How To Handle An Auction Draft

May 20, 2008 at 6:16 am | Article by Paul Hickey |

I recently participated in a very interesting expert mock auction for an upcoming fantasy football publication and was reminded of some consistent themes that fantasy owners can look for in just about every auction draft. The most glaring one at the end of the night, as Brandon Jacobs went for less money than guys like Vince Young, David Garrard, Chris Chambers, Marvin Harrison, Edgerrin James and Willie Parker, was that there are always studs who slip through the cracks.

No matter how well owners prepare for mock auctions, there are always at least a handful of quality players who go for far less than they should. Jacobs was a prime example on this night, as his name went un-called until the late, late rounds. As a result of nobody throwing him out for bid, more and more teams were allotting large parts of their budgets on other players. By the time Jacobs was called, an owner was able to swoop him up for a mere $14 out of a $200 budget. From a strategy perspective, owners can learn from this and dominate their auctions by aligning their materials the same way they would for a regular draft. After doing that, you notice that Jacobs is no worse than a fourth round pick in pretty much all formats. To say that he’s a bargain at 7 percent of an entire auction budget is a gross understatement. The longer more and more names in the top four rounds go un-called, the more of your budget you should keep open. The longer you do this, the other owners won’t be able to match your offers, and you’ll be able to snatch a stud or two on the cheap.

Not only do superstars like Jacobs slip through the cracks in auctions, but there are always wide receivers and QBs available for incredible bargains. Donald Driver for $3, Lee Evans for $4, Dwayne Bowe for $6, Anthony Gonzalez for $2 and Jerricho Cotchery for $1 are just a few examples from this one. On the signal caller side of things, Marc Bulger for $6, Donovan McNabb for $10, Jay Cutler for $7 and Matt Hasselbeck for $12 stand out to me as great values. With this in mind, spending high dollar amounts on guys like Peyton Manning ($65), Derek Anderson ($30), Ben Roethlisberger ($32) and Drew Brees ($39) seems a little silly.

The last auction lesson for today is simple. Spend your money on the players you want. Having money left over towards the end of the draft can be helpful, but only if there are still players you want to target. Bad management resulted in some guys spending $5-$6 on a kicker to finish off their team. One guy spent $11 on Patrick Crayton because he had to. You mean to tell me he wouldn’t have rather added a guy like Detroit’s Kevin Smith ($10) or Seattle’s Julius Jones, or upgraded to a guy like Detroit’s Calvin Johnson ($15) or Green Bay’s Greg Jennings ($18) with some of those extra funds, while snagging Crayton for his real market value ($1)?

Auction drafts are excellent. They provide all owners with an opportunity to get the guys they really want (I spent $90 on Minnesota’s Adrian Peterson), and they provide phenomenal elements of team management strategies that you won’t see in regular snake drafts. In the end though, the goal is the same - get the guys you want, and get good values, and you’ll be on your way to success in 2008.

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