Everyone loves a traditional snake draft. However, fantasy football auction or salary cap drafts have gained popularity over the past several years. Salary cap and auction drafts have been popular for those in the fantasy football industry for a while. Yet, they have recently gained popularity in home leagues.
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Fantasy Football Strategy: Salary Cap & Auction Drafts
Should first-time fantasy players join a salary cap draft league? Absolutely! However, make sure you know the differences between a traditional snake and a salary cap draft. Furthermore, fantasy players need to understand the draft strategies best suited for salary cap leagues, especially if it’s their first time playing that way.
While it might seem confusing or overwhelming, let’s see what fantasy players need to know before joining an auction or salary cap draft.
Basic Understanding
Snake drafts are simple, as each team takes turns picking a player. When you get to the end of the round, the order flips in the opposite direction. So the team picking last in the first round will pick first in the second round. Similarly, the team picking first in the fourth round will have the last pick in the fifth round.
Salary cap drafts are somewhat similar. However, there is no snake or turn at the end of each round. More importantly, teams aren’t picking players for their roster. Instead, they nominate a player for everyone in the league to bid on. That means you aren’t guaranteed to get the player you nominated with your pick.
Each team can bid on the player in a short window of time. The player will be awarded to the highest bidder when the timer expires. Every time a team makes a new bid, the timer will reset for typically 10 seconds, giving everyone a chance to increase their bid for that player.
So, how much should you bid on a player? The answer depends on several factors. The most important one is your budget. Each team will get a specific dollar amount to spend during the draft. Typically, you must bid at least $1 for every player. Therefore, you can’t use your entire budget on one player.
Most salary cap drafts have a budget of $100 or $200. The budget might be higher if you play in a league with a deeper roster. The best way to determine how much to spend on a specific player is to use the FantasyPros value calculator.
Size Matters!
The depth of the rosters will make a difference in how much you spend on each player. You should save more of your budget if you have seven or more bench spots on your roster. By comparison, you can be more aggressive with a shallower bench.
Similarly, the size of your league plays a role in your draft plan, just like it does in traditional snake drafts. Fantasy players in eight-team leagues want to target quarterbacks and tight ends sooner than in 16-team leagues. You want to target those positions earlier because of the depth and the lack of opponents.
Fantasy players don’t want to be the last team to draft a quarterback in an eight-team league and have to make up for the weekly disadvantage of facing Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, Jayden Daniels, and Joe Burrow. However, you can take advantage of the quarterback depth and be the eighth or ninth team to grab a quarterback in a 16-team league. That is because there will be weeks when you face a team with Jordan Love or Jared Goff as their starter.
That same mindset applies to salary cap drafts. Fantasy players want to be more aggressive with their budget in smaller leagues. You don’t have as many competitors. Therefore, you don’t want to be the passive team and wait everyone out. Similarly, you want to be cautious about overspending in larger leagues. You can find yourself out of the playoff picture by Week 6 if you spend too much of your budget on one player and he busts or misses significant time with an injury.
Different Types of Draft Strategies
The first thing to know is that you can still use every strategy from a traditional snake draft in a salary cap draft. However, fantasy players need to equate their budget with traditional draft picks.
Let’s use Hero-RB as an example. You would spend your first-round pick on a running back, then wait until the sixth or seventh round to draft your RB2. So, you want to spend a significant chunk of your salary cap budget on a top-tier running back. Then, you want to find a good value or discounted player for your RB2 spot.
However, there are two primary ways to spend your salary cap budget.
Big Spenders
How awesome would it be to have two first-round picks in a snake draft? Well, you can draft two first-round talented players in a salary cap league. Some fantasy players like having a top-heavy roster with two or three elite players. However, the rest of the roster will typically be $1 or $2 players.
This strategy works if you draft the right players. However, you could be out of the playoff picture before Halloween if your high-priced players bust or suffer an injury. Fantasy players are putting their faith in their top players, given the lack of depth on the roster.
Mid-Round Values
While it’s not the flashiest, the mid-round values is my favorite strategy. Instead of spending most of my budget on two or three elite players, I would rather draft four to six second-tier players at half the cost of the elite guys. For example, Ja’Marr Chase is valued at $62 in a 12-team half-point PPR $200 budget league, according to the FantasyPros value calculator.
Instead of drafting Chase at that cost, I would use that money on Tee Higgins ($29) and Ladd McConkey ($29). Similarly, fantasy players could draft Nico Collins ($36), or Davante Adams ($35), and Jaxon Smith-Njigba ($24), or Marvin Harrison Jr. ($21) and still have a few dollars left over.
This strategy won’t give you a roster with two or three superstar players that could win you the league. However, this strategy will protect your team against injuries, bye-week troubles, and busts. The only thing to remember with this draft strategy is that you can’t make more picks than you have roster spots. Therefore, don’t be too frugal when bidding.
Which Players Should You Nominate
You would think it’s wise to nominate players you want to draft. That’s the wrong way of thinking, especially in the first few rounds of nominations. When you nominate a player, the rest of the league automatically assumes you want him.
Instead, fantasy players should try to force their league mates to burn through their budget because of a bidding war. For example, if you don’t trust Christian McCaffrey to stay healthy again this year, make him your first nomination. Let the rest of the league bid for the superstar running back, using up their budget. That way, you could get your RB1 target for a slight discount later in the draft.
Similarly, fantasy players should nominate their sleeper candidates early in the draft process, especially if they aren’t popular candidates. Your league mates might be hesitant to spend more than $1 early in the draft for fear that they can’t land their star target because of a lack of money. Therefore, you could land your top two or three sleepers for the minimum bid.
Players to Target
Prices via FantasyPros Value Calculator based on a $200 budget in a 12-team half-point PPR league.
Worth the Cost
These players will cost your team a significant chunk of your budget. However, they are excellent targets to be your Hero or Anchor running back/wide receiver and are worth every penny.
- Saquon Barkley (RB – PHI) for $48
- Bijan Robinson (RB – ATL) for $45
- Justin Jefferson (WR – MIN) for $48
- Malik Nabers (WR – NYG) for $43
Value Options
These players are values at their calculated cost. They aren’t necessarily going to be league winners, but they won’t break the bank and provide your team with more value than that cost.
- Justin Fields (QB – NYJ) for $7
- Quinshon Judkins (RB – CLE) for $11
- Ricky Pearsall (WR – SF) for $6
- Evan Engram (TE – DEN) for $3
Bargain Buys
These are players you can likely draft for a buck or two. They are the typical sleepers or late-round dart-throw targets in traditional snake drafts.
- J.J. McCarthy (QB – MIN) for $1
- Bhayshul Tuten (RB – JAX) for $2
- Josh Downs (WR – IND) for $2
- Dalton Kincaid (TE – BUF) for $1
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Mike Fanelli is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Mike, check out his archive and follow him @Mike_NFL2.
