Separate the rules?

OK with me.

yes i was thinking the same thing

First draft of football rules removing references to the baseball league. Please make correction/edit suggestions below.
The only actual rule change here is extending the regular season to 14 weeks to coincide with the extra week added by the NFL for 2021.

1. 12-team two division league with a 14-week regular season. Six teams make playoffs (byes for the two division winners) with three one week matchups.

2. Rosters will be 1 QB, 2 RB's, 1 RB/WR, 2 WR's, 1 TE, 1 OP, 1 D/ST, 1 K, 6 bench spots, and 3 IR's. We will also have a 6 man college/rookie roster that will be explained more later.

3. Basic Scoring with one half point per reception and a few additions for big plays.

4. The salary cap will be $100 million.

5. Maximum contracts will be $12 million and 4 years (12/4). Minimum will be (1/1).

6. The first round draft is a sealed bid draft. You may bid on up to 15 players and must rank them in your order of preference from 1-15. Released players still under contract may be bid upon during the bid rounds, with the existing contract as the minimum bid. (This rule cannot be used to extend the contracts of zero-cost players still on their rookie contracts.) When listing bids, owners must identify any of their former players they might exercise a match option on. Everyone must sign his top two successful bids. After that you have the option to pass on any further successful bids. Any player the 1st successful bidder passes on will then be offered to the 2nd place bidder to sign or pass on. If the 2nd place bidder passes the 3rd place bidder will have the opportunity to sign or pass and that decision will end the first round bidding draft.

7. The 2nd round bidding draft works similarly to the 1st round, with two differences: you can only bid on 10 players, and you are only required to sign your top successful bid.

8. Once the draft administrator receives the first owner's sealed bid, he will immediately send his own bid list to the first owner. (This helps to avoid the appearance of impropriety.)

9. For the bid rounds, players are awarded on the basis of highest bid salary. Tie-breakers are as follow: contract length, loyalty rights, order of preference, and reverse order of finish from previous season. "Loyalty rights" tie-breaker: In the event of an exact tie in salary and years duration, if one of the tied teams had the player in question on its active roster or IR at the end of the previous season, that team wins the bid.

10. After all signings from the two bidding drafts are complete we will have a FA draft to fill out each team's roster. All players selected in this draft will be assigned a contract of $1 million for 1 year (1/1.) Any owner may pass at any point in this draft but once they do they are out of the FA draft. Once an owner is on the clock, he will have 24 hours to make a selection. If the 24 hours expires, the next owner in line may make his selection. The skipped owner can make up the selection at any time but must choose from the available FA's remaining at the time the pick is made.

11. Draft order for the FA draft: Picks #7 through #12 will be reverse order of regular season finish using total points against to break any ties. Picks #1 through #6 will be determined by finish in playoff consolation bracket with the first pick going to the winner and proceeding down to 6th place finisher.

12. Each team will have a college/rookie roster made up of college players or NFL rookies with a maximum of 6 men (no minimum.) Drafted players will be assigned a (0/4) contract. Any player eligible for the college/rookie draft cannot be bid on in the bid rounds nor drafted in the FA draft. Undrafted rookies can be picked up as FA's during the regular season at a cost of (1/1). Draft to be held after the official NFL Draft each season. Each pick must be drafted on to your college / rookie roster and then moved up to your NFL roster at anytime. Once promoted to the active roster, players can never go back to the college/rookie roster.

13. The order for the College/Rookie draft will be reverse order of finish from the previous season.

14. Match Options: The owner of players with expiring rookie contracts will have the option to match the highest bid for up to two of those players during the next season's bid rounds and retain the players on the matched contract terms. The high bidder on the most expensive player whose bid was negated by the match option will receive compensation of the matching owner's first round pick in the following year's minor league draft. The high bidder on the second matched player will receive the matching owner's second round pick in the following year's minor league draft. Owners without a first or second round pick cannot exercise match options. Owners without a first round pick can only exercise one match option, giving up a second round pick. You must include the word "match" next to any player on your bid list that you intend to exercise a match option on.

15. FA pickups will be assigned a 1/1 contract and can be added to a roster only as long as they do not exceed the salary cap.

16. The football league opens when camps open and closes one week after the Super Bowl. At the beginning of the season, no player may be added to a roster except via the bid rounds and drafts. Free agency doesn't start until all drafts are completed.

17. Released rookie / college eligible players can be added back to the college / rookie roster as long as they have not previously been added to an active roster.

These rules last modified on 11-Aug-21.

I agree with Ron - great job Mike