This coming season will mark the 9th year I have participated in The Huddle Expert Auction League. Over the previous eight seasons, FF Today has made the six-team playoff every year (last year's team was a No. 5 seed, the first time I finished with something worse than a No. 4 seed) and advanced to the championship game in five of the last seven seasons. Suffice it to say my approach has proven to be effective.

This year’s draft was held on August 8, so keep that date in mind as you review the prices below (both the price each player went for and the value at which I set for him). In case you were wondering, this draft took place just over two days before the Ezekiel Elliott suspension was announced and the two big trades (Sammy Watkins and Jordan Matthews) went down.

Below, you will find the values I used to prioritize the players and the rationale I used in selecting my team.

Pre-draft

There is something to be said about knowing your league. Almost all of the redraft leagues I play in each year are against complete strangers. Thus, there is no background from which to draw from, such as Owner X loves a certain team or Owner Y is all about hoarding receivers.

One thing I feel I can count on each season in this league is finding some treasure on the waiver wire. By the end of last year, 12 of my 18 roster spots were filled by waiver-wire claims or free-agent adds - a list that included Rob Kelley, Robby Anderson, Ty Montgomery, DeVante Parker and Kenny Stills. In 2015, I landed Ryan Fitzpatrick, Tim Hightower, Allen Hurns, Tavon Austin and the Broncos' defense in the weeks following the draft. In 2014, Sammy Watkins was the crown jewel of my waiver-wire pickups. An IR stash of Michael Crabtree helped me overcome the loss of Julio Jones during FF Today's most recent championship season in 2013, while Russell Wilson, Bryce Brown, Knowshon Moreno, Danario Alexander, Chris Givens, Golden Tate and the Seahawks' defense helped FF Today overcome a ton of injuries in order to win the first of its back-to-back titles in 2012.

The point is this: After eight years in this league, I have come to recognize I can rely on the waiver wire to build up my bench if necessary. (Heck, as the 2012 and 2016 examples above show, I can sometimes rely on it to build my starting lineup!) The goal for me now is simply to build the best starting lineup possible and trust the process when it comes to building depth. (Some might call it the "stud-and-dud" approach, but I rarely ever end up with someone on my team that I didn't want.) In auction drafts, I am looking to acquire as many “special” players (i.e. players that would otherwise cost a fortune to acquire via trade during the season) as possible.

My pre-draft plan this year was to secure either Antonio Brown, Odell Beckham Jr. or Julio Jones (with my eyes set on the cheapest of the three if possible) and the best value among the top five running backs. Beyond that, I wanted the most proven and least expensive no-brainer picks I could find at QB and TE in order to save as much money as possible to snag an extra $8-10 level player if at all possible.

Each year, I also make it a point to pay less than my valuation on just about every player, knowing the depth at receiver will allow me to find a bargain or two. Ideally, I’ll come away from a draft with two surefire starters at running back and another mid-priced player I believe will be an RB2 to use as my flex, but it doesn’t always work that way.

Although it is a complete departure from conventional auction-draft strategy, I’ve never been a big fan of setting pre-draft positional budgets – such as spending 40 percent of my budget at receiver. My method: Copy-and-paste the players I want the most at the top of my spreadsheet and keep a record of how much a player goes for a little bit lower on the page. I stay true to my valuations with very few exceptions and stick with that "preferred" list of players as long as possible. A list of 300 players can be daunting, especially when trying to research how much players in a certain tier went for with no more than 10 or 15 seconds to make a decision, so it makes a ton of sense to focus in on about 50.

The Draft

Players with bolded names are ones I specifically selected before the draft as players I was targeting. The key is picking players from several different tiers and expected cost valuations.

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

All values are based on a $200 cap and players are organized by “My $”. All players that were nominated are included, but I removed a number of players that are unlikely to go in auctions in leagues with 12 teams and 18-man rosters or for other common-sense reasons.

Required starters: 1 QB, 2 RBs, 3 WRs, 1 Flex, 1 K and 1 Defense/Special Teams unit.

Total spent at QB: $15

Although I preferred Cook ($20) slightly more, more value came in the form of Joe Mixon ($19) about 10 minutes after I got Freeman (Cook was obviously nominated later than Mixon). At that point, any plans I had of saving up for Coleman ($13) or Henry ($8) to handcuff my starters went out the window because making sure I would be able to land a quality WR2 down the road became more of a priority. It should be noted I actually had enough to spend on Henry if necessary, but Kareem Hunt ($9) came up for bid an hour earlier than Henry and went $5 cheaper than I expected. At that point, I resisted adding any more running backs until I could possibly come away with two high-upside handcuffs (McFadden and Connor), who went for a combined $5 about 3 1/2 hours into the draft. An added bonus: I was able to stick it to The Huddle, who is a division rival and began the draft with Bell and Elliott.

Gordon ($28) was one of the better values, although I have started to sour on him slightly, among other reasons, after the Chargers lost rookie OG Forrest Lamp. I obviously like Cook's value and thought Stewart ($6) was a good value; I had my eye on him for at least 30 minutes and was trying to wait it out long enough so I could guarantee myself the highest bid when he did come up for bid. (The one owner who had a higher max bid than I did obviously won out.) On the other hand, I was stunned by how much Perkins ($20) commanded.

Total spent at RB: $95

Some of the better bargains other teams had at receiver were the perpetually underrated Sanders ($16), Bryant ($15), Snead ($13), Maclin ($8) and Wallace ($6). Bids that surprised me in the opposite direction included the likes of Robinson ($29), Landry ($22) and Cobb ($14). All three of the latter receivers could easily end up being worth their bids at season's end, but I would argue each of them have much more working against them at this point than they have going in their favor.

Total spent at WR: $79

Bennett ($4) was a screaming value and a player I seriously considered bidding up on even though I already had Rudolph. Among the other values I liked were Hooper ($5) and Allen ($3).

Total spent at TE: $8

Almost every other year it seems, someone in this league spends $5 on a defense. I obviously value a rock-solid defense more than most, but owners who bid that much are paying for roughly 3-4 huge weeks at most, all while sacrificing a potential handcuff or low-end starter at another position. Unless a D/ST unit goes on to have a truly historic year, they will most likely not bring back a good enough return on investment to be worth that bid.

Total spent at D/ST: $2

Post-draft

The FFToday team
QB: Russell Wilson, Carson Palmer
RB: Devonta Freeman, DeMarco Murray, Joe Mixon, Kareem Hunt, Darren McFadden, James Conner
WR: Julio Jones, Kelvin Benjamin, Donte Moncrief, Jordan Matthews, Cole Beasley, Will Fuller
TE: Kyle Rudolph, Cameron Brate
K: Adam Vinatieri
D/ST: Seattle Seahawks

I have a pretty simple philosophy when it comes to fantasy football. Give me at least one player that can finish in the top five at each of the four core positions and I’ll show you a team that has a realistic shot at winning it all. Wilson, Freeman, Murray, Jones, Rudolph and the Seahawks' D/ST all have realistic shots at finishing among the top five at their positions.

My biggest regret? I'm not sure I have one, because there's not much about this draft I would take back. If I'm nitpicking, I could have bid up on Brees. I probably should have followed my gut and continued to bid on receivers such as Martavis Bryant and DeVante Parker at their more-than-reasonable prices. However, as much as I like both of them this year, we only have to look back to each of the last two years to come up with a scenario in which they may disappoint.

As long as I get the injury-free version of Wilson with what should be an improved offensive line, I think I'm going to like my quarterback selection. If Wilson encounters an early injury setback again this year, Palmer's first-half schedule should buy me enough time to adapt.

I'm not sure I've had a stable of running backs this deep and this good coming out of the draft in this league. Whatever your opinion may be on Freeman and/or Murray, most analysts and owners would agree they are top-10 backs with 250-carry, 50-catch and 10-touchdown upside. Mixon is the wild-card here. Will the Bengals merely have him lead a committee or will they turn him loose no later than October? If it is the latter, I could very well have three top-10 backs. Even if you view Hunt as nothing more than a handcuff to Spencer Ware, you can make the argument I also have three of the top five or so handcuffs in fantasy. Regardless of whether McFadden ends up being the featured back in Dallas during Elliott's suspension or not, keeping him away from a division rival AND being able to get some instant bang for my buck puts me in an even better position to improve my team.

In case it isn't becoming obvious, I'm a big fan of the higher-end receivers in the NFC South this year. Jones is already one of the game's best, but OC Steve Sarkisian's desire to utilize him more often in the red zone and perhaps the easiest schedule for a receiver in fantasy has me believing he has a decent chance to overtake Antonio Brown and Odell Beckham Jr. this season IF he can stay healthy. While I didn't plan on taking Benjamin per se, I also have him pegged with a pretty favorable schedule. Even if you buy into the possibility Devin Funchess is ready to break out, KB is the clear No. 1 receiver for a Carolina team which will throw the ball more often this season. Moncrief was the one player in this auction who I bid on to keep the bidding alive before the music unexpectedly stopped. As noted earlier, I was stunned when no one went any higher. My draft "grade" on Moncrief has fluctuated on almost a daily basis, but I certainly think he is a worthy WR3 with low-end WR2 upside if/when Andrew Luck is healthy. (And there within lies the rub.) I was floored when I nominated Beasley for $1 and no one even bothered to bid him up. I feel I lucked into Matthews as well, as Buffalo gives him at least a decent shot to be a lead receiver.

Getting a 100-plus target tight end like Rudolph ($7) for a few dollars cheaper than Hunter Henry ($11) and Jordan Reed when I have Rudolph ranked higher felt like a coup. While O.J. Howard's arrival figures to scare many owners when it comes to Brate, it sounds as if Tampa Bay isn't leaning in that direction. A repeat of his 57-catch, 660-yard, eight-touchdown season probably isn't in the cards for Brate, but he's not going away either. I think 45 receptions and six scores is very much within the realm of possibilities for him.

Critics of my draft may point to the fact I am heavily invested in the Atlanta Falcons - a team coming off a record-breaking year in terms of efficiency and an offense that lost its vaunted play-caller (Kyle Shanahan) - meaning the offense as a whole is ripe for a letdown. I do expect some regression, but as most of you know by now, I don't talk much about last year when it comes to projections and the like. I nabbed the two most important players (Freeman and Jones) on a high-powered offense facing a very favorable schedule. If Mixon emerges as the clear-cut back in Cincinnati and Murray maintains his firm grasp on the starting job in Tennessee, my running back group will probably be among the top two or three in the league. It'd be nice to have one more stud at receiver, but I struggle to find an obvious weakness with this team to begin the season. With high-upside running backs to spare, this is yet another team I expect to compete for a championship.