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Top Shelf Football League
UPDATED APRIL 2025
1.0 LEAGUE STRUCTURE
The TSFL is a 28 team H2H league using the most current NFL data provided by DK Sports. The league will begin play in August each year and play one game per week over a 20 week scheduled season.
The league week will begin on Monday at 8AM EST and end on Sunday at 10PM EST each week.
TSFL Playoff format will comprise additional weeks for teams involved and will mirror current NFL playoff formats.
The TSFL will use a salary cap, currently $121,000,000
The TSFL will hold an annual rookie draft of newly drafted NFL rookies, to be held in reserve on their drafted franchise until such time as they receive a rating by DK Sports.
All league games must be played head-to-head.
2.0 TEAM ROSTERS
Each team will carry the following roster components:
a) 52 active players
b) 5 practice squad players
c) Up to 3 Injured Reserve players (optional)
d) Drafted rookies (will be added to active roster the following season)
3.0 PLAYER DEFINITIONS
ACTIVE PLAYER any of the 52 players assigned to your team that are permanently owned by the franchise until traded or released by the GM
PRACTICE SQUAD any player claimed by their franchise as part of the active roster for the current season. These players must be from their own franchise, unowned by other teams, and will be returned to the FREE AGENT list at the conclusion of the season. These players will have a salary of ONE dollar. These players will be inactive unless forced
Into action due to an injury.
FREE AGENT any unowned player who is rated and included in the data file provided by DK Sports
UNRATED PLAYER any currently owned player who is not included in the data file provided by DK Sports.
INJURED RESERVE any player (to a maximum of 3) currently on your roster on cut-down day to 42 players who has a durability rating of 3 or below. UNRATED PLAYERS may be included. The minimum salary for a player on INJURED RESERVE is 350K.
4.0 TEAM ROSTER REQUIREMENTS
All teams must fill the following positions on their team rosters. All requirements must be satisfied by the 52 player ACTIVE ROSTER. Each player may only count toward one roster position for the purpose of meeting these requirements.
Players moved to INJURED RESERVE or members of the PRACTICE SQUAD will not count toward any of these requirements
QB 3 required, but a team may carry only two QBs if one has a durability rating of 10. No team may carry more than 3 QBs. Each team must carry a minimum of 350 pass attempts from all active sources and may not exceed 800 attempts. No team may carry more than one QB with more than 400 pass attempts for the season
RB 3 required. Each team must carry a minimum of 225 rush attempts from all sources but not exceed 600 rush attempts.
TE/HB 3 required
WR 5 required. Each team must carry a minimum of 175 receptions but not more than 550 receptions from any/all sources.
OFFENSIVE LINE Each team must carry at least 8 OL with a minimum of 2 C, 3G, and 3T
DEFENSIVE FRONT 7 (DL+LB) Each team must carry a minimum of 13 players distributed as follows:
OLB 4 required
DE 4 required
DT 2 required*
ILB 2 required*
*DT+ILB 5 required total
DEFENSIVE BACKS (CB+S) 8 players required with a minimum of 5 CBs and 3 S
PUNTER/KICKER Each team may carry only one primary P or K with a durability of 10. If you have a P or K with a durability below 10, you must add another to cover a minimum if 17 games at each position. Any player applied to P or K must have that position as his primary NFL position. Any P with 50+ punt attempts and K with 20+ field goal attempts will be
Immune from season fatigue.
KICK RETURNER and PUNT RETURNER Any player with 10 or more KR or PR will be unlimited and exempt from seasonal fatigue. In the event a team does not have such a KR or PR, it may create one by declaring any RB, WR, or DB and make him a generic returner using the following criteria:
KR 10 returns, 25.3 average, 51 yard long
PR 10 returns, 8.3 average, 17 yard long, 10 fair catches.
This option becomes available after the completion of the FREE AGENCY PERIOD and is implemented for the 2025 season.
NOTE: THESE STATS WERE DERIVED FROM ACTUAL 2024 NFL RETURNS
SPECIAL TEAMS Each team is required to carry a Long Snapper and a Holder with 10 durability, or enough players to cover 17 games.
On the first day of the new league year, every team must be under $121,000,000
5.0 TEAM SALARY CAP
Each team will have an in-season salary cap of $121,000,000 to include the 52 man ACTIVE ROSTER plus any players on INJURED RESERVE
Once rosters are cut to 45 players at the beginning of the Free Agent draft, the salary cap will be $118,000,000 which will increase to $121,000,000 at the conclusion of the annual Free Agent draft.
At no time after the start of the new league year will teams be allowed to exceed the salary cap.
6.0 ROOKIE DRAFT
The TSFL rookie draft will be 5 rounds and ordered according to current NFL seeding rules and tiebreakers. No roster adjustments of any kind will be required prior to the rookie draft. Drafted rookies will not have any salary until rated by DK Sports.
League trading period ONE will end within the 48 hours prior to the start of the rookie draft, then resume after the draft is completed. Rookie picks may not be traded during the rookie draft.
7.0 FREE AGENT DRAFT
The TSFL Free Agent draft will consist of 7 mandatory rounds. The draft will include all TSFL free agent players as defined in section 3.0. After the FA draft, there will be a 72 hour period where teams can add/delete players from their roster on a first come/first serve basis.
At the beginning of the new league year, each team will be required to cut their ACTIVE roster to under $121 Million, plus any option INJURED RESERVE players.
The Free Agent draft order will be determined by the team salary for highest paid 45 players at the issuance of the new league file. Order determined with the lowest salery picking 1st.
8.0 TRADING in TSFL
There will be two trading periods during the TSFL season
TRADING PERIOD ONE will occur after the new league file is issued and will last for 3-4 weeks until 1 week before the start of the FA draft. During this time you must:
a) You must remain under salary cap of $121,000,000, with you needing to be below $118,000,000 at the start of the FA draft
b) You must get below the max limits of attempts for skill position players prior to the FA draft
c) You must get into compliance with league requirements for roster position players
d) You must maintain an ACTIVE roster of 45 players, and cut down to 45 at the time of the FA draft
e) You may not trade players on INJURED RESERVE, not add or remove players from that list.
f) Rookie picks for this year may be traded
TRADING PERIOD TWO will begin approximately 24 hours after the rookie draft and will end after Thursday of Week 4.
a) You must remain under salary cap of $121,000,000
b) You may be under league requirements for skill player attempts
c) You may be under league requirements for roster position players
d) You must maintain an ACTIVE roster of 52 players
e) You may not trade players on INJURED RESERVE, not add or remove players from that list.
f) Rookies from the recently completed rookie draft may be traded
g) Rookie picks for the following off season may be traded
WHAT MAY NOT BE TRADED
1. Free agent draft picks
2. Practice squad players
3. Rookie picks beyond the next TSFL rookie draft
4. Supplemental rookie picks acquired through league rewards
6. Players on Injured reserve
HOW TO CONDUCT A TRADE
1. When a trade is agreed to, it must be posted in the appropriate Slack channel
2. The non-posting trade partner must CONFIRM the trade as posted as a reply in thread
3. Once posted and confirmed, the league will PROCESS the trade to make the trade official
9.0 PLAYING YOUR TSFL GAMES
It is the responsibility of the HOME coach to make initial contact and to assure the weeks game is scheduled in a timely manner.
A game must be scheduled, confirmed, and posted as scheduled no later than Thursday at 10PM EST to the appropriate Slack channel. If the game is not scheduled by that time either coach must alert the league and request a substitute coach be assigned.
Any substitute coach must be assigned by the league.
Simulating games is strictly forbidden.
Playing vs. the Computer will be permitted after all options exhausted and by Commissioner approval.
Once a game is completed, the XBX file for that game must be posted to the Slack channel within one hour of game completion.
All games must be reported no later than 10PM on Sunday
10.0 GAME PLAY is TSFL
All uninjured players on the 52-man game-day roster must be active. No players may be marked Inactive for any game except for players on INJURED RESERVE
Players may not be played out of position if there is an available player at that position. The exception is for players rated LB-S who may play either ILB or OLB as well as safety.
Submitting a computer coach is not required, but is a wise move to assist with quick substitutions during game play.
Sportsmanship is required. It is the responsibility of each coach to make an attempt to win every game. If any coach feels this etiquette was breached, notify the commissioner and the game files will be reviewed.
11.0 TSFL PENALTIES and REWARDS
The following positive actions will be awarded bonus points
a) Acting as a league assigned substitute coach 1 point
b) League assistance by request 1 point
c) Recruiting a new coach to the league who stays in TSFL for 1 calendar year 3 points
REDEEMING REWARD POINTS
1. Supplemental rookie draft pick after round 5 2 points per pick
2. Supplemental rookie draft pick after round 4 3 points per pick
3. Supplemental rookie draft pick after round 3 4 points per pick
You may mix and match reward points in any combination. Reward points do not carry over to the following season.
REWARD OR PENALTY POINTS ARE APPLIED TO THE COACH AND NOT TO THE TEAM.
12.0 AMENDING CONSTITUTION
1. All adopted rules will become effective for the following season. Proposals adopted during 2025 take effect for 2026.
2. The Commissioner will designate a time period for rule change proposals. For 2025 this window will be June thru August.
3. A valid proposal must meet the following criteria:
A. Must be written as it would appear in this document
B. Must contain a detailed explanation of the benefits derived from the proposal
C. Must be endorsed by two additional league members
4. After a discussion period proposals are put to a league vote. 12 negative votes fail the proposal. A 48-hour window will be in place for all votes.
5. Nothing in this rule supercedes the authority of the Commissioner to clarify or interpret rules. The Commissioner reserves the right
To make any rulings necessary that are not expressly covered in this document.
13.0 TSFL LEAGUE CALENDAR (2025)
2025 LEAGUE YEAR BEGINS ON APRIL 6 AT 12:01AM
APRIL 6 Within 48 hours after new game release, new TSFL file will be released to league members. Free Agent draft order will be established from this initial file, with the salaries of the top 45 players being used to determine the order, with lowest salary drafting 1st and going up from there. At this time, all teams will need to be below $121 M prior to the initiation of trading. All teams must confirm their rosters prior to trading, with rosters assumed to be confirmed if not having done so by midnight 4/8 (NOTE: You will not be able to alter your roster after that time).
Trading opens after rosters are confirmed.
MAY 3
All teams at this point will need to cut down to 45 players, with the max salary being $118 M (in order to facilitate signing 7 players and not going over the cap), and every team must be below max attempts at the skill positions, and must be under the max player limits on their roster (ie, only 1 K/P with a durability of 10 on your roster, etc). Trading is frozen at this time a week prior to the draft, in order to load Stratdraft with the players for the draft.
MAY 16
The free agent draft will begin in Stratdraft; teams will be responsible for monitoring their own salary cap, with teams going over the cap being penalized a draft pick and losing that player. We will be going over Stratdraft here in the next couple of weeks, but it allows you to set a board ahead of time so your timeslot isnt missed. Each team will make 7 selections over 7 days, which should fill their team to 52 players
MAY 30
Upon the completion of the Free Agent draft, a new league file will be issued; at that point, we will have a 72 hour window for teams get their rosters finalized with a first come/first served add and drop. By the time this add/drop phase is done, every team should be in compliance with roster rules.
JUNE 7
At this point, every team will then select 5 players from their corresponding NFL teams to make up their taxi squad. These players will not be retained the following season, so the emphasis should be filling any holes you have on your team. These players will NOT count towards the salary cap, nor will they be counted towards max attempts (ie, you can add a 4th QB, or go over RB attempts if the taxi squad player is available).
JUNE 14
Rookie draft will commence on Stratdraft, with only drafted rookies being eligible for selection; these rookies will be the one selected in the most recent NFL draft (the one just completed in April) and will be added to your active roster in 2026.
JUNE 23
Trading will reopen
Rules proposal window opens
AUGUST 2
Rules proposal window closes
AUGUST 9-10
Rule proposals voting period
AUGUST 17
Week one TSFL league file released
AUGUST 18
Opening Day, 2025
SEPTEMBER 12
Trading period 2 closes.
League week 15 will begin 25th. League week 16 will begin on December 6th. This allows two weeks to complete week 15 games during the Thanksgiving holiday. Also, Weeks 19 and 20 will be scheduled and will be byes for the Christmas break
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