If you fancy yourself to be a pretty good Fantasy Football Player and your league is still employing the old standard snake style draft you have nobody to blame but yourself if you are not selling the idea of an auction draft to your league as hard as you can! 

 

In terms of seperating the expert fantasy players from the novices, no other style of draft even comes close to the auction.  One major reason for this is because you have a crack at obtaining EVERY player you want (and so does everyone else in your league).  Which means that owners who do not have accurate, up-to-date information about player values have the opportunity to screw up on EVERY SINGLE PLAYER.  Think about that for a moment.  In a regular snake-style draft, your opponents only have the opportunity to screw up THEIR pick.  The gap between the fantasy wannabe's and you is widened. 

 

I have a feeling that the reason most leagues have shyed away from the auction draft is fear of the unknown - it seems difficult to set up (which couldn't be further from the truth) and it's very different from what you've "always done".  Anyway, I'm getting off-track from what I've intended to write about in this article.  Head over to the forums and ask me how to get started if you're interested in more information.

 

Draft Day, as we all know, can be a pretty fast-paced, chaotic ordeal.  The auction drafts I've participated in are the craziest of all.  Owners are flipping mags, tracking names/rosters and constantly evaluating the current bid.  You can do yourself a HUGE favor by creating a solid pre-draft plan before you ever get there.

 

This includes: 

 

1) Create a Budget.  Even if you find yourself scrambling to re-arrange your budget 5 minutes after the draft starts by winning the services of LaDanian Tomlinson you should have a solid plan of what you're willing to spend (and on who) ahead of time.  Be sure you know your leagues rules ahead of time - how many roster spots will you need to have filled at the end of the draft?  Let's say your league makes you start 1QB, 2RB, 3WR, 1TE, 1K and 1Def.  The beginning of your sample Budget may look like this...

 

 

#1) ____________________ ($18)       #2)_____________________ ($7)

 

 

#1)____________________  ($25)       #2)_____________________  ($13)  ETC. ETC.

 

 

And you would do this for your entire roster.  Notice you are not just creating a budget for QB, another budget for RB, another for WR, etc.  You should have a pre-determined amount you are wanting to spend on EVERY roster spot.  Once you win the bidding for a certain player, you should plug him into the appropriate spot and put a note regarding how far over/under budget you are.  This is useful because in a snake style draft, the first RB you select will ALWAYS be your #1 RB, but in an auction, the first player I successfully bid on might be Daunte Culpepper for $6.  I know Daunte is my back-up QB so that's where I'd plug him in. 

 

Also, bring a red and green pen along with you to signify how far over/under budget you are.  In the Culpepper example I'd put "#2) Daunte Culpepper (+1)__  ($7)" signifying that I'm $1 under-budget and can now overspend somewhere else.  After you succesfully bid on a player, you write the TOTAL amount you are over/under budget so you always know exactly where you stand.  In fact, I would advocate creating a budget sheet like this for every team in your league and tracking each roster and how much $ they have spent.  You can gain some valuable info. for the later rounds of your draft by thorough tracking in the initial stages.  When everyone else is scrambling to figure out who they have, what players are left, etc. you'll know exactly where everything stands. 

 

2) Target Players Ahead of Time.  An exercize that I like to do to prepare for my draft is to target at least 3-5 players per position whose values in most of the major mags and online sources are well under what I have in mind for said player.  Determine the max. you are willing to pay before your draft.  It's also important to do the opposite as well.  Identify players whose value seems to be much higher than you'd be willing to pay for him. 

 

3) Bid on Players You Don't Want.  Yes you read that right.  Get in the habit of throwing out some bids here and there on players which you have no interest in acquiring.  If you get in the habit of ONLY bidding on players you really want and almost always WIN the players that you do bid on, your opponents will start picking up on it and drive up the price on you whenever you get involved in the bidding.  It's important to show your opponents that you are willing to bow out of the bidding at any moment.  This will keep them from falsely driving up the price on you. 

 

4) Do NOT Skimp on TE.  Championship fantasy teams tend to have a stud TE.  Whatever you feel you need to pay for a top 3 Tight End, do yourself a favor and just budget for it in advance.  Typicly, 15-18% of your salary cap will land you a top notch TE.  In fact, you can't go wrong by paying anything within a reasonable range for Antonio Gates and adjusting your budget elsewhere.  Especially in point per reception leagues!  Stud TE's can quickly spread the gap between the haves and have nots. 

 

5) Drafts Are Won/Lost in the $5-$10 Range.  These players are the equivilent of the 7th-12th rounders in a snake-draft (redraft league).  The more sleepers you are able to identify that pan out, the better your team will perform.

 

6) Specifically for 2007, Do NOT Set the Bar at WR!  For the first time in a LONG time, when I look at the WR rankings I do not see a clear top-tier of 2-3 studs.  You could make a compelling case for every WR in the top 10 being the guy to end up #1 overall when the season ends.  When the dust of your '07 draft settles, trust me - you don't want to be the owner that paid the most $ for a WR.  The value just isn't there this year.  I'm open to suggestions from you over in the forums if you disagree with me on this, but right now I'm not seeing it. 

 

7) Don't Get Cute Trying to Drive up the Price on a Player you Don't Want.  Yes, you need to throw some bids out there EARLY on some players you're not interested in, but leave it at that.  For the most part, when the bidding finally eclipses what you'd be willing to pay for a player you have little interest in, your efforts are better spent keeping track of your budget, current roster and who you'll be putting up for bid next. 

 

8) A Tip Regarding Kickers.  DON'T NOMINATE THE KICKER THAT YOU ACTUALLY WANT!  Picture this: It's late in your draft, you have $9 dollars left and you still have K and two other roster spots to fill.  EVERY dollar counts at this point.  You nominate Josh Brown (the last kicker available that you have rated in the top tier).  In most auction formats, the guy to nominate a player opens the bidding for at least a dollar.  Now an opponent bids $2 for Brown...and you're sunk.  Because I've never seen a kicker that's worth more than me spending $2 on.  Again, the value isn't there.  Do yourself a favor and let someone else nominate your guy, then you can swoop in with the $2 bid and force him into overpaying if he really feels like. 

 

 

As a summary I'd just like to say a few words about my OVERALL auction strategy.  In general, it's my goal to be one of the LEAST involved owners in the Top 25% of players auctioned off and the bottom 25% of players auctioned off.  And I'm aiming to be the MOST involved owner in the middle 50% of players auctioned off.  So if I'm in a 10 team league with 16 rounds - that's 160 total players/positions up for bid.  I'm wanting to be one of the most quiet owners for the 40 most expensive players and 40 least expensive players and hopefully dominating the action for the middle 80 players.

 

Now don't get me wrong, you have to be somewhat active at the beginning of your draft and at least keep pace with the rest of the league by winning the services of 2-3 true studs that will carry your team - but I've made the mistake of going too top-heavy in the beginning stages of my auction (in fact it was just last year and the services of Tomlinson carried me to a 2nd place finish) but I would not recommend it as a blueprint for success in an auction league. 

 

When you are able to pull off a "middle-heavy" draft like I described above, nobody will look at your team and leave the draft saying that it's your year to lose, but you'll have a sneaky good condender with plenty of depth with which to work your trade magic throughout the season.

 

Thanks again for taking the time with me!  Be sure to check back on March 12th, where I'll be taking the first of several looks at Fantasy Football Trader's 2007 Sleepers/Busts.  It certainly won't be our final word on the subject but you Keeper leaguer's should benefit from getting some off season players to target & stay away from. 

 

Rick Perkins.