We wanted something of a hybrid between a keeper and dynasty, so we allotted each team 8 "contract" years. Each manager divvies up these years among their player to retain them for following year. So, if I wanted to give all 8 years to Zeke or I could also give a couple to J. Jones, Gronk, etc.

Once a player's year(s) run out, they enter back into the draft and are fair game for the other teams. There's a lot of other rules we've had to create (e.g. what happens when you trade a player with 3-years on contract and pushes you over your 8-year cap), but it's actually pretty simple to iron among rational individuals. The hardest part will be the tracking of years, etc.

The reason I love this: - It makes those template pre-draft prep sites almost useless (*almost) - Everyone is excited for the lock-in date (Aug 20) to see who is and is not available for the upcoming draft - Even if you have a great team of 6-8 killers, they'll be back in the draft pool in a year or so—if not sooner because a manager only has 8 years to distribute. - Adds an additional element to trades more interesting and fun

With all that said, this is our second year and this will be the first time we're locking in years. Should be fun.