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The GMFFL: Where Fantasy Football
Becomes a Real Front Office

The General Manager Fantasy Football League is a dynasty contract league built on salary caps, multi-year contracts, franchise tags, holdouts, and deep roster strategy. It's the league that inspired JerryTrades — and it's the kind of league we think every serious fantasy group should try.

The GMFFL has been running for years among a close group of friends and family. It's not your typical redraft league. Every player carries a real contract — guaranteed or locked — with salary escalations, dead cap penalties, and trade implications that ripple across multiple seasons. You don't just set a lineup. You manage a franchise.

Running a league like this on MyFantasyLeague requires a massive amount of manual tracking — contracts, salary deferrals, dead cap calculations, holdout eligibility, franchise tag costs. That's exactly why JerryTrades was built. We needed a tool that could handle the complexity of a real GM contract league, and nothing else out there could.

These leagues are incredibly more strategic than basic fantasy football leagues, and we all love it. So we encourage you and your fantasy buddies to adopt leagues like this. The depth of decision-making — balancing win-now moves against long-term cap health, navigating holdouts, timing contract extensions — is what keeps every owner engaged year-round, not just during the season.

Not Your Father's Fantasy League

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Salary Cap & Contracts

$300 cap. Every player has a guaranteed or locked contract with real financial consequences. Salary escalations, dead cap penalties, and cap compliance are year-round concerns.

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Deferrals & Advancements

Restructure contracts like a real NFL GM. Defer salary to free up cap now (at a cost), or advance future money to lock in value. Every dollar decision has trade-offs.

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Franchise Tags & Extensions

Tag expiring stars for one more year. Extend contracts before they expire. But each comes with rules — a player can only be franchised twice, and extensions are one-time-only.

Holdouts

Top performers demand new deals. If your star finishes in the top tier two years running, he'll hold out. Pay up, trade him, cut him, or stash him and wait it out for 7 games.

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Best Ball Scoring

No lineup-setting anxiety. Your highest scorers automatically fill your starting spots each week. Focus on building the roster, not agonizing over Thursday night flex decisions.

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Simulated Natural Events

Once a year, dice rolls simulate economic shifts, TV deals, labor negotiations, and league realignment — affecting salary caps and roster limits across the entire league.

⚡ Run Your League on JerryTrades

JerryTrades was built to handle leagues exactly like the GMFFL. Contract tracking, salary cap analysis, trade evaluation, and AI-powered recommendations — all in one place.

Try JerryTrades Free →
Coming Soon

🎯 GMFFL League Preset

A default league configuration in JerryTrades that matches the GMFFL ruleset out of the box — contract types, salary cap rules, scoring, and more — running on MyFantasyLeague.

Get Notified →

GMFFL Constitution

Browse the key rules below or download the full constitution.

  • 22-man active roster (must be full after August Auction)
  • Must always field: 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 2 Flex (one may be Superflex)
  • Unlimited IR (NFL IR/PUP only; salaries count against cap)
  • Practice Squad: up to 4 rookies (Rookie Auction players only)
  • Salary Cap: $300
  • Pass Yards: 1 point / 25 yards
  • Rush Yards: 1 point / 10 yards
  • Receiving Yards: 1 point / 10 yards
  • Receptions: 1 point each
  • All TDs (pass/rush/rec/return): 6 points
  • 2-point conversions: 2 points
  • Partial points apply
Best Ball format — your highest scorers automatically fill your starting lineup each week. No lineups to set.

Non-Guaranteed (NG)

  • In-season free agent acquisitions only
  • Drop penalty: 25% of salary (rounded up)
  • $1 NG players may be dropped free

Guaranteed (G)

  • 1–5 years; salary increases 5% annually
  • In-season drop: 100% current salary + 10% remaining years
  • Off-season drop: 50% current + 10% remaining years
  • May defer salary but cannot advance

Locked (L)

  • 2–5 years; salary stays flat
  • In-season drop: 100% current + 50% remaining years
  • Off-season drop: 50% of total remaining value
  • May defer and advance salary

Free Agent Auctions

  • Wednesday night & Saturday night
  • Friday night when NFL has a Saturday game
  • Must assign contract within 24 hours of acquisition

Drops

  • Cannot drop a player who has already played that week
  • One reduced-penalty drop each off-season (half normal penalty)

Trades

  • Player-for-player only
  • Deadline: Week 11, 5 minutes before each player's kickoff
  • Reopens March 1
  • Can trade salary obligations; receiving team must carry ≥$1/year

Salary Deferment

  • G and L contracts only (not final year, not NG)
  • Up to 50% of salary may be deferred
  • Every $4 deferred adds a 25% one-year bonus next season
  • If dropped after deferring, full deferred + bonus becomes dead cap
  • Team limit: $60 deferred per season

Salary Advancement

  • Locked contracts only, off-season only
  • Increase current year salary; reduce future years (min $1 each year)

Franchise Tag

  • One per team per year; 1-year Locked contract
  • Salary = higher of 120% last year's salary or average of top positional earners
  • May be franchised up to 2 times total

Extensions

  • One per contract (except max-length Locked contracts)
  • Guaranteed → becomes Locked; Locked may extend as either type

Holdouts

  • Triggered by 2 consecutive top-tier finishes at position
  • Owner options: pay the new deal, trade, cut, or stash
  • Stashed players count toward roster + cap but cannot play; return after 7 missed games

Seeding (6 teams)

  • Seeds 1–4: Best records
  • Seed 5: Most Points Scored
  • Seed 6: Best All-Play record

Playoff Format (Weeks 15–17)

  • Week 15: #1 seed chooses opponent (Thu 11 AM); #2 chooses next (Thu 4 PM). Winners + highest-scoring loser advance.
  • Week 16: Highest remaining seed picks opponent.
  • Week 17: Championship game.
  • Ties: higher seed wins.

Payouts

  • 1st Place: $850
  • 2nd Place: $425
  • 3rd Place: $175
  • Regular Season Points Leader (Weeks 1–14): $250

March 1

  • NG + expired contracts become Free Agents
  • Guaranteed contracts receive annual salary increases
  • Holdout + Franchise Tag declarations
  • Trading reopens

Rookie Auction

  • Held after NFL Draft; roster temporarily expands to 26
  • Rookies must receive 3–5 year G or L contracts
  • Must have ≥$1 cap space to participate; $300 hard cap applies

August Auction

  • All free agents available
  • All teams must finish with 22 players
  • No salary changes 24 hours before or during the auction
The hard cap is lifted from after the Super Bowl until one week before the August Auction — except during the Rookie Auction, where the $300 cap applies.

Once a year (around June 1st), dice rolls simulate real-world events that affect the entire league. Results are cumulative year-to-year.

Economy (1d6)

  • 1 — Recession: all salary caps decrease by $2
  • 2–5 — No change
  • 6 — Growth: all salary caps increase by $2

TV Rights (1d6)

  • 1 — ESPN pulls bid: caps decrease by $2
  • 2–5 — No change
  • 6 — ESPN doubles bid: caps increase by $2

Labor Negotiations (2d6)

  • 2 (1/36) — Players strike: all salaries increase by $1
  • 3 (2/36) — New CBA: roster limits decrease by 1
  • 4 (3/36) — Union loses leadership: caps decrease by $3
  • 10 (3/36) — Union gains leadership: caps increase by $3
  • 11 (2/36) — New CBA: roster limits increase by 1
  • 12 (1/36) — Lockout: all salaries decrease by $1
These events add an element of unpredictability that forces GMs to adapt. Just like real NFL front offices.

Ready to run a league like this? JerryTrades handles the complexity so you can focus on strategy.

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