A 12-team, half-PPR dynasty league where every player is on a contract and every team lives under a hard salary cap.

League setup

• Teams: 12 to start. Supported sizes are 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16. Size can change before the startup draft; after that, teams join through expansion.
• Format: a dynasty league. Rosters carry over year to year; the startup draft happens once.
• Platform: the league site runs everything: lineups, scoring, standings, contracts, drafts and transactions.
• 2026 test season: the league launches around Week 7 or 8 of 2026 as a full test, including contracts and the cap. It runs through the 2027 offseason and rookie draft, then the commissioner resets everything before a fresh startup draft in August 2027.
• Scales and league size: the startup and rookie draft salary scales are built for 12 teams. If the size changes before the draft, both are rebuilt the same way.

Scoring

Half-PPR with 6-point passing touchdowns. Yardage is never rounded, so scores run to two decimals.

Offense

Kicker

D/ST events

D/ST points allowed: score = (23 − points allowed) × 0.5, with no floor or ceiling. 23 is the 2025–26 NFL average. Points allowed is the opponent’s final score minus points scored by the opponent’s defense (interception and fumble return TDs with their extra point or 2-point try, and safeties). Kick and punt return TDs given up do count.

When scores post

• No live scoring. Scores are calculated after each window of games finishes: Thursday night, Saturday games, Sunday early, Sunday late, Sunday night, Monday night, plus international and holiday games.
• A final pass Tuesday morning re-scores the week to catch stat corrections and sets official results.
• The commissioner can adjust any score.

Lineup and roster

Each team starts 9, carries 11 on the bench (20 active), plus 3 IR spots.

Positions and lineups

• Each player has one position: his official NFL listing, updated the following week if the NFL changes it.
• Each player locks at his own game’s kickoff.
• Empty slots, or players on bye or inactive, score zero. No penalty, no auto-sub.

Injured reserve

• Eligible: NFL status of Out, Injured Reserve, PUP or NFI, plus suspended players.
• Injured players’ salary does not count against the cap while on IR. Suspended players’ salary still counts.
• A player you sign or trade for must fit on your active roster and under the cap before moving to IR.
• Once a player is no longer IR-eligible, he must return to the active roster before you can make any other move.
• IR clears when the league reopens for the offseason.

Players who leave the NFL

Retired, released-and-unsigned or opted-out players stay on the roster under contract and count fully against the cap. Teams cut them under normal dead money rules.

Season and playoffs

No head-to-head matchups: each week, the top half of teams by points get a win.

Regular season (Weeks 1–14)

• Top half by points wins, bottom half loses (top 6 with 12 teams).
• Teams tied across the win line each get a draw, worth half a win. Records read W–L–D.
• Standings tiebreaker: total regular-season points.

Playoffs (Weeks 15–17)

Half the league qualifies, seeded by record, then points. It’s survivor style: the lowest scorers are eliminated each week. Seeds give no advantage except that ties at the elimination line go to the higher seed.

Consolation bracket: teams that miss the playoffs play the same survivor format in Weeks 15–17.

Offseason ranking (breaks ties in the rookie draft slot game and in offseason free agency)

1. Consolation winner
2. Consolation runner-up
3. Teams eliminated from the consolation bracket, latest first
4. Teams eliminated from the playoffs, earliest first
5. Runner-up
6. Champion

Teams eliminated in the same week are ordered by worst regular-season record, then lowest regular-season points.

Salary cap and contracts

The 2026 cap is $250.00 per team and grows each year by the same percentage as the real NFL cap.

• Where $250 comes from: the real salaries of the players a 12-team league would roster (3 QB, 6 RB, 6 WR, 3 TE, 1 K, 1 D/ST per team) average about $226 per team, with room added on top.
• Hard cap: no transaction can put a team over. A team that is over can only make moves that don’t add salary.
• Salary is flat: a player earns the same salary every year of his contract. There is no discount for length.
• Length: 1 to 5 years.
• In-season signings (from 72 hours before the NFL’s first game until the league closes) are 1 year only. Offers submitted before that keep their terms; an offer edited after it begins becomes 1 year.

Minimum salary by length (per year)

The minimums apply everywhere: a drafted player’s salary is the higher of his slot value or the minimum for the length chosen.

Length limits (permanent, counted by years remaining, covering every signing, draft pick, tag, match and trade)

An unused long slot can hold a shorter deal: 2 five-year and 6 four-year contracts is allowed; 5 five-year contracts is not.

Cuts and dead money

Cutting a player leaves 75% of this year’s salary and 75% of next year’s on the cap, then 50% of each year after, spread across the years the contract would have run. The same rule applies all year, in season and offseason.

• Every cut frees 25% of this year’s salary, so teams can always cut their way toward the cap, but never cheaply.
• Dead money stays with the team that made the cut.
• Any rule that measures “cap freed” (the auto-cuts) uses this year’s savings after dead money. If two cuts would free the same amount, the one leaving the least total dead money goes.

Startup draft

A one-time, 20-round snake draft where every pick carries a set salary, from $64.00 at 1.01 down to $1.00 from 18.01 on.

Draft slot selection

1. Every manager privately ranks all draft slots.
2. Uncontested first choices are assigned.
3. A contested slot goes to a random draw among the managers who chose it; the others move to their next open choice. Repeat until every slot is filled.

Format and timer

• Snake order, 20 rounds. The commissioner can pause and resume.
• Timer: 90 seconds per pick in Rounds 1–5, 2 minutes in Rounds 6–20.
• When time runs out, the site picks from the team’s queue. With no usable queue, the draft pauses until that team picks, or until the commissioner resumes and skips them (they pick later).

Passing

• A team can press Pass instead of picking. The pick moves to the end of the current round, after the last regular pick, at the price of that round’s last slot.
• Passed picks go in the order the passes were made. A passed pick can be deferred up to 2 times, moving to the end of the next round at that round’s last-slot price.
• A pass in Round 20 forfeits the pick.

Trading during the draft

• Startup picks and drafted players can be traded. Future rookie picks can’t until the draft ends.
• No team can hold more than 20 players; picks are unlimited.
• A team with 20 players is skipped but keeps the pick. The first time, it gets the full timer to make a trade. Skipped picks can be used at the end of the current round once under 20, or traded.
• After the final round, teams holding skipped picks get a 10-minute window to make any picks to get to 20 (commissioner can extend or close).

After the draft

• Teams have 48 hours to assign contract lengths (1–5 years) within the length limits. Unassigned players get 1-year deals.
• No transactions during the 48 hours. Free agent offers can be submitted.
• First signings happen at the first daily run at least 24 hours after the window closes. Example: draft ends Monday 9 PM, window closes Wednesday 9 PM, first signings Friday 3 AM ET.

Salary scale (per year, any length; the minimum salary by length still applies)

The scale is built from real NFL salaries and lines up with what 12-team auction drafts pay for the top 60 players. A full 20-pick draft costs each team about $225–232. Revisit after the test season if it feels too tight.

Rookie draft

A 3-round, straight-order draft each spring after the NFL Draft, priced on the real NFL rookie scale.

• Eligible: every player in that year’s NFL Draft class, drafted or undrafted. Rookies not taken go to free agency.
• Order: the slot-ranking game. Contested slots go to the team higher in the offseason ranking. The commissioner opens and locks slot ranking whenever it fits the offseason.
• Rules carried over from the startup draft: same timer, queue, auto-pause and passing rules.
• Contracts: the team picks 1–5 years within the length limits. Rookies count toward the 20-man roster.
• Pick trading: rookie picks up to 3 years out can be traded. A new year of picks is created at each reopening, traded as “2029 Round 1” until slots are set.

Rookie salary scale (our pick N = the real 2026 NFL salary of NFL pick N)

Free agency

No waivers. Every free agent signs with the best offer, decided once a day around 3 AM ET.

• Waiting period: a released player can’t sign for 2 full days (released Monday, signs Thursday at the earliest). Offers can be made right away.
• Offers are blind and can be edited or withdrawn before the daily decision. Each offer must fit the team’s cap, roster and length limits on its own; several offers together don’t have to.
• Best offer: highest salary per year, then the longer contract, then team tiebreakers.
• Team tiebreakers: in the offseason, the offseason ranking; during the season, worst record, then lowest points.
• Playoffs: signings and cuts stay open for every team through Week 17.

Nightly decision

1. Each free agent picks his best offer.
2. Each team’s winning offers are processed in the team’s own ranked order. Each signs only if the team still has the cap room, roster spot and length slot.
3. A winning offer the team can’t fit is voided for that night.
4. Players whose offer was voided go to their next-best offer, and steps 2–3 repeat.

Trades

Trades process instantly once both teams accept, as long as both stay within cap, roster and length limits.

• Collusion check: the commissioner can reverse a trade within 48 hours.
• Waiting day: traded players can’t be started by either team until one full day after the trade (traded Saturday, available Monday).
• Deadline: after Week 11, at that week’s Tuesday morning final scoring pass.
• Reopening: trading resumes when the commissioner reopens the league for the offseason.
• Tradeable: players, tagged players (after the tag period) and rookie picks up to 3 years out.

Offseason

The league closes after Week 17, and the commissioner moves it through each period by hand, whether that takes a day or a month.

1. Closed: no transactions of any kind.
2. Reopened: IR clears and rosters can sit above 20 (up to 23). Trades, cuts and free agency resume. Advancing runs the roster auto-cuts.
3. New league year: contracts and the cap move forward a year. Expiring players stay on rosters at $0 so everyone can see the full picture.
4. Tags: franchise and compensation tags. Free agency is frozen from here until period 7.
5. Compensation: other teams bid on compensation-tagged players.
6. Matching: bidding and matching on untagged expiring players. Advancing runs the cap auto-cuts.
7. Free agency: the open market for everyone left.
8. Rookie draft order and rookie draft.
9. Preseason: normal moves until in-season begins.

Roster limit (periods 2–3)

• A team over 20 players can’t make any move that adds players.
• If still over 20 when the commissioner advances out of period 2, only players who came off IR are cut. If the team is over the projected cap, the one whose cut frees the amount closest to, but above, the overage goes first; once under, the lowest salary goes next. Repeat until at 20.

Cap compliance (through period 6)

• A team over the new cap can’t make any move that adds salary.
• When the commissioner advances out of matching, a team still over has players cut: the one whose cut frees the amount closest to, but above, the overage. If no single cut frees enough, the one freeing the most goes, and the process repeats.

Franchise tag

• One per team per year, during the tag period. Final once applied.
• Price: the higher of the top-5 average salary at his position in our league, or 120% of his expiring salary. One year.
• No limit on repeat tags; each costs at least 20% more than the last.
• Requires cap room. Tradeable after the tag period.

Compensation tags (one of each per team per year)

• In the compensation period, other teams submit blind, ranked offers at or above the tender. Bidders must own the required pick in the upcoming rookie draft, and can’t trade that pick while their bid is active or the player is unsettled.
• The player picks the best offer; the original team has 72 hours (extendable) to match exactly or take the pick.
• If the winner can’t fit him, the next-best offer takes over with a new 72-hour window.
• No offers: he stays on his 1-year tender.

Matching (untagged expiring players)

• Every team, including the original team, can submit blind, ranked offers.
• The player picks the best offer: highest salary, then longest length. The original team wins ties; otherwise team tiebreakers apply.
• If another team wins, the original team has 72 hours (extendable) to match exactly. If the winner can’t fit him, the next-best offer takes over with a new window.
• No offers: he becomes a regular free agent.

Expansion

Teams join two at a time through an expansion draft that pulls from existing rosters.

• Timing: whenever the commissioner schedules it, preferably at the new league year (before tags), as late as preseason. If held early, expiring players are not eligible.
• Protection: each existing team protects 2 players. No re-protecting after a loss.
• Draft: the two new teams alternate picks (order set by the slot-ranking game between them) until each has 20 players. They take on contracts as they stand and must stay within cap and length limits.
• Max lost per existing team: 40 ÷ existing teams, rounded up: 5 (going from 8 to 10), 4 (10 to 12 or 12 to 14), 3 (14 to 16).
• First rookie draft: each new team gets the slot it ranks first, ahead of existing teams. If both want the same slot, a random draw decides and the other gets its 2nd choice.

Commissioner powers

The commissioner runs the calendar and can fix anything, with every change shown in the public transaction log.

• Open and lock the rookie draft order; pause and resume drafts
• Reopen the league and advance between offseason periods
• Schedule the expansion draft and set the in-season start date each year
• Adjust any score
• Reverse a trade within 48 hours
• Extend deadlines and match windows
• Correct position listings
• Undo or fix any transaction; edit any roster or contract
• Add or remove managers and run an abandoned team
• Reset the league after the test season

Rule changes need a two-thirds league vote and take effect at the next reopening.

Sources

• nflverse game results: points allowed baseline
• nflverse contract data (from OverTheCap): cap, draft and rookie scales
• nflverse 2025 player stats: rostered-player salaries
• NFL.com: 2026 salary cap set at $301.2 million
• FFToday 2026 half-PPR auction values and RotoAlpha auction values: draft scale check