2018 NLRF Free Agency Rules

Here are the rules for NLRF free agency for the 2018 season:

Each NLRF team is allowed TEN, non-transferrable free-agent moves until the beginning of Week 12's games (Thursday 8:00 a.m., November 22nd).

Send the Commissioner an e-mail for each free-agent player you have an interest in, with the SUBJECT LINE of the e-mail with the following format:

SUBJECT LINE of the email: "<Your Team Name> FA REQUEST #1" BODY of the e-mail: Pickup - POS,FIRST LAST,NFL Cut (or "None" [meaning this is an addition up to 73rd player], or "Move to IR") - POS,FIRST LAST,NFL

Below is an example of a team wanting TWO free agents:

**e-mail #1 (the most-preferred player to be picked up)** SUBJECT LINE of the email: "HOLY COWS FA REQUEST #1" BODY of E-mail: Pickup - QB,BOXHEAD McGILLICUDDY,LAR Cut - None (70th player) **e-mail #2 (the next-most-preferred player to be picked up)** SUBJECT LINE of the email: "HOLY COWS FA REQUEST #2" BODY of e-mail: Pickup- KR,ALVIN GARRETT,DAL Cut- OG,PUDGY LARDBUCKET,FA

ALWAYS indicate your cut player; please don't take my time to hunt you down to do this. If another team below you in the "pecking order" requests the player you want, and that team indicates a cut player, and you didn't, the other team gets that free agent. Your request gets discarded. Don't be that guy that doesn't include a cut player.

Please do not put any other NLRF business in these emails; they likely won't be read until Saturday.

Remember to put the desired player's name in the BODY of the e-mail, NOT THE SUBJECT LINE, and include an existing guy off your roster that you intend to cut (if you presently have 73 players). Players picked up during free-agency do NOT have to start that week.

Because most every 2018 NFL week has at least one Thursday night game, free agent moves regarding these two teams must be done BEFORE those teams play. These requests should be submitted to me in reasonable time before the game plays, with some indication in the subject line that this is a request for a Thursday game player. In the body of the email, if you intend to start that free agent player for that NLRF week, YOU MUST MAKE THIS CLEAR. Not doing so means that that player is ineligible to play in that week's NLRF game.

As for regular, weekend NFL games, free-agency award determinations begin at 12:01 p.m. Saturday afternoon. Therefore, you should have your FA requests in by that time. After the initial determinations have been made using the ranking of the "pecking order" of free agent acquisition rights, which will be posted each week on the website:

Free-Agency Pecking Order

and is based on the records and differentials so far accumulated in the season; the worse your team is by Week 2's results, the better your FA "pecking order" slot for Week 3's free agency requests, and so on.

Free agency ends 9:59 a.m. the Sunday morning of Week 12's NFL games (November 25).

The selection process is not "all-at-a-time"; in other words, the worst team -- with the top pecking order -- can't pick a second free agent until the other teams have cycled through with their opportunity to claim a player.

Keep in mind that no team can carry more than four active (i.e., not on NFL IR) QBs during the season.

You do not have to have a FB or TE on your roster, and there are no restrictions on the number of players retained at other positions.

NFL players who became officially retired during the off-season do not take up roster spots, but are instead held on the "retired-protected" list, which will be updated on the website shortly before Week 3's games. You retain the rights to those players, until the end of the active NFL season, after which they become NLRF free agents.