Fantasy Football: How To Manipulate a Yahoo! Autopick Draft

Let me begin this article by stating that, if given the option, it is always better to do a live draft than to have it autopicked for you.

With that said, there will be times that you just can't make a draft. In fact, maybe your league is just an autopick draft anyway. In either case, there are ways to ensure you get the advantage over the other people in your league.

An article I read last year on Yahoo! Sports (to the best of my knowledge it is no longer there) outlined what I am going to explain here. Last year, I didn't get the opportunity to try it out because I already had four teams, which is the maximum number you can have on Yahoo! I took down notes, did a little bit of my own research, and kept those notes in my filing cabinet for this year.

Here's the deal: in a yahoo public league, there are always ten teams with the same position configuration (QB, WR, WR, WR, RB, RB, TE, K, DEF, BEN, BEN, BEN, BEN, BEN, BEN). As is stated on the Yahoo! fantasy football help page, "Given this system, it's important to remember that all starting positions are filled before any bench players are chosen. Additionally, keep in mind that the system will determine a maximum number of players to draft per position (starters plus bench) so that no roster ends up with an inordinate number of players at any single position (e.g., five quarterbacks in a league that has a single starting quarterback)."

What this means to you is that in the first nine rounds, your starting roster will always be filled before more position players are added. This usually means that in rounds seven through nine, the computer will pick for you a tight end, a kicker, and a defense.

Since there are ten teams with two starting RB positions, exactly twenty running backs will be picked within the first six rounds in most cases. What this means for you is that there are still top-25 running backs on the board while other teams are picking tight ends, kickers, and defenses in rounds seven, eight, and nine.

So how do you manipulate a Yahoo! autopick draft?

When you are setting your pre-rankings, do this:

1. Add all kickers to the "do not draft" list.
2. Add all defenses except for the top-tier defenses (Minnesota and San Diego, and New England as well if you wish) to the "do not draft" list.
3. Add all tight ends except for the top-tier tight ends (Antonio Gates, Jason Witten, Kellen Winslow, and Jeremy Shockey if you wish) to the "do not draft" list.

What this does is force the computer to pick other quality players (read: running backs) during rounds seven through nine while the other teams are taking tight ends, kickers, and defenses.

So, when setting your actual pre-rankings, this is how I did it:

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