Time is one of our most valuable currencies. It also is one of fantasy auction drafts’ greatest enemies. If not for the additional time it takes to complete an auction draft, wouldn’t every league use an auction format? Of course, because it is such a far superior form of drafting.
First, you aren’t held hostage by a particular spot in the draft. If you, for example, draw the eighth pick in an ordered draft, you’re not going to get a chance to select Christian McCaffrey. You might not even get a shot at Travis Kelce. There are a handful of players you simply have no chance of landing. In an auction, this is not the case.
Everyone starts with the same amount in their virtual bankroll. So quite literally, the owner who wants a particular player the most has the means to make that happen.
But that is where it gets interesting. No one has unlimited coffers, so the more you spend on your fantasy crushes, the less you have to fill out the rest of your roster. How to spend you available funds is part of the strategy.
It also adds an additional layer of gamesmanship. The draft order allows owners to nominate players for bidding, rather than actually drafting them. So especially early in drafts, it makes sense to nominate stud players you aren’t really interested in — those you think are overvalued. This helps encourage others to bid up those players, thus removing more available funds from the collective draft pool. Each time a team pays a hefty price for a player you didn’t want anyway, it increases the likelihood that team will be unable to compete in heavy bidding for a player you actual want later in the draft.
It also puts added emphasis on acquiring cheap players in the late rounds when most teams have spent down to razor-thin budgets. There is routinely more value late in auction drafts because teams so often spend such a large portion of their available salary earlier. So if you save an extra few dollars, you can scoop up a large portion of those late-round targets. If you don’t win them with a $1 nomination, often just having the ability to bid up to $2 can win that player. This works especially well for late-round quarterbacks, which often are in greater supply than other positions.
So if you have the time, make your league an auction. If you don’t have the time, try to make the time. And if you decide now is not the time, you can chalk it up to one more time that you’ve missed out on the superior draft format.
Until next time …
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