SAFFL'25 The SCOOP -- #106 September 1, 2025 A Perfect Afternoon =================== As we were setting up for the draft, I asked the ROOKSTERS (John) what his weather was like in Massachusetts. "Beautiful!" In Argentina they have begun the emergence from winter into spring. And here in Michigan, especially in Fair Haven, the weather was ideal ... sunny, 70s, gentle breeze. It's as though Mother Nature was making up for that wicked weather draft many years ago ... and we couldn't have asked for anything better. The mighty combined forces of the SUPER BEEZ (Pat) and RIDGEBACKS (John) put together a draft party for the ages. With major support from spouses Terri, Diana, and Pat & Terri's daughter Erica, we had everything we needed and more. SAFFL team and championship banners fluttered above and around (fantastic job, Erica!), Pat's smoked pulled pork was a special delight, a handy drink fridge bordered the patio, and many other tasty things happily surrounded us. Patio seating for everyone ... and the MAULERS (John), MAD DOGS (Bob and Susan), and WARM MILK (Sharon and Cindy) took advantage. The Commissioner and COOL CATS (Bob) couldn't stop rubbing his eyes at seeing the dais ... a truly majestic table with Spartan bobble-heads and blow-ups as mascots and guards. Sometimes dreams do come true. ;) As the draft got rolling, we got our first surprise when WARM MILK took the Lions preseason darling, WR Issac TeSlaa. The RIDGEBACKS already well-situated at QB, took QB Dak Prescott to further advance their strategy of an all-Dallas passing game. THE BARRACUDAS, experienced in soccer, made sure to secure both top kicker Nick Folk, and top punter Tommy Townsend. And the RANGERS could not pass on hot-shot, home-team, Indy rookie TE Tyler Warren. The MAULERS noted (perhaps with glee?) the much higher incidence of PSYCHO-pain owners expressed when target players were snatched and master plans upended. And new to the experience, the MARAUDERS learned quickly how carefully constructed player queues can evaporate faster than they can be filled. The MOOSE showed they're very well tuned-in to that California state-of-mind as several times they seemingly knew who the MAURAUDERS were about to pick. And if having a perfect outdoor setting wasn't enough ... we had perfect attendance from remote owners on-line this year. Not everyone was on the Zoom call, but the ESPN draft room let us know it was full and we were all there. Perhaps in the not-too-distant future we'll get all the owners on the Zoom call. Old-timers need not be shy, as the WARRIORS (Mark) observed (and implied) ... grey is good. :) As usual, the draft moved along at a very nice pace. Duration of this draft ... 90 minutes. On par with other drafts ... maybe a few minutes longer as maybe a few more tough decisions had to be made. The SUPER BEEZ and RIDGEBACKS have been many-time champions in SAFFL. None of those championships were perfect seasons in terms of being lossless. But I think we can consider them dual-champions this year for delivering a perfect draft day experience to kick-off SAFFL'25! BOSS MARTIANS & ZOMBIES ======================= As we've done the past seven years, a team called ZOMBIES drafted and collected players to be stashed and put up for bid during Halloween week. A partner team -- the BOSS MARTIANS -- also selected players for this purpose. These two sets of players -- 28 in all -- plus 6 more undrafted NFL rookies have been combined and stashed on the ZOMBIES roster. The six extra 'zombie-fied' rookies are: NFL NFL Pck Tmn Pos Name --- --- --- ----------------------- #13 MIA DT Kenneth Grant #16 ARZ DT Walter Nolan #23 NYG QB Jaxson Dart #30 NO CB Maxwell Hairston #45 IND DE J.T. Tuimoloau #51 CAR DE Nic Scourton Please note! In the past I've added the top 6 undrafted NFL rookies no matter what. But doing so this season the would have left the ZOMBIES without any defensive ends (DE). Given the ZOMBIES new job of playing a SAFFL team every week, I'm not strictly using the top 6 NFL rookies, but rather the top plus near-top that fills the missing ZOMBIES positions. So instead of adding: #40 NO QB Tyler Shough #41 BUF DT T.J. Sanders I've added: #45 IND DE J.T. Tuimoloau #51 CAR DE Nic Scourton Barely (if at all) a quality difference for when the ZOMBIES become free agents, this might make the ZOMBIE game matchups a bit more interesting. It also occurred to me ... in the future I will also skip adding any NFL rookie that is on season-ending IR, since such a player could neither play this season or be protected next season (due to the 'No Stashing Rule'). You can see the full set of ZOMBIES on ESPN by going to their team page: https://fantasy.espn.com/football/team?leagueId=31549&teamId=20 Quick Hitters ============= A few quick reminders: - NEW! Minimum bid of $10 for free agents before Halloween; $0 afterwards. - NEW! No more bye weeks for SAFFL teams (go get 'em ZOMBIES!) - First SAFFL games are this coming weekend! - SAFFL full-season schedules are posted. - SAFFL playoffs start NFL week 16 -- our top 8 teams make it. - Playoff Handicaps same as last year (using "12th man" concept). - Free agent bids will be resolved starting today at Tuesday at noon ET. - Every SAFFL team starts with an FA budget of $1000 and 40 transactions. - Winning bids on affiliate players get refunded 100%. - NFL bye weeks run from weeks 5 through 14 (with no byes week 13). - Zombie-fest takes place Oct. 28th - Oct. 30th (week 9) this year. Upcoming Voting Proposal - Consolation Games ============================================ As was discussed briefly at the Owners' Meeting (and over the past couple years) I'll be working out a voting proposal about tying consolation game results to improved chances in the following seasons' draft lottery. Look for this proposal to be out sometime within the next few weeks. Adding Free Agents ================== You can *TODAY* start making transaction requests (adds/drops/trades) directly using the ESPN interface. The 'Add Player' and 'Drop Player' buttons are on your 'MyTeam' page, just above your players toward the right. For drops, they happen immediately when a team initiates the action. For adds (of Free Agents), they go in as requests along with a bid that will resolve contention for a free agent. Requests are automatically processed and resolved by the ESPN system: Every day, except Mondays, at 12:00pm (noon) ET Every successful request will result in the added players showing up on rosters within just a few minutes of noon. You may need to clear space on your roster to add a player. You can have your add requests include a 'conditional' player to drop from your roster. If the add goes through, the new player shows up on your roster; the old disappears. For example, if you want a request to say 'add just one of these three players' you would make three separate requests but have each one include the same conditional player to drop. That way at most only one of the three players will be awarded to you. You can also prioritize the requests so that they reflect which new player you'd prefer. To see who got what, hover the mouse over the 'Players' link at the top of your 'MyTeam' page, and when the drop-down menu appears, click on 'Offers Report'. You'll see the latest daily summary appear, along with the option to see any previous summary. These summaries also show the winning bid amounts. NOTE: I (as commissioner or owner) do not have any ability to see any other teams' claims or bids until they become resolved and known to the league as a whole. Sparty Bucks and Bidding ======================== Whenever you put in a claim to add a Free Agent, you are offered an opportunity to place a bid on that FA. These bids are in an imaginary currency (Sparty Bucks) and can range from a minimum $10 ($0 after Halloween) up to your entire team budget. Every team starts the season with a 'Free Agent Budget' of 1000 Sparty Bucks. Your remaining budget appears on your 'MyTeam' page just below the your name. When ESPN resolves FA claims at noon (every day except Monday) if more than one team put in a claim, the team with the highest bid gets the player. If bids are equal, the team with the current worst record gets the player. If the bid was a winning bid for a player on your NFL Affiliate, you will be REFUNDED the entire bid -- 100% -- the following Monday. Only winning bids for players from non-affiliate NFL teams result in permanent deductions to team budgets. If your budget gets to 0 before the end of the season, you can still make FA claims, but all bids will be restricted to $0 max. You can see what your remaining budget is, and that of all other teams. Go to your 'MyTeam' page, and look right below your name (and team name) where it says, "Free Agent Budget ($nnnn)". Click on the value and that will take you a page showing every teams' remaining budget. Transaction Limits ================== All SAFFL teams will have a 40 transaction (FA acquisition) limit. This is the same as last year. If a team hits that limit, it will lose the remainder of the Sparty Bucks in its team budget. A team will then be restricted to bidding $0 for all FA claims the rest of the season. Any trade proposals or trades that would have normally earned Sparty Bucks will not be credited once the 40 transactions limit has been reached. No additional/bonus Sparty Bucks can be added to a team's budget once the 40 transaction limit has been reached. If you hit the 40 transaction limit before the minimum bid drops back down to $0 around Halloween, you will be out-of-luck until October 31st. Trades ====== Trades are team-to-team transactions that follow a propose-accept-approve sequence between any two teams and the League Office (for approval). The easiest way to initiate a trade is by going to the team page of the team you wish to trade with. Above their players and to the right look for a button that says 'Propose Trade'. Click on it, and you'll be presented first with the players you might want. Click on the button 'Trade' next to players you desire. After clicking 'Continue', a second page appears showing the 'Incoming Players' you've selected, plus your own current team. Click on the 'Trade' button for those you wish to trade away. Then click on the button at the bottom to finalize the proposal. You can include a comment to help inform the trade partner about things like the trade motivation and flexibility for negotiation (if any). The proposal recipient will get an email specifying the trade proposal. Both the proposer and recipient will get links on their 'MyTeam' page to be able to go review the trade proposal. Proposal recipients can review the trade and then choose to accept or decline. Proposers can also review trade proposals they made, change their minds, and cancel proposals. Please note: all trade offers have an 'expiration date' associated with them. Usually this is 2 days, and the maximum is 4. The trade proposer gets to set the expiration date. Once a trade is accepted, it goes to the League Office (me). I'll look it over, and unless it seems significantly unbalanced, I'll approve it. If my team (COOL CATS) is involved in a trade, any owner which questions its fairness can raise an 'inquiry'. At that point the trade will be reviewd by the Rules Committee for approval. Team-to-team trading will be allowed until: Wednesday, November 12th, 12:00pm (noon) ET That comes during NFL week 11, same as last season. ESPN will enforce the trading restriction automatically. Adding to Your FA Budget ======================== Once again we have a way SAFFL teams can ADD money to their free agent budgets during the course of the season. Teams can get bonus 'Sparty Bucks' by proposing/counter-proposing/consummating trades with other teams. To learn all the details, go to the SAFFL Rulebook, and see section 23, 3rd paragraph: http://www.saffl.org/rulebook.htm NOTE: The League Office automatically sees and reviews all consummated trades. But that is not the case for trade proposals/counter-proposals. If you want to be sure to get credit (bonus Sparty Bucks) for these, email me a copy of the proposal/counter-proposal. No credits will be issued after the week 11 trading deadline. Ineligible Players ================== Beginning with week 12, any player cut by a SAFFL team becomes ineligible for pickup the rest of the season. I will move any such players onto an empty INELIGIBLES rosters making them inaccessible. Unprotectable Players ===================== If you pick up a free agent during the year, and he's never in your starting lineup and playing in an NFL game (the same week), you will not be able to protect him next season. This rule does not apply to players drafted in the SAFFL draft who remain on the drafting team's roster all season. Check with me if you are unclear about this rule/clarification and I will be glad to help you figure out when it applies. Bye Weeks ========= Bye weeks are the nearly the same as last year ... they begin in NFL week 5 and run through week 14, with no byes week 13. Here's a quick link showing who is on bye and when: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/45944807/nfl-bye-weeks-every-team-2025 Remember, players cut beginning with week 12 become ineligible for pickup. So if you have players on bye during week 14, you may want to be a little more cautious before cutting someone loose. Injuries and IR Eligibility =========================== You may sometimes see a red letter (or letters) next to your player. It will be a 'Q' (questionable), 'D' (doubtful), 'O' (out), 'IR" (on NFL injured reserve), or 'SSPD' (suspended). To move injured players to IR slots, click on the button that says 'Manage IR' on the top right of your 'MyTeam' page. You will then be shown which players are IR-eligible (only ones who are out 'O' or on 'IR'). Once on IR, you can add another player to your roster -- no drops required. Here's the catch: a player can be moved off of IR anytime, but there must be an open slot among the regular 34 roster slots you have. Also, you can leave a healthy player on IR, but ESPN won't let you add new free agents until all healthy players are off IR. Draft Summary Lists =================== You can find a 'Draft Recap' on the ESPN web site. Find the 'League' menu item on from your ESPN 'MyTeam' page. Hover your mouse over it and a drop-down menu appears which include the 'Draft Recap' item. Click it and you there it is. Note: this recap also includes protected players, listed in ESPN's rounds 15 through 34. Our draft yesterday started in ESPN round 1. Already posted are the draft summaries by round, by team, and by position. Just head over to: http://www.saffl.org and look in the lower-left 'Resources' section to find the links. Anytime Lineups =============== Remember, you can move players between starting slots and bench anytime up until a player's NFL game starts. Once the NFL game starts, a player is LOCKED in his slot until ALL NFL games are done for the week (right after the Monday Night game). You can also add FAs to your roster until Sunday at noon ET every week. So for those last minute changes between adding an FA Sunday, and many NFL kickoffs at 1:00pm ET, you've got an hour to slip that new player into your lineup. ESPN Settings Summary ===================== To see quick summary of all the ESPN features we have customized for SAFFL, including how players get points, go to: https://fantasy.espn.com/football/league/settings?leagueId=31549 You can also find this off of the ESPN pages by clicking on 'League' menu item, and in the drop-down clicking on 'Settings'. The Magic of AI =============== Some people think AI will change to world; some think it is just more marketing hype. In any case, it seems AI is helpful for making logos. Thanks again to Erica Malburg and her command of ChatGPT, we've got a great logo for SAFFL'25. Check it out on the SAFFL home page: http://www.saffl.org Wrap-Up ======= That's all for now. I'll be sending out emails with daily transaction reports, alerts about key dates and events, a voting proposal on consolation game benefit/impacts, and maybe a mini-SCOOP or two if there's some topics that come up and need dissemination. I'll also be triggering occasional text message alerting to timely events. Let me know anytime you'd like to get something out to the league and I'll help find a good vehicle for it. The season is rolling ... who's going to be the next champion of SAFFL and enjoy the pleasures of the Sparty Cup? Let's find out! ****************************************************************************