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Each offseason, we put aside the hopes and dreams of the previous Jets season, to be replaced by new hopes and dreams, usually illusory, sometimes delusional, of the season to come. To that end Gang Green Nation is announcing the Inaugural GGN Offseason Plan Contest. We are asking all of you aspiring GMs to think deeply about the Jets roster, salary cap, potential trades, the draft and potential cuts and and assemble the best 2013 Jets team you can, under the rules proposed in this article. We will call this the first Annual GGN Offseason Plan contest, or AGOP, hopefully establishing an annual GGN tradition.
Here's how it will work. All entries must be submitted via Fanpost. The 3 best will be selected by a panel of judges including Scott Salmon, Sp0rtsfan86, and Smackdad, and we'll present those finalists to the GGN community for a vote. The best plan as chosen by the GGN community will be presented on the Front Page, and its author gets bragging rights as best GM for a day at GGN over the next year.
The rules are as follows:
- The title of your FanPost must begin with "AGOP:" (no quotes). You can follow that with whatever title you want, but it must begin with "AGOP:" so we can easily distinguish it from other Fanposts. If you do not follow this rule your entry will be excluded from consideration.
- The deadline for FanPost submission is 9 a.m. ET on Monday, March 18. No exceptions.
- There is no mandatory length, but there should be as much explanation as is necessary to fully explain how your plan benefits the Jets, works under the salary cap, makes reasonable trades, etc. Spelling and grammar are not paramount, but entries should be reasonably readable. Use spell-check, use paragraphs and try to proofread for grammar and punctuation errors.
- Your plan MUST fit under the 2013 salary cap or it will be disqualified. In addition, consideration will be given to how the 2014 salary cap will be affected if you try to backload too many contracts and push all salary cap hits into 2014 and beyond.
- Feasibility of plan execution is important. Don't propose a trade of Sanchez for a first round pick. It's not going to happen.
- Plans must be salary cap compliant using nyjetscap.com #s. Restructuring of current contracts to create cap room is allowed provided it complies with the data on nyjetscap.com, is allowed under the CBA, and is shown to be something the player should realistically have no objection to. Please keep in mind proration of signing bonuses is permitted for a maximum of 5 years under the CBA, so no proposing a ten year proration to finagle some cap space.
- Draft picks are limited to the first 3 rounds, because any later picks are unlikely to have any significant impact on the 2013 team. Draft picks must be justified in being available at their designated slot by at least one reputable mock draft site. You can find a list of acceptable Mock Draft sites here. Other Mock Drafts may be used, but you should specify which one is used if not on the specified list. No more than 1 trade of draft picks is permitted. Unlimited player trades are permitted. You should provide some reasons why the trading partner would want to do any proposed trade. Any trade of draft picks would have to be in rough compliance with the standard trade value chart. Although Jets draft picks for the contest are limited to the first 3 rounds, trades may include picks from any round, as well as future years.
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Trades of current players for draft picks are limited to Revis for a single #1, Mangold for a single #1, Wilkerson for a single #1, Coples for a single #2, Ferguson for a single #2 and Cromartie for a single #3. You may propose trades of other players for lower draft picks as a means of reducing the Jets salary cap number, but no other players will be permitted to bring back draft picks in the first 3 rounds.
- Whether the Jets might realistically execute your plan doesn't matter as long as the plan itself can be considered realistic given the current free agent and trade markets.
- Free agent salaries should be realistic. You may sign any unrestricted free agents you wish, INCLUDING ANY FREE AGENTS SIGNED BY OTHER TEAMS AFTER THE SIGNING PERIOD BEGINS, provided they fit under the cap and the proposed salaries are realistic. You may not sign free agents already signed by their current teams PRIOR to the start of open free agency. So, for example, The Falcons just signed their own William Moore. If he had remained unsigned at the start of open free agency and then signed with the Falcons or any other team, he would have been fair game. However, since he is off the table prior to the start of open free agency, you may not use him as a proposed free agent signing by the Jets. If you propose signing a free agent that has already been signed by another team, the proposed salary should reflect the actual numbers of that free agent's new contract. You may not sign other teams' restricted free agents. If you are proposing some backloading of contracts to fit better under the 2013 cap, that's fine, so long as you then sketch out how the whole contract works so we can gauge how it impacts future years.
The top three entries will be posted on Friday, March 22, with community voting to conclude on Sunday, March 31. The winner will be posted on the front page of GGN shortly after the close of voting.
So get your minds working and try Being John Idzik for a day. Let the Annual GGN Offseason Plan contest begin!
Editor's note: Clarification on trades.
On the trading of draft picks. Only one trade involving draft picks for both teams involved in the trade is allowed. So if you trade our 1st pick for some other team's 2 1st round picks, or a 1, 2 and a 3 , or whatever, you're done making picks for picks trades. However, you may make as many trades involving picks for players, players for picks, or players for players as you wish. Any hybrid trades (i.e., my picks for your player and picks, or vice versa) will count as your one and only picks for picks trade. I hope that clarifies all possible trade scenarios.