While four years of experience in auction drafting may not qualify as the leading expert in the field, I have enjoyed the good fortune of making the playoffs in the SOFA Auction League in each of my first three seasons, with championship game appearances in each of the last two.

With that in mind, I wanted to write an article this season about how I approached Year 4 and take a look back at the most recent league draft completed on August 22, a day before the start of the “dress rehearsal” week of the preseason, so keep that date in mind as my opinions on several players changed over the last week while other players such as kickers have been released or put on IR. Below, you will find the values I used to prioritize the players and the rationale I used in selecting my team.

Before I start, I do need to note that I battled a number of technology-related hiccups on draft night. (If you’d like to know what they were, send me an e-mail or tweet. It got a bit comical after a while.) Either way, I came out of the draft with a much different team than I usually do. Keep reading and decide for yourself how it turned out.

Pre-draft

Thanks in large part to all the hours I put into constructing my PMAs and Big Boards, I entered this draft willing to do whatever it took to get one of the four clear RB1s on my list while also grabbing a top-six quarterback since I feel the value at those positions take a sizable dip this season after Chris Johnson and Matt Ryan, respectively. As is my usual strategy, I was willing to accept 1-2 top-end WR2s in order to be strong at each of the other positions since I believe there are roughly 40 receivers that are capable of being regular fantasy starters in PPR leagues.

Although it is a complete departure from the conventional auction-draft strategy, I’ve never been a big fan of setting and sticking to pre-draft positional budgets. Much like a redraft format, value is only truly recognized during the course of the draft. If half the owners are willing to spend nearly half of their budget in order to lock up top-flight running backs and you are not (but you entered the draft placing a high priority on the position), you are forced to reassess your budget in the middle of the draft or face the possibility of ending up with a deep team with few superstars. While that is not a bad strategy, superstars win in fantasy and complementary players can generally be found on the waiver wire throughout the year.

Instead, I identified about 40 players in various tiers that I felt were either good bets to match or exceed the numbers I have forecasted for them and tried to stay within that list as much as possible. I only departed from that list when players that I liked – but thought I wouldn’t be able to afford – were struggling to bring $10-15 less than my valuation.

The Draft

Below you will find the prices that secured that player’s services (actual $) and the price I valued them at before the draft (My $). A dash in the first column reflects the fact that player was not drafted. The blue highlight represents winning bids for FF Today. Finally, I will follow each position with a brief comment.

All values are based on a $200 cap.

Observations: I’ll make pretty much the same comment I made regarding kickers: I will pay an extra $1 for a good one (I nominated the Niners at $2 but was outbid), but I was more than willing to accept the Texans, who may have the best young defense in the league along with San Francisco.

Post-draft

When I enter an auction draft, I try to project my “ideal team” based on my auction values and common sense, all the while allowing myself the flexibility of scooping up a “value pick” whenever I see one. Entering this draft, I envisioned the following team:

QB1: Ryan
RB1: One of the top four: Foster/Rice/McCoy/Johnson
RB2: One of the following: Sproles/Steven Jackson/Fred Jackson/Martin
WR1: Cruz or Julio Jones
WR2: Decker or Maclin
WR3: Young or Washington
TE: Hernandez or Gates
FLEX: Any number of players, although I was probably shooting for Peyton Hillis.
K: Gostkowski/Crosby/Akers
DST: Niners/Texans

For the most part, mission accomplished. In retrospect, if I knew I would land Ben Tate for $5, I would have spent the extra money on Foster and accepted Ryan as my QB or Hernandez at TE. My obvious weakness to begin the season is at my RB2 spot, although I have no problem using Rashad Jennings in that spot until Maurice Jones-Drew reports (if he does). One of the bigger surprises of the draft was that MJD’s owner didn’t even bid on Jennings, an oversight I plan to expose at some point this season. Given how long this holdout has lasted, I’d be surprised if Jennings doesn’t have flex value for most of the season.

Although I did want Foster badly at the top of the draft, I reasoned the funds I would save by accepting Chris Johnson as my RB1 would allow me to spread the wealth to other positions while also giving me a player who could realistically challenge the “Big Three” as fantasy’s top RB. As it turned out, that “savings” was the money I ended up spending on Jennings, which could end up being a real bargain if MJD’s holdout continues indefinitely.

For my top two receiver spots, I targeted Decker and Maclin as players who I thought would go for less than $20 but had WR1 upside and landed them both. Because this league uses a flex on top of three starting WRs, it was important to identify two more receivers capable of delivering WR2 production in a given week. Instead, I think I was able to grab three: Young, Washington and Collie.

Overall, this year marks the first time in my four years in this league I did not come away with at least two feature running backs. The ironic thing is that I’m may not be that far away from having a stacked deck at the position either. I already discussed Jennings, but it is not a stretch to say Jacquizz Rodgers outproduces Michael Turner in PPR this season in a Darren Sproles-lite kind of role. We already know what Ben Tate can do when given the chance and I can easily make the case that Evan Royster and Alex Green will be the lead backs in their offenses. For good measure (and because I knew the league had two IR spots), I snagged Jahvid Best as well.

In short, I sacrificed consistency and production from my RB2 spot with my winning bids on Brady and Graham early in the draft. In exchange, I landed two players better than the ones I initially targeted that I feel could finish No. 1 at their positions, a tradeoff I am more than willing to make. Heading into this season, I will be rolling with my No.2 QB, No. 4 RB, four of my top 32 receivers (including two in my top 12), my No. 1 TE, No. 2 K and No. 2 defense/special teams unit.

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