Release Timing

[Clay]

Is there a "best" time to release a player? Does it matter at all?

[Aston]

I like to play the numbers game full tilt so I usually don't release unless I have to make room and stay under the 70-man limit.

At this point reasons for releasing players might be:
-Increase cap space for FA spending
-Increase FA pool talent so you can let other teams fill needs and mark positions off their draft boards
-Have a better picture of affinities by getting rid of a team leader you don't want around anymore

I don't think there are really any in-game effects with timing, just roster management considerations. Once you release a guy though, even if you resign him, his "On Team" year resets, so you lose cohesion.

As far as if releasing at certain times makes a player more or less mad and unlikely to re-sign, I don't know. I assume you are releasing guys you don't want anyway, but if I want to possibly re-sign someone, usually I release them early instead of right after camp. Just in case.

[Aston]

Oh I just thought of something else: if you release in the Pre-TC stage or after, no team will be able to sign the guy for multiple years. Once Camp runs, only 1-year deals are possible.

So for year 4 or above guys, that's a way to make sure that the guy is going to make it back to the FA pool again next year. It hurts other teams and won't allow them to lock the guy up.

[Clay]

I have a guy who took a dump. Ratings went through the toilet. Could use the cap room.

[Aston]

Was it from end of season to now? If so it sounds like it must be an injury dump. Otherwise ratings don't really change. How big was the dump?

[Clay]

I don't remember where he was... but he's at 29/29 now. I know he wasn't that low.

[mike17]

Oh I just thought of something else: if you release in the Pre-TC stage or after, no team will be able to sign the guy for multiple years. Once Camp runs, only 1-year deals are possible.

Strategically, this is the best time to release a player. There's no other reason to wait

[Aston]

yup mike and I love doing that.

Something else: if you have a guy on a >2 year deal that has a huge bonus commitment and is not very good, keep in mind that releasing him means his (CUR YEAR BONUS) counts as a cap hit this year and (SUM OF ALL FUTURE BONUS) counts as a cap hit next year.

If that number is big enough and you can sorta afford to keep him for now, maybe you'd rather do that than take a $20 mil cap hit in a year or something.

But your guy Clay, the guard? Seems like he took the dive last training camp. Yeah just cut him now.