My Fantasy Football League: The Auction Draft
August 24, 2009 by The Sports Watchers
TheSportsWatchers.com: This post was published 2 years 5 months 16 days ago which may make it irrelevant to your fantasy football inquiry. For up to date fantasy football projections and predictions, go to our homepage at TSW Fantasy Football. 
So I had my first fantasy football draft of the summer last night. I haven’t decided which one of my fantasy football leagues is the one I’ll talk about here on the site throughout the season, but this one is very much in the running.
Unlike any other draft I have ever done, last night’s draft was an auction draft. At first, I was skeptical of the method, just because I feel as if auction drafts give an advantage to less knowledgeable drafters, because they have a shot at everybody and don’t have to account for a player’s potential fantasy value. However, the auction draft method does counter that in some way by allowing players to nominate when and who gets auctioned on. However, it’s still a much more viable option for lesser prepared fantasy football players.
That said, let’s discuss my draft.
The day before the auction, I knew which 3 players I was willing to go after and pay a 10% premium for—that is, players that I would be willing to pay 10% more than their average auction price. Those players, at the time, were Andre Johnson, Steven Jackson and Matt Forte. Those were my targets after a mock auction draft I partook in demonstrated that I could get those guys for just under 150 of my 200 allotted auction dollars. You see, my strategy was to spend money on those 3 guys, have them carry me and get an undervalued quarterback, Phillip Rivers.
Well, right before the draft I decided I didn’t want Matt Forte. I just don’t trust a guy who averaged less than 4-yards per carry. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still a Top 5 pick in my opinion, but the price I would have to pay for him was too close to Adrian Peterson, and much higher than some of the running backs I have ranked after him. So while I would still pick Matt Forte atop a snake fantasy draft, the dollars I would have to spend to get him in comparison to others wasn’t worth it production-wise. Thus, right before the draft, I decided that Forte wouldn’t be a part of my strategy and that I would go after Steve Slaton instead.
Sure enough, I got all 3 of my guys, Johnson, Jackson and Slaton for about $135, leaving me with a lot more points than I had anticipated. That is where I began to mess up.
After missing out on Anquan Boldin due to an internet problem, I was determined not to miss out on any other players that I was willing to pay for. So when I saw Kurt Warner going for a price far below that of what I had valued him at, I went after him, even though I was still pretty sure I wanted Philip Rivers. Drafting Warner is great, and barring injury he’ll do great for me, but that injury thing really scared me. So after getting T.J. Houshmandzadeh, I got Rivers with my next buy, and that really set a brother back. I know had 18 points left to fill 10 spots on fantasy football roster. While I hope I can trade Warner after the big Week 1 of fantasy football I expect him to have, but having 2 “big-price” quarterbacks on my roster affected the rest of my draft.
After spending $14 on Rivers, I had to wait a long time before bidding on anyone else. Every now and then I drove up the price on someone I wasn’t going to get myself, but I couldn’t buy anyone until I bought Julius Jones for $3. In fact, I really only intended on spending $1 on Jones, but someone else in my league tried to get him for $2 right before the clock.
After that, I managed to fill out the rest of my roster pretty effectively, and of course, cheaply. I have Zach Miller at TE, the Jets defense and Robbie Gould at kicker. So in the end, I feel pretty good about my team so long as Steven Jackson, Andre Johnson and Steve Slaton stay healthy and productive!
Week 1 Fantasy Football Projections – Top Picks
1. Quarterback Projections
2. Running Back Projections
3. Wide Receiver Projections
4. Tight End Projections
5. Defensive Projections
Week 1 Fantasy Football Projections – Extra Picks
1. Quarterback Fantasy Football Projections
2. Running Back Fantasy Football Projections
3. Wide Receiver Fantasy Football Projections
4. Tight End Fantasy Football Projections
Week 1 Fantasy Football Projections – Sleeper Picks
1. Quarterback Sleeper Picks
2. Running Back Sleeper Picks
3. Wide Receiver Sleeper Picks
4. Tight Ends Sleeper Picks
5. Defensive Sleeper Picks
