You're going to love this game.
In Sandbox Football, you are the general manager and coach of your own team. You will build a full roster of 53 NFL players through the draft and free agency. You will then develop depth charts and game plans for them, and then compete against other players in your 24-team league over the course of a season. You will battle injuries, retirements, free agent defections, and your opponents as you seek year over year to build a dynasty against other smart owners.
Each week, you will see a play-by-play account of your game, and you will see how your players performed. You will tweak your lineup, adjust your game plan, sigh at your injuries, and then buckle your chin strap the next Sunday. Take notes, because you'll be seeking to upgrade in the offseason!
The heart of Sandbox Football is an incredible play-by-play simulation model designed and developed by a PhD engineering researcher and a former military simulation modeler, packaged in an easy to use game system. While player performance is based on NFL performance, this is not fantasy football. It is alternate reality football. Your entire roster matters, from your starting quarterback to your third guard, and the performance of each player affects others. Got a superstar wide receiver? You'd better have a good quarterback to throw to him. Got a great set of offensive linemen? Your running back is going to have more room to run.
Another unique feature of Sandbox Football is the timing. The game goes year round, but the season is played mostly in the NFL offseason. It will enhance your NFL viewing experience without interfering with it.
So what are you waiting for? Sign up and begin your championship run today!
June-Trading Period Opens
July-Rookie Draft
July-Free Agent Re-Signing Period
August to December-Unlimited Free Agency Period
January-Cut down to 53-Man Roster
January-Limited Free Agency Period Opens
January-Final Rosters Due
February-Trading Period Ends
February-Sandbox Season Begins, 1 Game Per Week
June-Sandbox Bowl For The Championship!
New Startup leagues may run on a slightly different schedule for their first season.
Your journey begins when you start your new Sandbox franchise. The cost of your franchise is only $18 per year. Later, you'll have the opportunity to take over existing franchises if you want to increase your opportunities to play.
When, you start your franchise, you will select from a database of place names and team names as you register.
Select your team name carefully because you will never be able to change it again. You will be given a list of every major American city to choose from, along with a list of over 2,000 potential team names to choose from.
Whether you start a new team or acquire an existing team, you might wonder why you can't change your name down the road. There are three reasons for this. First, we would like to keep the league history consistent. Long after we're all dead, our silver-suited hairless descendants will be playing Sandbox Football, and we want them to see the illustrious history of their team without having to look up a hundred different name changes.
Second, we assign teams to divisions based on geography. If your team is in Alaska, you're probably going to be in a Western or Northern Division, and we don't want to lose that consistency.
And the third reason is the most important. A lot of people pick really terrible team names if left to their own devices. It may be cute now to name your team The Chicago Cutlery Set or the Oregon Obamacares, but it won't be so cute twenty years from now. Just ask the owner of the Laredo Lewinskys or the owner of the Minneapolis Milli Vanillis. Sandbox teams have lasting power, so Sandbox names need lasting power.
If you are taking over an existing team, you will be dropped into the League Schedule wherever that league currently stands. Hit the ground running and you'll be fine.
If you are taking over an existing team, you will have a current 53-man roster to start with and you don't need to read this. You may instead use the time to learn the violin or something.
If you are participating in a new league, you will build your team via three phases.
Managing multiple teams is allowed, as long as they aren't in the same league. In fact, we encourage it, because it makes the occasional losing season or long-term rebuild more tolerable if you have other teams who are doing the Godzilla on Tokyo thing.
It is required that you manage all of your teams from a single user account -- if you are found to be using multiple user accounts, you will forfiet the rights to your teams and be banned from the game. If you have multiple teams, you can easily switch between them by selecting the "Account Management" menu and switching teams.
What it is: Your opportunity to select rookie players and add them to your team.
When you can do it: The rookie draft occurs in July.
Where it is: Go to the Drafts menu and select "Rookie Draft". After the draft, your rookies can sign contracts by going to your team name on the menu and selecting "Manage Roster".
Each July, Sandbox has a rookie draft. This functions just like the NFL draft does for the most part, though without the ramblings of Mel Kiper and Mike Mayock. The rookie draft begins in July, and is "turned off" and inaccessible prior to that point.
The draft consists of seven rounds. The draft runs seven-days a week during normal waking hours in the continental US. Each owner has 1 hour to make their pick. Since there are 24 teams in a Sandbox league, this means that a total of 168 players will get drafted. Since the NFL draft consists of over 220 players in most years, the remainder will become available during either the Unlimited Free Agency process or the Limited Free Agency process. Players available are ONLY those who were drafted in the NFL. Undrafted rookies become available in the limited free agency phase or the unlimited free agency phase.
The order of the draft is based on the previous year's records.
To participate in the draft, click on "Drafts" in the menu bar, and select "Rookie Draft". You'll see three columns of players, as follows:
The leftmost column contains players who are eligible for the draft, along with their position and the order in which they were selected in the NFL draft. You can sort these by clicking on the various headers. The player names are clickable, but since they have no NFL statistics yet the links won't take you anywhere. (The links are because we're prepping them to be linked to statistics once they become available.)
If you see players that you're interested in drafting, you can click the "Move to Draft Board" arrow and the player will move to your draft board, which is the middle column.
The draft board is an important feature, because it does two things. First, it helps you organize and track the players you're interested in drafting. But more importantly, if you do not manually draft a player in your allotted time limit once your team's selection is due, the system will automatically draft the player at the top of your draft board. More on that in a moment.
Once a player is moved to the draft board, you can click and drag that player up and down the board as long as the board is not locked (the little checkbox above the draft board). You should lock the draft board any time you're not making edits, as a courtesy to other players.
The right most columns serve as the draft order and as the record of players that have been drafted. You can look in this column to see who's been drafted and whose picks are coming up. You can also click on the headers to sort by team, player name, and pick number.
When your team's turn arises, the following procedure is used to draft a player.
If you have the draft board locked, the top player on your board will be immediately taken as soon as you are on the clock. This is the most efficient approach and we encourage you to have your board ready and locked before your pick arrives. By placing several desired players on your draft board, you can be ready to make you pick even if you have to be away from the game for several hours. If you don't have players on your draft board, then you will have the opportunity to manually make your pick when you are on the clock.
If you do not have the draft board locked, the following process takes place. First, you may manually draft a player while you are on the clock by selecting the "draft" button. You must move the player off of your draft board onto the leftmost list of available players to do this. If your allotted time expires without making a manual pick, the top player on your draft board will be chosen even if the draft board is not locked. If you don't have players on your draft board, then the highest-NFL-drafted remaining player will be assigned to you.
If you turn your e-mail notifications on, you will receive an e-mail notifying you when your team is "on the clock" to draft.
Video 1: Rookies: Drafting Them and Signing Them To Contracts
What it is: Your ability to sign unattached players to contracts, and your losses when players' contracts expire and they test the open market.
When you can do it: Generally, free agency occurs in the time leading up to the Sandbox Simulation season. Depending on how your Sandbox league is synched up with the NFL Season, it can last from a couple of weeks to the entire NFL season.
Where it is: Go to the Drafts menu and select "Free Agent Auction". The link is only active when free agency is active.
There are several elements to free agency. We will discuss how you lose players to free agency, how to retain free agents on your own roster, and how to acquire new free agents. Note that free agency runs during the Sandbox offseason. You cannot acquire free agents during the Sandbox season.
Losing Players To Free Agency
If you click on your team name in the Menus and the select "Manage Roster", you will see the remaining years on each player's contract. When a player has zero years left on his contract, it means that he's about to enter the free agent market.
Retaining Free Agents on Your Roster
Each year, a player's remaining contract years will count down one year toward zero. Once a player reaches zero years on his contract, he will enter the free agent market and other teams can bid for his services. However, you have two options for retaining your own free agents.
As a first option, you can retain up to two free agents per year by giving them a contract of five or more years during the Free Agent Re-Signing Period. If you re-sign a free agent, he then reverts back onto your roster, even if he hates you and his agent has called you names in the media.
If you elect to not re-sign a free agent, then he will head into free agency and teams may bid for his services. When a team wins the bidding war, you will receive an email notice (if it is turned on!) that the player is about to leave. However, now that you and he both know his market value, you can retain his services by "matching"-offering a slightly better contract than the winning bid. You will be offered an opportunity for 24 hours to re-sign the free agent at a price that gives him a one-year longer contract than the winning bidder has offered him. You will match or decline to match as you enter the free-agent marketplace. If you decline to match, or if you do not agree to match within 24 hours, the player will leave your team and report to the winning bidder. His agent will likely call you names in the media.
Note that free agents will remain on your roster until they are signed away to another team. If no one signs them, they will be removed from your roster when the 53-man roster is enforced.
In the "Manage Roster" area of your team, you have the option to release any player at any time. However, it is important to NOT release players who are heading into free agency unless you're sure that you do not wish to match any bids. If you release a player, you lose the ability to re-sign him or match another team's bid and keep him.
Acquiring New Free Agents
Here we will describe the normal free agency cycle, once your Sandbox league is in sync with the Sandbox calendar. Newer leagues may follow accelerated free agency processes described later. There are two free agency periods-unlimited free agency and limited free agency. The unlimited free agency period runs from August through December, and includes all NFL players who appear on an opening-day roster in the NFL that season. Every week, players from one or two randomly selected NFL teams will be added to the free agency pool, so new talent will arrive for your consideration every week. During unlimited free agency, roster sizes are limited to 80 players.
After the unlimited free agency period ends, teams will cut down to 53 players. We then enter the limited free agency period. It functions identically to the unlimited free agency process, with two exceptions. First, the 53-man limit is enforced instead of the 80-man limit, so teams will be cutting players who will enter the limited free agency pool. Second, players who were not on an opening day roster enter the pool. For the most part, the limited agency period will be a chance to fill gaps in your rosters, perhaps capture some good prospects who were waived by other teams, and occasionally capture a few jewels who were signed by NFL teams mid-season.
The process for acquiring free agents is simple but competitive. If you go to the Drafts menu and select "Free Agent Auction", you will see three tables. (Scroll down to see the second and third tables.)
The first table includes free agents who are currently available for bidding. You can click the headers and sort those players by name, position, NFL team, current Sandbox owner (if any), current high bidder (if any), current high bid (if any), the time remaining before that player signs a contract with the high bidder, and boxes for you to make a bid if you wish to do so. Bids are made using available Salary Points, which are shown for you convenience in the upper left corner of the screen.
Recall that if there's a current Sandbox owner, that owner will have the right to beat the high bid if a player agrees to a contract.
Once a Sandbox team submits a bid on a player, a timer starts. The timer accelerates if multiple bids are made, but is never shorter than 24 hours. The timer will set to the following:
1st bid – 72 hours
2nd bid – 60 hours
3rd bid – 48 hours
4th bid – 36 hours
5th bid or more – 24 hours.
If no other team submits a bid before time expires, that player opts to accept the high bid and join that team. Any current owner will have a chance to match at that point for a 24-hour window.
While the countdown is underway, other teams may enter a bid that is at least one Salary Point higher than the current bid. Any time a higher bid is submitted, the countdown is reset as noted above. The process continues until the high bid is not beaten before time expires, or until the free agency period ends, at which point all players sign their current high bid contracts.
Once you win a bid for a player, his contract length is automatically calculated based on the contract amount the position (tier) of the player. Higher contract amounts produce longer contracts. (This table is shown in the “Free Agency Auction” menu.)
If you scroll down from the first table, you'll find a second, and sometimes a third table. The second is a list of free agents who have been signed, along with their contract amounts and new teams. The third, which appears only during unlimited free agency, is a list of free agents who are not yet available for bidding during the unlimited free agency period, along with the week that they will become available.
Free Agency for New Sandbox Leagues
Free agency operates slightly differently for new leagues who may not yet be in sync with the Sandbox calendar. In the first year of a Sandbox league, there is one period of free agency between the initial talent acquisition draft and the Sandbox simulation season. This free agency period has a 53-player roster limit and all players who played during the corresponding NFL season that are not under contract to another Sandbox team are available. In this first free agency period, there are no counteroffers from teams who previously held players under contract.
Occasionally, a Sandbox league may still be out of synch with the Sandbox calendar after their first simulation season. In order to get theses leagues caught up, an accelerated free agency auction will run, with an 80-player roster limit and all players who played during the corresponding NFL season that are not under contract to another Sandbox team are available.
Summary of Various Sandbox Free Agency Periods
Existing Leagues (both types occur each season)
| Type | When | Players Available | Counter Offers | Roser Limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unlimited | During NFL season | Opening day NFL rosters | Yes | 80 |
| Limited | Just prior to simulations | All | Yes | 53 |
New Startup Leagues (Initial Free Agency will occur for all new leagues. Accelerated Free Agency may or may not occur depending on when the league starts up relative to the official Sandbox calendar.)
| Type | When | Players Available | Counter Offers | Roser Limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Initial | Just prior to simulations | All | No | 53 |
| Accelerated | Just prior to simulations | All | Yes | 80 |
Video 2: Free Agents-Losing Them, Retaining Them, Bidding On Them, and Signing Them
What it is: Your ability to offer trades of players and/or draft picks to other teams. (Tip: do not attempt to make trades with Bill Belichick if he happens to be in your league.)
When you can do it: Trades can be offered in the Sandbox offseason, from June through February. There are no trades during the Sandbox season.
Where it is: In the Trades menu, select "Propose Trade".
If you would like to propose a trade, it's a simple process.
Go to the Trades menu, and select "Propose Trade". This will bring you to the trade proposal dashboard.
The general instructions for proposing a trade are that you will select a team, select a player or draft pick that the team will give using a combination of the pulldown menu and radio buttons, and then select a team to receive it. You then select "Add to Transaction", and you will see that element of the transaction appear at the top of the screen.
Since trades require two parties to give and receive, you then repeat the process with other elements of the transaction. For example, your first step might be:
Canton Bulldogs trade Jim Thorpe to Chicago Bears (Click to Add Transaction)
You then repeat the process the other way:
Chicago Bears trade Bronko Nagurski to Canton Bulldogs.
You can add as many elements to the transaction as you wish, and include as many teams as you wish. Three-way trades are possible, two-for-one player trades are possible, combinations of players and draft picks are possible you name it.
Once you have the entire transaction listed at the top of the screen, you do two things. You click "Propose Trade" and then you click the box that says "Approve Trade".
Your trade offer will then be delivered to the other teams involved in the trade that you're proposing. They can accept or reject the trade using the process below.
Your offer will be active for up to 72 hours, or until the other owner(s) accept or reject the trade. Any trade that is still "on the table" will be counted in the "Pending Trades" area of your Message Notifications in the upper right corner of your screen, and you can also view them by selecting the Trades Menu and clicking on Pending Trades. In that menu, you can unclick the "Approve Trade" option if you're having second thoughts, but ONLY if the other owner(s) haven't already accepted the trade.
All owners involved in the trade must select the "Approve Trade" box in order for it to take place. Otherwise, it silently disappears into the mist of the Sandbox league archives.
As a reminder, it's a good idea to look at contract status when proposing a trade. Remember that all contracts are paid up front, so if you trade away a player who has seven years left on his contract, he's free for the other owner for seven years. Likewise, if you trade a player who has 1 year left on his contract, he's going to leave for free agency in a year unless the other owner takes steps to retain him by offering a long-term contract or matching any offers in free agency. (See the Free Agency section for details.) Note that a player with zero years left on his contract will leave for free agency immediately, but there's still some value there if the new owner wants to give him a long-term contract or have the opportunity to match the highest free agent bid. Each player's contract status is shown on the rosters when you make a trade offer, so it's pretty easy to analyze. They're also shown in the "League Roster" menu if you select your team name on the menu bar.
If you wish to solicit offers for trades, you can offer players for consideration in the "Trade Block" section, which can be accessed by selecting "Trades" in the menu and then selecting "The Trade Block". The Trade Block serves as an open advertisement of which players you may be willing to part with. You may also use the Private Message feature of the V-bulletin meassage board to negotiate trades, before you enter them into the Sandbox trade system.
What it is: Your ability to view offers from other teams and either accept them or reject them. (Tip: do not accept any trade offers from Bill Belichick if he happens to be in your league.)
When you can do it: Trades can be offered in the Sandbox offseason, from June through February. There are no trades during the Sandbox season.
Where it is: In the Trades menu, select "Pending Trades".
If you receive a trade offer, you will find out one of two ways. If your e-mail notifications are turned on, you will receive an e-mail notice. Otherwise, watch for your message notifications in the upper right-hand corner of the screen for "Pending Trades".
If you see a "Pending Trade" notification, you can go to the Trades menu and select "Pending Trades" to view the offer. At that point, it's simple. You select either "Accept Trade" or "Reject Trade". If you reject the trade, nothing happens other than perhaps some other owner crying into their beer. If you accept the trade, it happens immediately. All of the players pack their bags and move, and all of the draft picks immediately shift owners. It's very exciting.
Video 3: Trades-Proposing and Responding to Trades
What it is: The currency that you use to bid on free agents and to sign contracts.
When you can do it: You use salary points during the unlimited free agency phase from August through December, during the limited free agency phase occurring in January, and signing rookies after the rookie draft in July.
Where it is: To review existing contracts and sign new contracts, go to your team name and select, "Manage Roster".
The key to signing free agents and rookies, and keeping veterans on your team, is their contracts. Contracts are funded by Salary Points.
If you click on your team name in the menu, you can go to "Manage Roster" and you will see your available salary points in the upper left-hand corner. For convenience your balance is also shown on the Free Agency Bidding page, which will be discussed later.
If you select your team name on the menu bar and then select "Standings", you can actually see the salary points of every team in your league. There are no secrets in Sandbox.
Every year, you will get 450 salary points to use on free agents, rookies, and retaining veterans with expiring contracts.
If you're starting up a team, you will get a one-time infusion of 1,200 salary points since you have to bring all 53 players under contract. But after that, it's 450 new points per year.
Salary points cannot be acquired any other way. You cannot acquire salary points via trades. Also, if you release or trade a player before his contract expires, you do not recover any of the salary points you spent on his contract. However, if you trade for a player who is under contract, his contract comes with him at no cost to you.
You will spend salary points in one of four ways.
If you're starting up a new team in a new league, you will also use salary points to sign your veterans to contracts as a one-time event.
Salary points can not be spent any other way. You cannot use salary points in trades.
What it is: Your opportunity after you acquire them to lock players onto your team for a specific period of time. This is done automatically for free agents you acquire and for departing free agents if you match their bids, depending on the price you pay for them. You define contract lengths for rookies, and you define contract lengths for up to two free agents per year if you wish to sign them to long-term contracts. See the free agency rules for more information about free agency.
When you can do it: During the unlimited free agency phase from August through December, or during the limited free agency phase occurring in January.
Where it is: To review and sign contracts, go to your team name and select, "Manage Roster".
Any player on your team must have a contract. Sandbox Football uses a simple but realistic contract system that links pay to contract length. In real life, the bigger contracts also tend to be longer contracts, so we made it simple. You only have to worry about contract amounts, and the lengths are calculated automatically.
You can review your players' contracts by selecting your team name on the menu bar and then selecting "Manage Roster". In the "Manage Roster" page, you will also sign your rookies to contracts and you can sign up to two veterans per year to long-term contracts if their contracts have expired. (Any players not receiving long-term extensions will go to free agency.)
There are six key things to remember about Sandbox contracts:
Let's talk about rookie contracts first. Rookies work under the rookie contract table. If you draft a rookie, you need to sign him to a contract. The length of the contract will depend on how much you pay him, based on the following table:
| Contract Length | R1 | R2 | R3 | R4 | R5 | R6 | R7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 year | 110 | 70 | 50 | 40 | 30 | 25 | 20 |
| 6 year | 84 | 53 | 38 | 30 | 23 | 19 | 15 |
| 5 year | 61 | 39 | 28 | 22 | 17 | 14 | 11 |
| 4 year | 41 | 26 | 19 | 15 | 11 | 9 | 7 |
| 3 year | 24 | 15 | 11 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 4 |
| 2 year | 11 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| 1 year | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
For example, if you choose to sign your first-round pick to a 7-year contract, you will pay 110 Salary Points to do so. If you wish to sign your 6th-round pick to a 4-year contract, you will pay 9 Salary Points.
Rookie contracts will always be an exact value in the table. For example, a 3rd round pick will have a contract cost of 50 salary points, 38 salary points, 28 salary points, or so on, depending on your decision about contract length. A rookie will never have a contract cost between the amounts shown on the table.
Veterans use a different contract table, shown below.
| Contract Length | Tier1 | Tier2 | Tier3 | Tier4 | Tier5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 year | 200 | 125 | 100 | 85 | 50 |
| 6 year | 152 | 95 | 76 | 65 | 38 |
| 5 year | 110 | 69 | 55 | 47 | 28 |
| 4 year | 74 | 46 | 37 | 31 | 19 |
| 3 year | 44 | 28 | 22 | 19 | 11 |
| 2 year | 20 | 13 | 10 | 9 | 5 |
| 1 year | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
The tiers correlate to different positions:
For example, a 7-year contract for a quarterback (Tier 1) will cost a minimum of 200 points, while a 7-year contract for a kicker (Tier 5) will cost a minimum of 50 points.
Veteran contracts are awarded when you do one of the following:
Unlike rookie contracts, veteran contracts can be any amount. However, the number of contract years is the threshold below that amount, not above it. For example, if you pay $69 for a halfback (Tier 2), you can see from the table that his contract will be for 5 years. However, if you pay $68 for a halfback, his contract will be for 4 years. For a Tier 2 player in this example, any contract amount from $46 to $68 will result in a 4-year contract. Any amount between $69 and $94 will result in a 5-year contract.
For more on free agency and signing players to contracts, go here: [Insert link to "Signing Players to Contracts"]
Video 4: Salary Points and Contracts-An Overview
What it is: Non-existent.
When you can do it: Never.
Where it is: Lame fantasy football games.
One of our pet peeves about fantasy football is that it doesn't reward the smartest or the luckiest. It rewards the people who have NFL news texted to their phones and can quickly pick up emerging stars. Speed is as valuable as skill in that game.
In the real world, and in the Sandbox league, you're rarely or never going to pick up a star off of waivers. There's a reason that those guys aren't on a roster. In our league, "street free agents" can come and go as you need them, but they key to building a team is a knowledgeable, thoughtful, and occasionally lucky use of the draft and free agency. Like the NFL, your 53-man roster at the beginning of the season is as strong as you're going to be. After that, you're trying to plug holes and keep a starting lineup on the field. The war goes to those who can obtain high performance and avoid injuries, so good luck to you.
What it is: Some players retire and leave your team, and sometimes you may want to release a player from your roster, either to meet a roster size limit or because the player is simply not productive any more. You may also wish to release a player if you hate his guts in the real NFL and can't abide by having him on your team even if it's all fictional and no one will ever know. We understand that, because we grew up watching Bill Romanowski.
When you can do it: There are no rosters moves during a season. Retirements occur at the end of a season; however, the player is not automatically removed from your roster in case you think he's Brett Favre and you're willing to hold a roster spot for him. You can make cuts at any time during the Sandbox offseason (June to January).
Where it is: To release a player, you go to your team name on the menu bar and select "Manage Roster". Next to each player is a button that you can select to "release player".
At certain points of the season you may be forced to release players.
If a player's contract counts down to zero years, he will leave via free agency per the rules of that process. However, while he is on your roster, do not release him unless you're sure that you do not want to match the free agency offer that he receives. If you release him, he is no longer on your team and you cannot match his offer. He's a free man.
What it is: In the Sandbox universe, you'll know your player availability for the entire season as you enter Week 1. Since the Sandbox season follows the NFL season, you'll know which NFL players got injured and when, so you can work around it.
When you can do it: Player availability will be posted prior to Week 1 of the Sandbox season in February. Of course, you can keep an eye on player availability beforehand by watching the NFL during the Sandbox offseason.
Where it is: Under your team name on the menu bar, select "Player Availability".
Player availability each week in the Sandbox season is linked to each player's week-by-week availability in the previous season's NFL games. In general, the player's availability the previous NFL season will be identical to his availability in the current Sandbox season. If, for example, Sid Luckmann played in Weeks 1 through 4 of the NFL season and was then injured for the year, he will be available in Weeks 1 through 4 of the Sandbox season and will then be injured for the year.
There are some exceptions to the rule, and they're generally judgment calls. For example, some players may be released from teams or injured with a questionable status or on practice squads, and it's unclear whether they were truly available to play or not. Also, if a player's team doesn't make the playoffs, no one knows if he would have been available in the Super Bowl or not. So while you can use player availability stats on other sites as a general rule, recognize that the Sandbox system may differ slightly, and you have to play in the Sandbox universe. Sometimes it's a bummer when a player doesn't show up as available, but hey, that's life. Deal with it, just like NFL GMs have to deal with surprises.
The good news is that you won't be surprised from week to week. The Sandbox system will show you the player's availability for the full season once the season begins. Click on your team name in the toolbar, and then select "Player Availability".
Note that we don't have bye weeks in Sandbox football. The availability calendar is based on the Game Number, not the Week Number. So for example, if Gino Marchetti misses the 9th game of the season in the NFL, but had his bye week in Week 4, he missed Week 10 in the NFL, but he will miss Week 9 in Sandbox.
Note that "Player Availability" will not be available in the Sandbox offseason. You can watch the NFL to get a general idea of how your Sandbox roster is faring.
What it is: Injuries occur in the game to the extent that they prevent a player from playing.
When you can do it: Injuries occur every game. It's your job to adjust your depth chart and game plan to adjust for those injuries. Season-long injury reports
Where it is: Under your team name in the menu bar, select "Player Availability" to see when players are hurt and available by week.
Injuries in Sandbox football have some particular characteristics.
First, they mirror the real world. If Sid Luckman plays in the NFL for the first three games of the season and then misses five games and then comes back for the final eight weeks, that's what he'll do in the next Sandbox season. There is no "probable" or "questionable". He either plays or he doesn't.
Second, injuries do not occur mid-game. You have a player for a full game or none of the game.
See "Player Availability" for more information on how to find your players' injury status and plan accordingly.
What it is: This is the way that you identify who your starters are, who your backups are, and any situational substitution.
When you can do it: February, after the Limited Free Agency period ends and throughout the Sandbox season. The depth chart is inactive at all other times and cannot be changed.
Where it is: Lineups are accessed by selecting "Game Planning" and then selecting either "Offensive Lineup" or "Defensive Lineup". The depth chart is pretty obvious. It defines who your starters are, and who your backups are. See the next section for rules about setting a 3-4 defense versus a 4-3 defense.
When you set your depth chart, it's very important to remember that it will not update automatically with injuries. If a player is injured, he will automatically be removed from the depth chart, but that's the only automatic part. If your starter is injured, you must manually move your second stringer up to the starting position, and if a player comes back from injury you must manually insert him into the depth chart. If you don't do this, the vacant spot left by your injury will be filled by a "street free agent".
"Street free agents" represent the borderline players who are signed and released from rosters every week in the NFL. They're not good enough to make a team in the long term, but they're needed to fill roster spots. They cost you nothing, but recognize that they perform at the bottom tier of the league at their position. (Even so, it's better to use a street free agent at nose tackle rather than moving your backup halfback there, even if your halfback has a name. Think about it in common sense terms.)
There are a few limitations on depth charts. The most obvious is that you cannot put a player into two spots on the depth chart. So you cannot have a player listed as both your backup left tackle and backup right tackle. That's not a problem, though, because injuries do not occur mid-game. (See the injury section.) You will have plenty of time to fill in for an injured player and shuffle your depth chart between games.
The other limitation is on playing players out of their natural position. When you select a position for your depth chart, you will be given a popup list of every player who is eligible for that position. It's generally limited to players who could possibly outperform a street free agent at the position. However, that's not a guarantee. The bottom line is that you can't put every player on your roster in every position. It has to be a situation that could possibly make sense. There will be no quarterbacks at nose tackle, for example, even if it's that 300-pound quarterback that the Giants had a few years back.
When you select a spot on your depth chart and the popup list appears, you'll probably notice that some names are "grayed out" and not possible to select. This is because they are already selected on the depth chart at another position. If you really need Sammy Baugh at quarterback and he's grayed out, take him off the depth chart at punter or defensive back. We don't allow two-way players in this league.
So what if you don't have enough players to fill the depth chart? Either you don't have that third tight end on the roster, or you have injuries, or you just don't have the right talent set? There's a simple answer for that, and you don't have to worry about having only 10 men on the field. Holes are automatically filled by "street free agents".
The software will automatically identify your top kicker, punter, kick returner, and punt returner, so you don't need to worry about those positions.
Video 5: Depth Charts-How They Work
What it is: A declaration of the type of defense you will run for the upcoming season.
When you can do it: February, after the Limited Free Agency period ends. This is a one-time decision made once per year.
Where it is: A once-per-year popup that occurs as you approach the beginning of the Sandbox season in February.
Once per year at the end of the offseason, immediately before the depth charts are opened, you will be asked if you wish to run a 3-4 or a 4-3 defense. It is very important to select wisely, because once selected you cannot change this until the end of the season. Teams do not change defensive schemes mid-season, so you have to make the call and live with it for the whole season. Don't screw this up!
What it is: This is the way that you plan your on-field strategy by identifying run and pass plays and formations based on the game situation.
When you can do it: Weekly, during the Sandbox season. You do it to get ready for each game, taking into account your talents, the other team's talents, and injuries on both sides.
Where it is: Go to the Game Planning menu, and select Offensive Game Plan or Defensive Game Plan in the dropdown menu.
The offensive game plans are simple. You have three base scenarios: a normal offense, a hurry-up offense when you need to score quickly, and a "run out the clock" offense when you want to grind the clock down to protect a lead.
In each scenario, you'll face certain "down and distance" situations. You may have a 1st and 10, and 4th and short, or anything in between. For each situation, you'll identify how often you use a particular formation, and how often you will pass from that formation.
For example, on 2nd down and 6-9 yards to go in a normal scenario, you may decide to use your base offense 70% of the time, a 2-TE single back set 20% of the time, a 3-WR set 8% of the time, and a 4-WR set 2% of the time. In the base offense, you decided that you'll pass 45% of the time, in the 2-TE set you'll pass 40% of the time, in the 3-WR set you'll pass 68% of the time, and in the 4-WR set you'll pass 95% of the time. When you input these numbers, that defines how your team will behave in certain situations.
On 2nd down and 6-9 yards in a hurry up scenario, you may tilt more toward passing formations and passing plays, and in a "run out the clock" scenario, you may tilt in the opposite direction. It's all your decision and your planning, and it affects your team's playcalling and their use of talent.
Your formation percentages should equal 100%. If not, the computer will make the change for you.
The other part of the offensive game plan is how you use your running backs. You can identify up to 3 halfbacks and your fullback to get carries. Usually your first-team halfback will get most of the carries, but it's your call. Your top running back can withstand a load on running, but if you give him more than 300 carries in a season, and that amount is more carries than he had in the actual NFL season, then it will burn him out and his performance will be hindered for the rest of his career, performing below that player's performance in NFL seasons going forward.
As a tip, remember that your game plan is used to define probabilities in the simulation. Random numbers are drawn to identify whether the play will be a run or a pass. If you say, "99% of the time in 4th and long in a hurry up offense, I'm going to call a pass", then remember that 1 time in 100 you're going to call a run in that situation. Don't go crying about it when it happens, because we know what fate is like. Fate says that if there's a 1 percent chance of the worst thing going wrong in a critical situation, that 1 percent is going to happen.
The defensive game plan is similar in nature. First, you identify the defensive formation that you'll use against specific offensive formations. Your defense will then react to your opponent's offensive formations, making the substitutions that you specify.
Next, you identify how often your backup defensive linemen rotate into the game, and in what type of situation (run, pass, or neutral). It's important to have a defensive line rotation, because if you don't your defensive linemen will get fatigued and their performance will decline.
You then define where your strong safety normally plays-inside the box or outside.
Fourth, you identify which players will leave the game when you go into nickel or dime defenses.
And finally, you will identify who will blitz and how often in each defensive formation. You can define up to five blitz packages for each defensive formation.
Video 6: Developing Game Plans
What it is: Duh.
When you can do it: During the Sandbox season. Duh.
Where it is: You'll be able to see individual player stats by selecting "Stats" on the menu bar.
Player performance in Sandbox football is based on the player's NFL performance during the previous NFL season, but with some very important exceptions. Those exceptions are:
First, your player in Sandbox will have different teammates and different opponents than he did in the NFL. The highly complex and detailed Sandbox modeling system takes this into account. For example, your running back may have had a very good fullback leading him in the NFL, but in Sandbox he may have a very weak fullback. His offensive linemen may be better or worse. In a short yardage situation, maybe he has three great blocking tight ends in Sandbox, and didn't in the NFL. And of course, if you're on your third-string left tackle in Sandbox due to injuries, and you're playing a team with a ferocious pass rush, your quarterback may be in for a really bad day.
In short, the Sandbox system takes your player's performance from the NFL and transfers it to Sandbox, but it also accounts for the strengths and weaknesses of both his teammates and opponents. A great quarterback will struggle if he's not surrounded by solid receivers and blockers, and an average quarterback may shine if he's throwing to all pros and never gets his uniform dirty.
There are also a few other factors, particularly as they relate to running backs and defensive linemen. Those two positions can get fatigued if they're heavily used, so you want to be careful to give them an occasional breather by building substitutions into your game plan.
A second factor is playing out of position. Sometimes injuries will force you to play a player out of position. His performance will likely not be as strong in a different position. As we discuss in the "Injuries" section, you'll want to take that into account as the inevitable need arises.
A third factor in player performance is more of a clarification. This is not fantasy football. This is far more advanced. Therefore, your players' performances in a given week are not directly correlated to their performance in an NFL game week. Just because Don Huston caught 5 touchdown passes in Week 1 against the Bears, he's not going to catch 5 touchdown passes in Week 1 for you. Player performance is based on their performance throughout the season (with some random variance, of course), not their week to week performance.
Read the section on "How the Games are Played" and "Viewing Game Results" to see more about player performance.
What it is: The invisible alien-based sentient intelligence that simulates the games behind the scenes.
When you can do it: Weekly, during the Sandbox season. But you don't do anything. You just read the results.
Where it is: Select your team name on the menu bar, and then look at "League Schedule" for box scores and results.
Each week during the Sandbox season, your team will be pitted against a league opponent, and, any given Sunday aside, the best team will win.
Your role in getting ready for the game is talent acquisition, depth chart creation, and game plan development. Once the whistle blows and the kicker approaches the tee, everything else is handled by Sandbox.
The Sandbox system combines your team's talent and game plan against the other team's talent and game plan, and creates a play-by-play simulation of the game. It takes into account game situations, the score, the clock, and everything else. Once the kickoff starts, you are an interested spectator (though you don't watch it unfold live-you view the results afterward).
What it is: Seeing how you fared each week. You can view the play by play and box scores from each game, as well as the standings.
When you can do it: Weekly, during the Sandbox season.
Where it is: After a week's games have been played, select your team name on the menu bar, and then look at "League Schedule" for box scores and results. You can look at the box score if you don't like surprises, but we recommend scrolling through the play-by-play first. It's more exciting that way.
You can also select your team name and scroll for the league standings and both team and league schedules. You can go to the stats menu and view statistics to see how your individual players are faring.
Video 7: Viewing Game Results, Standings, and Stats
What it is: The ultimate goal
When you can do it: After Week 16.
Where it is: Playoff schedules, box scores, and play by plays are added as they occur after Week 16, in the same place where you view regular season schedules, box scores, and play by plays.
Each Sandbox league consists of 24 teams. Those teams are organized into two conference, the Lunar and Solar. Each Conference has three divisions, which each consist of four teams.
Five teams from each conference make the playoffs. To make the playoffs, you have to win your division, or you have to have one of the two best records among non-division winners.
In the first round of the playoffs, the two wild card teams will play each other. The winner then takes on the top seed among division sinners, which is the team with the best record. In each subsequent round, the highest seed takes on the lowest seed until a champion (undoubtedly your team) emerges from the pile.
The tiebreakers in Sandbox are simple. The best record wins the first tiebreaker, and after that the best point differential wins the tiebreaker. If that's still a tie, we flip a coin or you may opt to fly to the other owner's city and send us a videotaped and notarized rock, paper, scissors thing. Frankly, we recommend just going with the coin flip.
Signing up to own a Sandbox football franchise is a simple process: \