Yards Per Fantasy University: Salary Cap / Auction Leagues

Going once…

So You Want to Join some fantasy football Auction/Salary Cap Leagues?

Let me start by saying auction leagues are awesome (Note: the term is starting to shift from Auction to Salary Cap but they’re the same thing and we’ll mostly refer to them here as Auction leagues)! They are my preferred way of playing fantasy football. So I am biased. I get the control of snake drafts. They have an order. There is planning, within reason guys tend to go in tiers. Snake drafts really come down making the right choice over any real strategy. If you own pick 1.3 in snake super flex leagues, chances are Mahomes and Allen are gone and it comes down to preference between Kyler Murray, Dak Prescott, or Lamar Jackson. It’s tier based drafting and you need to hit the right guy in the tier.

Auction is wildly different. It is out of control. There is no rhyme or reason to where guys go except the value a fantasy player puts on the player. It is a market running in real time where the fantasy player is forced to make minute by minute decisions, adapt, change strategy and manoeuvre their way to a championship team.

There is nothing like the adrenaline of an auction draft. Especially if there is a lot of money on the line or more important, home league bragging rights on the line. Every draft I’ve ever had I’ve felt something. Doesn’t matter the format. But Snake drafts are a honda civic going back to college, Auction drafts are a ride with the rich mysterious girl in her Ferrari on your way to Hollywood. Things roll quick in an auction.

This chapter in Yards Per Fantasy’s Fantasy University I take you through the ups and downs of auction drafting. So, going once, going twice, sold! Let’s go!

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The Premise

The idea of an auction draft is exactly like auctions in the movies or on eBay. A player is called and then fantasy teams bid on that player. In an auction draft there is no order to how guys are drafted. In an auction draft the league determines the order of call out. Call out is when a fantasy league owner calls out a player. Then the bidding begins.

Unlike snake drafts, any player can be called out at any time. There is no rhyme or reason to why your league mate may call out a player. Patrick Mahomes could be called out or Andy Dalton could be called out. There are no rules to the call out.

Once a player is called out the bidding begins on that player. If Patrick Mahomes is called out then another player will say two, then another player says three. Another interesting tidbit about auction drafts, a player does not have to be called out for $1. I can call out Patrick Mahomes for $20 and then the bidding begins at $20 and goes up from there.

Players can also be bid on at any amount. So I if I call out Mahomes for $20 another player can say $30. This often happens for the first 20-40 players in an auction draft. Rather than go through the motions, the league understands that guys like Mahomes are going to go for more money so they start the bidding at a higher amount and they raise the amounts higher than $1 limits.
The same is true with all auction online sites. I play on sleeper.com but yahoo and myfantasyleague.com also have auctions held online. This is fun because players can play with others from all over the world. For 15 years our 14 player team auction league met in person and did an auction draft with actual humans. The auctioneer would say team 4 you’re up, team 4 would call out Christian McCaffrey for $25 and the auctioneer would say CMC for $25 going once, then other teams would call out their price to attain McCaffrey.

This was fun but time consuming. Everything is available online now. Similarly when players are in an online auction draft they will choose the player they want to put up (call-out), choose how much they are starting the bidding on that player and then the bidding goes from there with each team able to up the bid by any amount they choose.

Cash Flow

Auction money works like monopoly money. The league determines how much each team will have to start the draft. The most common amount is $200 but I’ve seen leagues do $100, $125, $500, even $2,000 or $5,000. The amount doesn’t really matter but I believe simpler is better. I’ve done many leagues with many different amounts and $200 works the best for me. Choose an amount everyone is comfortable with and then get to drafting.

One thing to be aware of with auction leagues. When you begin you can not bid higher than a certain amount. For example, if the league starts with $200 and there are 20 roster spots, a team can not bid more than $181 on any one player. This confuses folks when they begin auction leagues.

Your team will have a budget amount ($200 to start) and a bid amount ($181). Doing the easy math the concept is if you went $181 on one player you would have to fill out your roster with 19 $1 players. Now, I would never under any circumstance advise a team to take that strategy but pay attention to your bid amounts more than your budget amount.

In auction your bid amount means power. As the league starts winding down the teams with the most money left to bid hold all the power. $10 bid amount can be powerful if all other teams only have $2 or $3 bid amounts. This means when a player is called out the team/s with the highest bid amount has the power to take any player they want. Team 4 may want Bryan Edwards late in a draft so they call out BE but team 7 has $10 and team 4 only has $3. Team 7 can then outbid team 4 because team 4 can not go higher than $3 on any one player.

$10 (5-percent) holds a lot of power at the end. Keep the end in mind. This is where discipline comes in. Don’t over bid early or in the middle of your drafts. If a bidding war starts to take place on Tony Pollard, even though you may like Pollard an extra $1 or $2 goes along way at the end of drafts where steals are there for the taking.

One tip I give new auction players is to act as if you start with less money than the total. So if your league starts with $200 act as if you only have $180 or $190. Try to not go lower than $20 no matter how much you may want a player. Trust me, if you have the most money at the end of drafts you are the king and out of a pool of 10 guys you like you can end up with 5 of them while your league mates will be left kicking themselves for blowing their wad so early.

Get Your Guy

That being said, the best part of auction drafts to me is the ability for any team to get the guy they want. When I first started auction drafting 15 years ago I was hesitant. I played fantasy football for about 5 years before and I was getting sick of being snaked in snake drafts. Either I was the 8th pick and lost out on LT, Shawn Alexander, or Randy Moss or when I found a sleeper someone would snipe me. My buddy then says, come join my auction league, you can always get your guy and if you don’t, that’s on you.

I like auction because its fair and it doesn’t come down to luck during the draft. In snake leagues there is a system of developing a draft order and everyone accepts how they will be drafting 1-12, or 1-10, or 1-14, etc. In auction, any team can get any player as long as they are willing to pay the price. Luck has all been eliminated from the draft process. If a team wants Mahomes, they can get Mahomes. They will just have to pay the price. At the end there are no complaints about getting sniped because if team 12 wanted Mahomes but wasn’t willing to pay $45 for him, then they only have him/herself to blame.

This is both a blessing and a curse. Going back to money management, the biggest mistake auction players make is falling in love with their guy and trying to get that guy at all costs. This is where knowing your league mates really helps. If there is a Chiefs fan in the crowd that loves being a homer, you and your league should understand that and try to exploit that team. One way of doing this is to upbid a player you don’t really want. If Jim from KC loves Mahomes, you know that and you don’t want to pay the price you can upbid Jim until he wastes more money than he likes.
Be careful with this however. I’ve been caught many times up bidding guys I really didn’t want for one reason or another and when the bidding timer ends, I’ve been stuck with players that have blown up my entire strategy.

My recommendation is to find 3-5 guys you love and try to walk away with 2-3 of them. This will limit spending more money than should be spent on guys you love. The point of auctions is to get your guy/s so don’t be shy, it’s okay to spend a dollar or two on guys you love. In fact, it is imperative. The fun (frustration) of auction drafts is getting guys you like for amounts less than you thought they’d go. This is also the frustration of having to pay $5-$7 more than you wanted to go get your guy. Value isn’t the sole driver because value could get you a lot of affordable mid round picks but could leave you on the outside looking in for the studs that generally win fantasy football leagues. Value is also subjective in auction drafts. Jenny from Green Bay may do whatever it takes to get Aaron Rodgers, this will then help other teams in the long run because it is a zero sum game. The more Jenny spends on Rodgers, the less she will have to spend on Aaron Jones, leaving your team with a possible deal.

Projections are useless

There is so much information now on various fantasy football websites, blogs, podcasts, magazines, etc. Many magazines started listing player auction projections a few years ago. I would advise you to ignore the player projections. These are based on figuring out the cost of a 1st round pick to an auction draft and projecting how much each player should go for. This can hamper your self esteem if you go over for a player that was projected at $40 and you spend $43. That’s okay, there is time to recover.

Projections can be useful to understand if you are in the ballpark but based on my experience, auction drafts are very “beauty in the eye of the beholder” driven. Meaning, what analysts, magazines, or websites may based their projected amount on could be exactly right but it means nothing when it comes to drafting. Teams will set the value of players. Similar to our economy, customers set the market, not economists.

The truth is every single auction draft is its own marketplace. Some drafts QB’s will be valued higher than RB’s or TE’s are valued higher then WR’s. This is why I love auctions. Auctions force players to be on their toes at all times. There are no breaks. Teams must be alert at all times because there are always deals to be had. For whatever reason players are universally loved or loathed by many different teams and this will set the market on that player.

Tips and strategies

So, it’s finally time for your auction draft. I’ve been playing auction for a long time and there are no sure fire strategies. Auctions bring about anxiety, sleepless nights, and frustration same as any other draft. That’s the fun of it. HA. Nothing is more exhilarating than an auction draft. If your heart isn’t pumping like Tony Sopranos when he gets off the treadmill right before an auction draft than you aren’t alive.

What I’ve learned about auction drafts are the folks that stay attentive the whole time make out. I’m a talker, big surprise. I like to talk, engage, make jokes, clown around. This will hurt you more in an auction draft. It’s imperative that teams pay attention because any player can be called at anytime and even if you don’t like that player there is still a role to play. You can bid up that player, use that player to establish baseline value of players you do like, or even find value in a player you don’t like that is going way to cheap.

One strategy I use in 1QB leagues is to wait on QB’s. With only 12 QB starting (or however big your league is) the value is much greater if you wait. I’ve spent big money on Peyton Manning or Drew Brees and this doesn’t work out great. Wait on QB’s and see if there is a bargain on guys you establish are more QB8, QB9, or QB10. Guys like Tannenhill, Cousins, and Matt Ryan can be incredible bargains. Money is power remember so for every dollar you save on a QB, you can use on a more value RB or WR.

It’s okay to overspend but don’t blow your load in the first 15 minutes. Overspending will happen, that’s okay. If you love Antonio Gibson, get Antonio Gibson. If you are in a bidding war and he is going for $42, spend that extra dollar and then adjust. I’ve been a much happier auction player overspending on 2-3 guys I like then waiting for better value. Value comes in the middle or at the end. Go get your guys, then wait.

Studs and Duds

Don’t go for the studs and duds strategy. This is a sure-fire way to end up eating 12 waffles at a waffle house as the loser of your league. I’ve done it many times. Went all in for my core, then 2 guys on my core get hurt and my depth is terrible. In snake drafts you can’t really screw yourself. Snake drafts are much more luck inclined. In auctions, you can have a terrible team early and there is no recovering from it. In snake drafts you are going to get guys similar to your league mates in round 10, 11, 12 but in auction if you blow your wad you may be sitting on the sidelines unable to bid on any players and the deals in auction drafts come late.

It makes sense. Teams are amped up, they want to get their guy. The anticipation is killing them and they want to pick up everyone. You can’t have it all and blowing all your money will not only kill your squad but it will kill your buzz. Nothing worse than waiting on the sideline because you have $3 left but every one else still has $30 left. I recommend doing some snake mock drafts if you are new to fantasy and see where guys land and then try to duplicate that effort. In other words, it is impossible in a snake draft to get both Mahomes and CMC, but that is very real in auction drafts. The only problem may be you only then have $80 to fill out your roster. So you may have Mahomes and CMC but you will also have bad WR’s, TE’s and depth.

It may seem fun to draft CMC, Mahomes, Cook, Davante Adams and Kelce and you are certainly inclined but more than likely your squad will then end up with zero depth and just one injury can kill your season. Balance out your team, be disciplined, adapt, look for deals, understand your competitions squad balance and exploit the market.

Last piece of pizza

Don’t be stuck with the last piece of pizza and 5 hungry college students. Meaning you should look to draft RB’s in the first tier or middle tier don’t wait to there are only 1 or 2 starter level RB’s left. This is a sure fire way of boxing yourself in and overpaying for Joe Mixon, David Montgomery, or Myles Gaskin. Get your RB’s early, even if you have to overspend. Nothing worse than overspending for marginal talent.

Don’t call out sleeper picks early

Every team has money and where a sleeper may cost you $2 late in the draft he can “balloon” up to $7 early. Teams have money and they want to spend it.

Call out guys you don’t really want. The higher the better. If you already landed Mahomes but Dak is out there, call out Dak! One team is going to spend for him, you don’t need him so this helps with manipulating the market.

At the end don’t call out $1 for a player you want if you have $2 left. Many teams make this mistake. You have $2 left but so do 6 other teams. You really want Denzel Mims so you say Mims for a buck, immediately a league mate jumps on Mims for $2 and you are out of luck. Instead, say Mims for $2 and then box out your league mates.

So to break down an auction draft:

• Set the budget (usually $200)
• Understand the roster size (8 starters, 12 bench, 20 team roster)
• Superflex vs. 1QB (Superflex QB’s will go for higher amounts)
• Understand scoring (PPR vs. non-PPR, Tight end premiums, points for rush attempts, etc)
• Tight End Premium, tight ends will go for higher
• Money management is power, use it to your advantage.
• Get your guy, this is the point. Auction drafts were made for you to land your guy. Don’t be
  shy, go get him. Wait on value to fall later in the draft. I’ll join auction leagues just to get guys
  I didn’t get in my other leagues.
• Don’t live and die by magazine or website based projections. Let the market unfold, spend a
  little extra on guys you love and don’t worry about it. Just don’t spend a little extra on 8
  guys you love, you will be hurting later.
• Balance out your roster
• Have discipline. I highly advise against the studs and duds strategy
• Don’t wait to strike gold. If David Montgomery is the last viable RB1 on the board and there
  are 3 teams that need an RB1, David Montgomery will go much higher than he should. Law
  of Supply and Demand.
• Value the last 10-percent of your money management
• Have fun! Take a deep breath. Auction leagues are exhilarating but they are stressful.
  Manage your emotions and you will dominate your league.
• Be disciplined

I love auctions, it is my preferred way to play. I am not a fan of luck. Fantasy football, all of sports really, are so much a matter of luck. Why base your draft on luck as well. Often, league winning teams in snake drafts are the teams that had the first, second, or third pick. Look it up. That’s just the way it is. They get the best players and can build from there, leaving the unlucky guys in the back to pick up the scraps.

Auctions are more about skill, getting you guys, adapting to the market in real time, sifting through the chaos. This is where I thrive and if you haven’t joined an auction league, I highly recommend it. I have a feeling you will never want to go back to your snake league.

And of course, you can always ask the Yards Per Fantasy team for help and advice any time with our Ask The Expert feature.

Professor: Keith James (@highonsports28)