Anyone familiar with football auction drafts?

[Butterscup1679666578]

My usual money league this year is going auction-style this year and while I've done some in the past, I've never really put much strategy in to it. Anyone do these on a regular basis and have any tips or links to resources, strategy, etc. that they use?

[SouthSideRyan]

My only strategy is nominate a kicker you want early. Either you make somebody spend money on a kicker, or you get the best one for a buck.

 

You can do the same with defense or TE, but that's just a matter of how eager teams are to blow money early before all the good players are eaten up.

[dew1679666265]

I usually nominate guys who either I really don't want or guys who I think others will severely overpay for early. If a few people bite on players like that, it lessens their money for the guys I really want.

 

From the ones I've done, patience seems to be the key. People's money is usually burning a hole in their wallet early and they tend to spend freely. Wait out a few bidding wars and you can usually get some really good deals.

[Andy]

I've only done one draft so far (a group of friends started a keeper league last year), but in that one, Aaron Rodgers was the first nominee. No one really knew how they were going to use their budget, so he ended up going for $37.

 

By comparison, I later drafted Peyton Manning for $41, and someone spent almost $60 on Arian Foster.

 

So you might be able to get someone good early for good value if you have a really early pick and your fellow players are as slow on the uptake as my league was.

[WrigleyField 22]

Spend 75-90% of your budget on your top 4-5 players. Don't get tied to any player. Use your cheat sheet and stick to your values. Also be patient and let the draft strategy unfold. You may find owners are too agressive and that after a few rounds players will be significantly cheaper than you thought.

 

Do as many espn mock drafts as you can to get a feel for it. Better yet, save all that data to determine what players actual value may be. Also don't necessarily nominate players in order of skill. Nominating some middling players early can help you guage the other teams, and you might get a steal early if other teams hold back their budget. On the flip side, maybe you start bidding wars and soak up other teams' budgets.

 

 

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[Guest]

Try to get a bunch of RBs nominated so everyone blows their money on the top guys, then clean up on the QBs and WRs that are actually predictable, and then take a bunch of mid-tier RBs that have just as good a chance of being as valuable as the Arian Fosters of the world. That's not really an auction specific strategy though. I'm almost to the point of treating fantasy RBs like fantasy closers.

[dew1679666265]

I'm almost to the point of treating fantasy RBs like fantasy closers.

 

I'm the same way. Had a draft a couple days ago (snake draft) where I actually passed on Ray Rice to take Calvin Johnson at #4 and probably would have passed on Arian and McCoy as well had they not already been gone. I used to take RBs really high, but I've found I can find nearly the same value with the mid-tier guys while there's a pretty hefty dropoff from the top tier WRs to the mid-tier guys.

 

Same goes for auction drafts for me. If I'm going to overspend, it's going to be on WRs and a QB rather than RBs.

[Butterscup1679666578]

This is the team I drafted last night for our league. Not entirely sure what I think about it, but it's one of the better ones on paper in the league. I wanted to get a top-5 QB and Calvin Johnson but things went way differently than I expected so I wasn't able to get the QBs I wanted. Fitz didn't get nominated til late, so I was able to get him for relatively cheap ($41) since I had more money than I anticipated. I'm not huge on Marshawn Lynch and was actually trying to bid him up, but I got him for $29. Hadn't seen him go for less than $35 in most of the mocks I did. Debating shipping Fitz off for an upgrade at RB or QB but we'll see. I ended up with a way better bench than I expected too because I didn't spend the $50+ I thought I would on a QB. All in all, a weird draft for me.

 

QB Robert Griffin III

RB Marshawn Lynch

RB Frank Gore

WR Calvin Johnson

WR Larry Fitzgerald

TE Owen Daniels

FLEX Demaryius Thomas

D/ST Ravens

K Mason Crosby

 

Bench

Texans

Cedric Benson

Toby Gerhart

Pierre Garcon

Denarius Moore

Andy Dalton