Is Ray Rice worth 30% of your budget? Yes, but you won't need to spend that much.
Once upon a time in what must feel like a galaxy far, far away, a fantasy football auction draft was a thing only witnessed by the most dedicated of fantasy players. Requiring everyone in to come together at the same time, in the same place meant missing weddings, skipping out on birthday celebrations, and likely a great deal of travel time. Now, with so many fantasy sites making the organization of an auction draft simple, there are far too many people who have no idea what they’re doing participating in fantasy football auction drafts. Meaning once you master these auction tips, winning will be the easy part.
Tip 1: Do your research – Before a draft, preparation is essential. Look over the values of individual players, particularly on the site where your league is drafting. What players appear over-valued? Under-valued? Knowing that many owners will use the default rankings gives you an advantage. Make your own dollar ranking, highlighting any players that you value more than the default rankings. Those are the players that will give you the most bang for your buck.
Tip 2: Have a plan – There are two basic strategies in Auction: Studs and Duds vs. a more conservative approach. Studs and Duds, you go big, spending somewhere around 80 percent of your draft money on three or four big names, then use what little money you have left to fill out your roster. Benefit, your starting line-up will look really strong. Drawbacks, if one of your studs turns out to be a dud, so will your season. A more conservative approach would have you get more tier two and three players to fill out your roster, giving you a more consistent, if not nearly as flashy, starting line-up. No fireworks, but your fantasy football team should get the job done. Either way, determining what percentage of your budget you’d like to spend at each position prior to the draft. In general, you want to spend about 90-95% of your budget on your starting positions, leaving you with just enough money to fill your bench with $1 or $2 players.
Tip 3: Forget the plan – In a snake draft, if you have a ranking of the top players at each position and a combined ranking, you’re set. You sit there and wait your turn, then take the best available. Auction draft doesn’t work that way. Because auction drafts allow anyone to nominate any player at any time, your favorite $1 sleeper could go off the board in the first round. So you have to adapt on the fly, which you can’t do if you’re looking at your plan. For example, if you had wanted to spend big and grab two stud RBs, but they all start going off the board for between $10-$15 more then you wanted to pay, go with a stud QB, WR and TE, then load up on good value RBs, like the ones listed here. Similarly, if you were planning to go conservative but notice the biding is less than exuberant around AP or Foster, pick them up for cheap.
Tip 4: Nominate with a purpose – When a player is nominated can make all the difference between getting him at a good price and getting him overpriced. A good starting point is nominating players you don’t want. For example, I really like Jamaal Charles this year. But if I nominate him first, everyone will be excited and go after him. So, instead I nominate MJD, because whoever buys him will have less money to spend on RBs, and I will have less competition when Charles is nominated. Another great tool is taking advantage of fan loyalty. Have a University of Alabama fan in your league? Nominate Mark Ingram as early as possible. That owner will likely overpay if he is nominated early because he or she will still have plenty of money to waste on Ingram. That’s what the plan is for, to keep you from overspending early. You might also consider nominating defenses early. The only way you can get a player for a $1 is if you nominate them for a $1, so by putting out a defense early, you can guarantee you get a good defense, or that someone else will overpay. That’s right, $2 is overpaying for a defense, so don’t ever do it. Ever. Same goes for kickers. Also, if you don’t have to draft a back-up kicker or defense, then take a flyer on a late round RB or WR instead, don’t waste the roster spot.
Final Recommendation for a 10 or 12-team league…As I stated in my snake draft strategy piece, I feel that RBs are back in a big way. In a snake draft unfortunately, the best you can hope for is maybe the 8th and 10th ranked RBs. With an auction draft, you can easily get two of the top 5 RBs. My personal recommendations are Jamaal Charles and Ray Rice. Both are young, have not been used excessively, and are likely to see their workload increase. Be willing to spend up to 60% of your budget on your two RBs. Then, grab a good tier 2 WR, like a Larry Fitzgerald or Hakeem Nicks, for 15%, along with a couple of these guys. Then, go for a QB in the 6 to 8 highest ranked range, namely Phillip Rivers, Tony Romo or Matt Schaub, for around 10% of your roster. That’s going to leave you with a pretty tight budget so now just wait around, nominating players that you know you can’t afford to help eat up other owners’ budgets. Grab a decent TE for cheap along with a couple sleepers late, and you’ll be all set. Good luck!
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Tags: adrian peterson, Auction Draft, fantasy draft, Fantasy Football, Fantasy Football Draft Strategy, Hakeem Nicks, jamaal charles, Larry Fitzgerald, Matt Schaub, nfl, Phillip Rivers, ray rice, tony romo
