This thing need serious help. Yes, those of us who have been around awhile know how to avoid its deadly trap, but noobs may not. The default numbers this thing presents aren't what the team should be offering, it's more like what the player is asking for. If their agent os Drew Rosenhaus. This thing is a team-wrecker. Some nopb who doesn't know any better can damage a franchise for years with this thing. But it won't matter to them because once they realize how they screwed themselves they quit anyway. In my main league and owner who "particpated" for one week took a team from 30 million in the black to 10 million in the hole in one free-agency week. So, two days of real time? This thing, as it's set up now, is space-herpes with a bonus of demon-syphillis, crab-lice with a plus 10 to their saving throw, bed bugs, and an IRS audit all rolled into one.

I've been complaining about this for awhile now. I agree that the renegotiation wizard suggests some really high contracts, but you are also right in thinking that these are what the player is requesting.

One of the suggestions I've previously made is to limit how far over the cap anyone can go. But I've also heard from some good players that they sometimes go over the cap by a lot as they carefully rebuild a team. And they have successfully gotten back down below.

So I can see both sides of the coin.

Considering all these things, I've suggested in another thread that maybe new players should have a probationary period similar to how they can't trade for specified amount of time. Maybe in that same time period, just those new players should not be allowed to go over the cap by, say, 10 million? That way, as these things are bound to happen to new players, they can still make a mistake to learn from, but not ruin their team to the point that they get frustrated and leave.

That sounds like a good idea. A full season when they can't inadvertantly blow things up.

Off-season: soft cap (what the cap will be)/hard cap (20 million over or whatever seems reasonable)

Training Camp: soft cap becomes the hard cap.

I think I understand what you're saying. Similar to being able to have an extra 7 players on the roster during the off-season, maybe an off-season soft cap.

I like it, but to me this is a separate idea. The reason I say this is because new players sometimes screw up their team during the regular season as they try to extend contracts. So the off-season soft cap wouldn't fix the issue of this discussion.

But to address your idea... although I like it, it may add extra complication. As it stands right now, it's pretty clear the number your hitting. For a soft cap to work, I think it would need to have some clarity to help with planning to get down to the hard cap number. That might require another color in the slider bar after players are designated to be cut? My apologies if I'm overthinking it.

I just recently came back to the game, and picked up two teams which I used to call my own.
And one more in a Roster only league.

Obviously, all 3 were unmanaged.
In only a brief time, the BOT management put those teams in heavy debt.
For this season and next ones, by giving out unreasonable contacts to old players.
Huge signing bonuses I will have to eat.

This is not a nice welcome to the game. Rather, it is a way to scare people off.
Other managers in my leagues will be glad to find in the waivers some good players available (on a cheap, bonus free, base salary). That's a plus for the league.
So, if the reason for screwing up bot teams is to provide fresh bodies to the waiver wire, mission accomplished.

As for rebuilding, the current system sucks big time