The Fanex Auction is coming to a close, and it provides evidence that allocating players in an auction (rather than a draft) is the more efficient way to go. I participated in a draft, recall, with a lot of these same guys back in June. Now we can compare those same results to what’s going down in the auction. The scoring rules are essentially the same, and 11 of the 12 owners are the same.

The Fanex Analysis Draft occurred in June. It’s got the wrinkle where no waiver moves are allowed during the season. It’s a best-ball league. So that affects the selections some. It makes it logical to select backups at kicker, defense and tight end. And you tend to want to get guys who’ll be durable and at least playing during the regular season. No games in this league – it’s just total points, with best-ball lineups.

The Fanex Auction is more like a traditional league. Owners will make trades and waiver moves along the way, and they’ll submit a lineup each week.

These leagues are different than most fantasy leagues in that they have three starting wide receivers. They also have a flex player (RB-WR-TE). With the league using PPR scoring, this enhances the value of the wide receivers. I think many owners in these leagues don’t tend to look at the numbers closely enough, which year in and year out tends to result in me selecting more wide receivers. A lot of the owners (I think) remain locked in the traditional fantasy thinking that they’re in a league with 2 RBs and 2 WR and no flex, where the running backs are a lot more valuable.

Anyway, whatever. I’ve now got a couple of teams. And I thought it would be interesting to compare my two lineups. Specifically, I took the player values I used for the auction and then reverse engineered them back into the June draft. In theory, the team with the better talent (using my projections) should be more valuable. And that’s exactly how it turned out. My June (draft) draft is “worth” about $294, while my auction team clocks out at $325. That’s starting with a payroll of $200, so I’m very optimistic about both clubs. I don’t know that I’ve ever assembled an auction team worth over 60 percent more than its initial value.

Lots of similar names on these two rosters – 11 of the 20 players. And I’ve got those guys in bold.

VALUES OF IAN'S FANEX TEAMS
ValueAuction League..ValueDraft League
$4PK Mason Crosby..$1PK Josh Brown
$19QB Cam Newton..$1PK Nick Novak
$17QB Ben Roethlisberger..$19QB Cam Newton
$12QB Philip Rivers..$16QB Eli Manning
$37RB Jeremy Hill..$37RB Jeremy Hill
$25RB C.J. Spiller..$25RB C.J. Spiller
$14RB Devonta Freeman..$14RB Devonta Freeman
$4RB Dan Herron..$5RB Doug Martin
$4RB James White..$4RB Dan Herron
$9TE Julius Thomas..$1RB Terrance West
$7TE Josh Hill..$7TE Josh Hill
$5TE Vernon Davis..$5TE Vernon Davis
$1TE Eric Ebron..$57WR Antonio Brown
$44WR Randall Cobb..$35WR Julian Edelman
$40WR Emmanuel Sanders..$30WR Roddy White
$30WR Roddy White..$28WR Larry Fitzgerald
$28WR Larry Fitzgerald..$1WR Dwayne Bowe
$20WR Eric Decker..$1WR Jaelen Strong
$3ST Kansas City..$3ST Kansas City
$2ST St. Louis..$2ST St. Louis
$325TOTAL..$294TOTAL

This auction isn’t over, but enough guys have been selected that we can see where it’s headed. I’ve got my 20 guys, and a few other owners have finished as well. There are a handful of guys who spent big on a few players who are now filling out their rosters with mostly $1.00 players. But all of the good players are spoken for.

The values, in my opinion, are all at wide receiver. On my board, in fact, the top 26 wide receivers all went for less than what I felt they were worth. Obviously, this is a case where I’m simply valuing that position different than the other owners. I’m not sure what their thinking is. My guess is that many of them aren’t properly accounting for the value of PPR scoring, three starting wide receivers and a flex position (so, essentially four starting wide receivers).

FANEX AUCTION -- WIDE RECEIVERS
ValuePlayerPriceGainLoss
$57.34Antonio Brown$48$9--
$52.52Julio Jones$40$13--
$51.13Odell Beckham Jr.$45$6--
$48.58Dez Bryant$47$2--
$45.04Jordy Nelson$32$13--
$43.70Randall Cobb$29$15--
$42.78Demaryius Thomas$39$4--
$42.41Calvin Johnson$32$10--
$40.38Emmanuel Sanders$25$15--
$38.88A.J. Green$29$10--
$35.44Julian Edelman$26$9--
$33.67T.Y. Hilton$25$9--
$32.09Brandin Cooks$26$6--
$30.26Roddy White$14$16--
$29.42Alshon Jeffery$28$1--
$28.81Mike Evans$27$2--
$27.97Larry Fitzgerald$10$18--
$27.57Brandon Marshall$14$14--
$25.74Kelvin Benjamin$20$6--
$25.31DeAndre Hopkins$22$3--
$24.45Brandon LaFell$10$14--
$24.39Golden Tate$18$6--
$20.57Steve Smith Sr.$13$8--
$19.99Eric Decker$4$16--
$17.72Keenan Allen$17$1--
$17.13Vincent Jackson$7$10--
$14.76Jordan Matthews$21--$6
$14.37Anquan Boldin$5$9--
$13.61Jarvis Landry$10$4--
$12.91Amari Cooper$13----
$11.91Michael Floyd$2$10--
$11.61DeSean Jackson$12----
$11.12Sammy Watkins$20--$9
$10.14Allen Robinson$8$2--
$9.71Nelson Agholor$12--$2
$9.31Charles Johnson$11--$2
$9.18Rueben Randle$6$3--
$8.26Mike Wallace$3$5--
$8.01Kendall Wright$5$3--
$7.87Andre Johnson$21--$13

Here’s my wrap-up of how the running back position played out. In my opinion, there was a lot of wasted money here (especially with running backs in the teens and 20s).

The running back position includes the two most overpaid players, I thought. I thought both Matt Forte and LeSean McCoy went for over $20 more than they should have.

FANEX AUCTION -- RUNNING BACKS
ValuePlayerPriceGainLoss
$48.74Eddie Lacy$49----
$47.08Jamaal Charles$50--$3
$44.52LeVeon Bell$47--$2
$43.19C.J. Anderson$39$4--
$42.65DeMarco Murray$40$3--
$39.40Arian Foster$35$4--
$38.83Marshawn Lynch$38$1--
$38.28Adrian Peterson$48--$10
$36.75Jeremy Hill$30$7--
$31.90Melvin Gordon$30$2--
$29.78Matt Forte$51--$21
$26.05Justin Forsett$30--$4
$25.34C.J. Spiller$20$5--
$20.70Mark Ingram$19$2--
$19.15Alfred Morris$16$3--
$18.85LeSean McCoy$43--$24
$18.32Joique Bell$15$3--
$17.83Lamar Miller$15$3--
$17.04Giovani Bernard$14$3--
$13.53Devonta Freeman$5$9--
$11.66Andre Ellington$18--$6
$10.54Joseph Randle$12--$1
$10.22Shane Vereen$9$1--
$9.85Frank Gore$21--$11
$9.44Jonathan Stewart$15--$6
$5.79Latavius Murray$15--$9
$5.36Darren Sproles$3$2--
$5.10Darren McFadden$2$3--
$5.04Doug Martin$9--$4
$4.54Todd Gurley$14--$9
$4.49Carlos Hyde$11--$7
$4.32Dan Herron$1$3--
$4.28Chris Ivory$5--$1
$3.82James White$7--$3
$3.43Tevin Coleman$17--$14
$3.36Tre Mason$8--$5
$2.87T.J. Yeldon$14--$11
$2.47Danny Woodhead$7--$5
$2.11LeGarrette Blount$7--$5
$1.00Charles Sims$3--$2

Here are the quarterback results. Rodgers and Luck were the first two, of course, and they were both pretty nice buys, I thought. They went for $5-$10 under what I felt they were worth. Then there were a bunch of guys in the teens.

I would have preferred to carry two quarterbacks, and I like the pair of Newton and Roethlisberger (both for $5 under what I felt they were worth). But it was late in the auction, and an owner was holding onto his money, trying to pick up deals. I didn’t want to let him get Philip Rivers for $7, so I bid $8. I figured there was no way the guy wouldn’t go to $9 or $10 (since he had the money). But he left we with Rivers with $8. This is fine. Newton or Roethlisberger might get hurt, or I might trade one of these quarterbacks later in the season.

FANEX AUCTION -- QUARTERBACKS
ValuePlayerPriceGainLoss
$40.72Aaron Rodgers$31$10--
$39.71Andrew Luck$35$5--
$22.06Drew Brees$19$3--
$20.62Peyton Manning$23--$2
$19.31Cam Newton$14$5--
$18.58Matt Ryan$18$1--
$16.56Ben Roethlisberger$12$5--
$16.44Russell Wilson$21--$5
$16.34Eli Manning$14$2--
$13.15Joe Flacco$10$3--
$12.72Tony Romo$15--$2
$12.45Matthew Stafford$15--$3
$12.24Philip Rivers$8$4--
$12.06Tom Brady$17--$5
$11.34Ryan Tannehill$11----
$4.53Colin Kaepernick$8--$3
$2.48Carson Palmer$5--$3
$1.00Alex Smith$1----
$1.00Andy Dalton$5--$4
$1.00Sam Bradford$6--$5
$1.00Teddy Bridgewater$8--$7
$1.00Blake Bortles$1----
$1.00Derek Carr$4--$3
$1.00Marcus Mariota$1----
$1.00Jameis Winston$2--$1

I drafted four tight ends. This was not my intention. But I don’t have a reliable, franchise-type guy. So I’ll take Julius Thomas, Vernon Davis, Josh Hill and Eric Ebron into September. Between the lot of them, I’m hoping one will emerge as a solid producer. At least one of these players (maybe two) will be released before the third week of the regular season.

FANEX AUCTION -- TIGHT ENDS
ValuePlayerPriceGainLoss
$46.15Rob Gronkowski$40$6--
$22.32Greg Olsen$17$5--
$18.83Jimmy Graham$26--$7
$16.36Travis Kelce$21--$5
$14.48Jason Witten$8$6--
$9.54Martellus Bennett$15--$5
$8.80Julius Thomas$6$3--
$7.98Delanie Walker$4$4--
$7.39Josh Hill$2$5--
$5.05Vernon Davis$3$2--
$4.37Zach Ertz$6--$2
$3.76Austin Seferian-Jenkins$1$3--
$2.02Dwayne Allen$3--$1
$1.00Heath Miller$4--$3
$1.00Charles Clay$2--$1
$1.00Jordan Reed$2--$1
$1.00Owen Daniels$2--$1
$1.00Larry Donnell$2--$1
$1.00Antonio Gates$8--$7
$1.00Jordan Cameron$2--$1

The home pages of the leagues are both at MyFantasyLeague.com. You can go there if you want to see the results of the Fanex Analysis Draft or the soon-to-be-complete results of the Fanex Auction League.

—Ian Allan