When bidding for free agency is it possible to have access to the following information.
Top 5 players at the position
League average at the position
This would give people a much better idea of what they should be bidding to secure the services and cut down on the ridiculous high bids, which inevitably lead to teams going in to salary cap ****.
Perhaps there should also be a max. offer at say 10% over the highest paid player at the position. Owners would then decide how much they wanted to put up front and how much would be bonus related.
Obviously if in free agency week one a player signs a contract and becomes the highest paid player at the position then the top 5 average increases and so the potential top offer increases - which in turn could lead to the best players holding out until late in pre-season to get the best offer available.