Because there’s a wonderful variety of methods you can choose when deciding how to pick your team in an auction draft, I’m presenting three more auction draft strategies for you to use. Just examples, not necessarily great examples, of how you can design a draft plan to get the players you most value. So get out your thinking helmets and let’s get to work!
#4. Triple Stud
This auction draft strategy is actually the one you’ll find recommended within the pages of Yahoo!’s fantasy football draft kit. It’s reproduced for you here—because you can’t copywrite a draft auction strategy and I’m completely free to do so.
Instead you mix and match to get three top guys across those three positions, without going over $120 by a whole lot. Let’s look at some example options: Perhaps you could score Maurice Jones-Drew for $55, Peyton Manning for $30, and Larry Fitzgerald for $35. Or get Ray Rice for $55, Randy Moss for $40, and Tom Brady for $25. You can’t really get a #1 anybody unless you really sacrifice at one position. I recommend wide receiver. Doing so would allow you to get Chris Johnson at $60, Aaron Rodgers for $40, and then Greg Jennings for $20. Greg Jennings is a bit of a stretch for fantasy “stud,” but he’s still awesome, so that’s good enough. And you get two guys who both scored around 330 points last year. That’s 20.6 points a game!
You’re left with 80 bucks, and I recommend you hold back around 20 for the bench. So with $60, you have three RB/WR positions, a TE, a K and D/ST to fill. I recommend you spend around $15 for your remaining RBs and WRs, not being afraid to overspend several dollars for them and always keeping an eye out for a good deal. If you do well, you’ll have $15+ to spend on your tight end, kicker, and defense. So if you can afford it, get a good TE. Save $2 for both your kicker and defense and get a top 5 one for both. It’s easier outbidding a guy who nominates a top kicker with a $2 bid than it is to get one by nominating him and hoping that $1 rides the whole way. Especially in public leagues where nobody feels the slightest bit of shame spending $5 on Nate Kaeding.
Then use a normal bench strategy of getting two decent backups for around $5-10 each and then spending a dollar or two on sleepers and deep back-ups. Here’s a little tip, despite what the auction cheatsheets say, at the end of a draft you can’t beg somebody to outbid your nominations for most of these scrubs. So while the rankings may say he’s a $4 guy, you’ll probably spend $1 on him.
#5. West Coast Style
Here’s another QB and WR heavy scheme for those who love the value you get at these positions for the price. This strategy tries to get a 1st tier QB, one 1st tier WR, two 2nd tier WRs, and then even a 1st tier TE to round it all off. Then you scrounge like crazy for two $10 running backs who won’t tank your season.
So if you get Peyton Manning for $30, and Randy Moss for $40, you’ve still got $70 to get say Larry Fitzgerald and Reggie Wayne. Or you can get Aaron Rodgers for $40, Andre Johnson for $50 and have enough left over to get DeSean Jackson and Roddy White. You’re practically cleaning out the top shelf of the WR cabinent, and odds are in most leagues, no one’s going to even try and stop you.
If you can then spend $15 on an elite tight end like Dallas Clark or Antonio Gates, you’re gaining another big value advantage on your opponents. Then comes the hard part, finding two backs for $20. You could up that to $30 and screw your bench, but I honestly can’t recommend you screw your bench. It sounds fun and dangerous, but more often it just turns into a point of frustration and regret during the season when you need a few decent back-ups to save your bacon.
Who will you be able to get for $10 this year? It varies quite a bit from website to website and from league to league, but try for guys like Matt Forte, Ronnie Brown, Jahvid Best, Marion Barber, and the like. Usually a couple guys in the $10-15 range will just go for $10. Get those guys! And if for some crazy reason you get a $15 guy for $5, transfer that money over for getting your second RB if you can.
If all goes well during the season you’ll see those high value wide receivers significantly outpace your opponent’s wides, while his superior running backs fail to outdo your bottom of the barrel guys by enough to catch up.
#6. Best Runningbacks
It’s hard coming up with a good strategy where you get two good running backs without devastating the rest of your team. But what if you’re the kind of guy who really, really loves running backs? Well here’s a strategy for you.
One downside here is top running backs sometimes are the target of bidding wars. Some punk who probably will give up running his team by week three decides he’s just getting three of the top ten RBs. His team will be worthless, but he doesn’t know any better. And so on draft day he starts driving prices up, $70 for Adrian Peterson, $56 for Michael Turner. Other, less reckless, owners also want a top running back so they’re competing with him. A ridiculous draft ensues, and you’re stuck in the middle of it because you wanted two top RBs and planned to buy them responsibly. If such a catastrophe happens, I’d recommend having a back-up strategy ready. You really always should have a back-up strategy, but Best Runningbacks is particularly dangerous. Of course, this is also a good time to mention, having a league with your own friends, who are smart enough and adult enough to be your friend, can help protect you from such mayhem.
Anyway—You’ve got your backs planned. To save a little money, we’re going to shoot for a cheap quarterback. Somebody who is good but only $10-15. Somebody like Brett Favre. Or even like Ben Roethlisberger and some backup for the first five weeks, like Eli Manning or Kevin Kolb. If possible, try to get your two backs and QB for $120 altogether.
Next spend around $50 on your remaining running back and two receivers, or three receivers depending on your league. I recommend trying for one $20 guy and two $15 guys, looking for good deals which you can turnover and use to overspend on somebody else. With all those players nabbed, you can get a mid-level $8 tight end, and then spend 1-2 bucks on your kicker and defense. That leaves you with $20 for your bench, which you can fill with some decent backups and probably a couple handcuff players.
Voila! You got two great backs and didn’t ruin your team.
Alright, that’s all the auction strategy I’ve got for now. Consider what you’ve seen here and consider using one of these strategies to help you on draft day. So get out there, and good luck!
