Ok, we have progressive leagues... We simulate real franchises, moving forward year by year, and having drafts, much like real teams.

What if we were to add another level of realism? What if we added a rule 5 draft to them?

Just speculating... But one way it could work is:

• Allow owners to protect say 15 players before the cut period
• Have a 2 round Rule 5 draft, possibly in snake order. Owners can draft a max of 2 players. You can pass on your pick if you choose.
• Players returning from IR ARE eligible for rule 5 draft, and must be protected.
• When one of your players is chosen, you can protect 5 more players. Realistically, that means that the worst that can happen is you lose the 16th best player, the 22nd best player, and possibly the 28th best player on your team, while perhaps claiming the 16th best player from someone elses team...
• Any players you take in the rule 5 draft MUST be carried over onto your roster when cuts are made.

My thoughts is that this would help teams rebuild faster, would provide more strategy, and would generate a lot of interest. You could do this draft at the all-star break, to take effect next season.

What do you think?

Its a good idea-My 1st thoughts is that, it would make shorter term players a bit more desirable than they are now, and that an Owner would probably be wise to limit his longer term players. But all in all it would be intresting, and allow a different way for owners to set up their Teams to be successful.

this is from the homepage of a DoctorKz progressive,King's Royal progressive, that unfortunatley is no longer around..I wonder what happened to Doc?



We'll then post a roster protecting a maximum of 20 players.We'll then hold a one round Rule V draft, each owner will have the option of picking an unprotected player from another roster, or picking one of their own that went unprotected from their own roster. No team may lose more than 2 players in the Rule V draft per season.



I believe it did help teams rebuild faster,good teams from the previous season almost always at least 1 decent player unprotected.If you only protected 15 players I agree with outbacker that short term players would be more desirable...count me in if you decide to do it

I can't run a prog right now. Just hoping that the idea gets some traction so that I can play in something like that.

Yeah, the idea of longer term players being swapped around the league kind of appeals to me... And players who will have one good season might get swapped back and forth, and teams who are leaving talent unprotected might decide to trade some of it....

All in all, it shakes up the progressive world a little, so that you can't just go by the draft order from another league. You need to think about something new.

Like I draft a player who will suck for 3-4 years, before having 5 good seasons... When do you protect him? Do you hope someone else drafts him and then you grab him in a rule 5?

I tried to do this with my "Share the Wealth" Progressive about 2 years ago. It lasted 2 seasons and was a very enjoyable league. Alas, I started a new job and because the league was time consuming, did not have the time to run it properly and had to fold it. I still have all the rules and everything from my original league (started in 1969) should someone want to revive it. I would be glad to send everything to them so they could essentially hit the ground running (I have original players lists for each 1969 team, the 1970 draft list, the 1971 draft list, etc).

I have not had time to revive it, and given my work schedule, could possibly play in it, but not run it.

I think Todd the Duck runs a free agency league that is similar.

This reminds me a bit of the CARDINALSIN progressive I am in. We have a keeper list of 14 players each season. There's no rule 5 draft, but cuts and rookies all go in the same pool. It's taken me a few seasons to get the feel of drafting, because you have to try to guess whether someone is going to be good enough to be on your keeper roster for years, or whether you're just renting a player for one season. Definitely adds another element to the standard progressive.