players on the trade block and then say what you wanted in return; either draft picks or certain positions like a QB or a RB. If teams were interested, they would contact you about a deal and offer you certain packages. There might be 5-15 different ones to choose from, and they might only be willing to go as high as the 7th best one. Remember, they are there to make a good deal too. So maybe you wanted a first round pick for your starting QB, but the best any team will do is a second and a third and that's it. Decisions, decisions.

Conversely if you wanted to trade for a player or a draft pick, you would contact that team and they would dictate to you what package they were looking for. You could counter with another pre-made package, but ultimately there is only so far a team is willing to go and they are going to want some value for their player or pick. Want to trade up into the top five of the draft? You can expect to give away your first round pick and maybe the first round pick of the next year. You can't just make up your own offer and give them aging veteran number 1 with the 90+OVR and a third round pick anymore.

Trade next year's draft pick you say? Yes, NFL Head coach would allow you to trade your next years draft picks and also trade for other teams next years draft picks. What a novel concept, huh?