How To Prepare For a Fantasy Football Auction Draft

As we begin the month of April looking forward to the NFL Draft, we ponder many different things.  Who will my favorite team draft? 

Will he have any kind of 2009 fantasy football impact?  I think this player (insert name here) is going to be a stud, I hope I can draft him this year.

The above  thoughts may come into your head leading up to the last weekend in April.  Granted, most of the guys being drafted in the upcoming NFL Draft are not guys you probably won’t be able to get your hands on. But if your league is looking to make any changes heading into the 2009 season, look no further then how you draft your fantasy football players.

In my opinion the best draft out there to date is no longer the traditional draft in which you wait your turn to select a player for your team each round.  Instead, it's being replaced with fantasy football auction style drafts, which are growing in popularity. 

An auction draft gives you a certain amount of money ($100, $200 depending on your league) to fill your team with.  When drafting in an auction style league, individual players go up for bid and you have the ability to pay whatever it takes to get that specific player, depending on how bad you want him and how much you are willing to spend. Because of this style, as a drafter you have the opportunity to get any player in the NFL.

The great part about auction drafts is you no longer have to wait your turn, hoping the guy you want falls to you at a certain pick.  For example, if you think Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson is the best player in all of fantasy football you have the chance to shell out the money to make him a member of the team. 

Another example would be if you targeted New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees with the 10th overall pick in a traditional draft, the odds of you getting Brees are slim, but in an auction league you no longer have to hold your breath hoping he falls to you at that pick.  Let’s say you think Peterson and Brees are the best two players and you don’t need much else for your team to win,  an auction league will allow you to bid on both players for your roster.

Let’s say your league has a $200 cap for you to fill your entire team of 15 guys.  If you like Peterson and you get him for $70, you now have $130 to spend on the rest of your team.  After snagging Peterson, you make it a priority to get Brees for $50, you now have $80 to spend on 13 guys. 

You may not feel that is a lot of money for 13 guys, but near the end you will get serviceable fantasy football options players, like running back Fred Taylor of the New England Patriots for less then $5.  The main reason for that is because other teams will also be low on cash, thus no one having enough money to boost their value higher.  

Heading into your 2009 fantasy football auction draft, you certainly need to have a strategy and because of this the Bruno Boys will be putting dollar values next to all their ranked players to give you an idea of how much a guy may cost you. 

As for a specific strategy, there are a number of different ways you can go in an auction draft. So let's break them down: 

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How To Prepare For a Fantasy Football Auction Draft