**Before we get started I just want to show you exactly what we have upcoming for the NFL season. Football is upon us and whether it’s season-long fantasy football or DFS, the staff here at DFS Army has you covered. If this link doesn’t make you so excited that you want to run through a brick wall then I don’t know what will. Here is what is in store for the 2018 NFL season.

NFL Fantasy Football Auction Draft Strategies

The goal of an auction draft is to give everyone equal opportunity to acquire the player nominated for bidding. In essence, the entire league is determining that player’s value rather than just one owner who would have drafted the individual in a certain round. There are a few very important intricacies that you need to know before heading into the auction in order to be the most prepared owner in the league. The more prepared you are the quicker you can adapt, and trust me if you aren’t prepared you’ll end up spending 33% of your salary cap on Vinny Testaverde in the late 1990’s. Okay, so maybe you wouldn’t do as poorly as I did in my first one, but if you were concerned that you might pull a Vinny 2.0, then this article is for you.

Create Auction Tiers

The biggest piece of advice I can give someone for doing a fantasy football auction draft is to tier your targeted player pool. By tiering your player pool you know exactly how many people you want in that tier and the pre-auction value that you have set on them. During the bidding process if someone from your first tier is about to be purchased for the price of someone that was won in your second tier, then you hop into that bidding war and grab that player at a nice value. The value of the players are determined by the people in the room, and just like any other draft style accruing as much value over the course of a draft will set you up for success as you enter your regular season.

Set a Budget

Once we have set our tiers we need to then set a percentage of your salary you are willing to spend on that tier. This will help you from blowing your budget on one player and handcuffing the rest of your auction bidding. Whether you spend $10 on a $100 budget or $20 on a $200 budget, it is the exact same 10% price point. By creating tiers and applying percentages we avoid worrying about the actual dollar amounts and just look at everything in percentages. Spending $55 on someone might seem like you just wasted a ton of salary, but if you stick to your script and don’t go above your percentages you should have excellent bankroll management for late in the auction when the real value appears. Seeing everything in percentiles also lets you know if you are gaining value throughout the draft and allows you to spend up elsewhere if you have extra percentage points to use up at other positions. Did you save 5% more than you thought when you won the bid on Julio Jones? Great, now use that extra 5% towards a better quarterback.

Bidding Wars

Bid on virtually every player to disguise your true intentions. If you just sit back and don’t bid on any of the quarterbacks and then Carson Palmer is nominated and you go buck wild and start bidding, people will know you desperately want this guy. When others in your league know you’re really high on someone they are going to bid you up, meaning even if they don’t want them but they know you’ll do anything to get Palmer then they’ll keep bidding just enough to keep you hooked. As they see your resolve start to wane they will bow out right before you snap. You’ll end up overbidding for Palmer and have buyers remorse after you realize you spent 10% of your budget on him when you had only allotted 5% of your salary for a quarterback. By bidding on many different players at all the positions you disguise your true desires and intentions. Just make sure not to take it too far and end up stuck with someone you didn’t want.

Nominations

Don’t be afraid to buy the first person nominated in the tier or at the position. Sometimes people are really gun shy at the beginning of an auction and feel the need to conserve their salary because there are plenty of other options. The law of supply and demand is real and at the beginning of the auction when there are eight elite wide receivers the first one or two might come at a value while the other owners don’t feel like they’re losing out at all because there are six or seven other elite options available. Often the first few elite guys at the position will go for less than the last few elite players at that position. I’ve watched Antonio Brown go for 25% of a budget while Calvin Johnson went for close to 50%. Both players are elite and should really help your team, but using 25% of your salary to acquire a similar player is as suboptimal as it gets.

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Track Rosters and Start Runs

Track other league mates rosters and nominate a player that you believe several owners not only want but need. If you realize that there are three teams left waiting for their wide receiver one and you already won A.J. Green and Julio Jones, then throw out the next big wide receiver’s name and watch the three owners start a bidding war. If you are ever able to do this with the last player in a tier and you believe multiple owners still need a player from that tier then you’ve struck gold. Someone is going to deplete their salary on that last elite wide receiver while the other two then have to overpay for multiple wide receiver two’s.

Be cheap and throw out one of your favorite kickers or defenses for $1 and lock in one of the best options at the position. Every once in awhile you’ll see a guy outbid you and throw $2 on Justin Tucker and while that stinks that you didn’t get your guy the kicker tier should really just be all in one tier. The same goes for defenses. Now you need to know your league scoring for these two positions as some leagues have negatives for missed field goals and extra points which does separate the tiers and values a little bit, the same goes for defensive scoring rules.

Use Your Entire Budget

Lastly, don’t ever save any auction salary. Use up every dollar you have and don’t get stuck at the end of the auction with $28 left and only two positions to fill. At this point, most people have only a few dollars remaining and are just grabbing $1 dart throws. You are the bully at this point which is a good thing because you can get basically any player on the board because you can outbid them all, however, being able to outbid everyone for Sterling Shepard at $3 does you no good if you end the draft with $25 on the table. That $25 should have been used on a tier one running back or wide receiver hours ago.

Playing in a fantasy football auction league is one of the most fun experiences you will have fantasy wise. Make sure you are prepared and make the night one to remember. You can find me on Twitter @DFSnDONUTS where I post my daily articles and random statistics because I am a huge nerd.

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Fortune favors the bold, go make your own luck!

-Donuts