Can “All For One” beat “One For All”? I sure hope so, because that’s the approach I took in my most recent sample auction. Rather than spending on a few stars, I attempted to build a balanced, deep roster.
I didn’t buy any of the top 15 players on my board, even though there were some decent enough deals there. My top 4 (Johnson, Bell, Brown, Elliott) all went for over 20 percent less than what I expected. Maybe in hindsight I’ll be kicking myself for not hanging in on those auctions. But you’ve got to start 10 players each week, and I didn’t want to be left picking through scrubs at the end.
While I missed out on the super elite prospects, I did land a bunch of depth. I’ve got 9 other players from my top 50 overall. And I’ve got 16 players out of my top 100. In a typical 12-team league, each team should have about 8 players in the top 100.
If I’ve got these guys scouted right, my team should be just fine. I started with a $200 payroll, but according to my “values”, my team is now worth about $310. That’s better than I typically fair in an auction.
On the downside, there at waiver moves in this league. So some of the teams that loaded up on stars will have opportunities to patch those roster holes during the season.
In this format, 12 teams are drafting 20 players each. It’s PPR scoring, with 3 wide receivers and a flex (WR-RB-TE). Given the scoring format, the correct strategy is to pretty much assume that you’re starting 4 wide receivers (versus 2 RBs). That’s why receivers are heavily represented on the chart below.
If you want to look at the rosters for this league, they can be found at MyFantasyLeague.com.
Here are the players from my top 100. The “value” represents what I thought they were worth. The “price” is what they sold for. Players going for a discount of over 25 percent are flagged with black dots. Players on my roster are in bold.
This was a difficult auction because there weren’t any Cowboys spending crazy money on the front end. The cash flow was flat. As the auction progressed (over days) I sensed this and decided to start spending. I didn’t want to get caught holding a pile of cash at the end, with no real deals to speak of. I ended up buying Ty Montgomery and Isaiah Crowell to start at running back, but had to buy them at a worse rate than the elite running backs (about 80 percent of value).
All along I waited for a great deal at quarterback, and it never came along. I ended up having to overpay for Philip Rivers when he was the last of the elite quarterbacks on the board. (I thought he was worth $12 but had to pay $16). That was fueled in part by one owner choosing to buy three quarterbacks. And I had fears of ending up holding money, so decided to overspend.
| FANEX AUCTION LEAGUE | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Value | Price | Rate |
| RB David Johnson | $73.52 | $55 | 75% |
| • RB LeVeon Bell | $69.32 | $49 | 71% |
| WR Antonio Brown | $57.08 | $45 | 79% |
| RB Ezekiel Elliott | $52.48 | $41 | 78% |
| RB Devonta Freeman | $41.98 | $38 | 91% |
| WR Odell Beckham Jr. | $41.28 | $38 | 92% |
| WR Julio Jones | $39.94 | $45 | 113% |
| WR Jordy Nelson | $39.38 | $37 | 94% |
| RB Melvin Gordon | $38.87 | $41 | 105% |
| RB LeSean McCoy | $38.75 | $40 | 103% |
| • WR T.Y. Hilton | $37.61 | $28 | 74% |
| WR Michael Thomas | $36.85 | $30 | 81% |
| WR Mike Evans | $36.28 | $37 | 102% |
| RB Jordan Howard | $33.06 | $40 | 121% |
| WR Amari Cooper | $30.05 | $37 | 123% |
| QB Aaron Rodgers | $29.66 | $25 | 84% |
| WR Tyreek Hill | $29.65 | $26 | 88% |
| • WR Larry Fitzgerald | $29.48 | $16 | 54% |
| RB Ty Montgomery | $29.40 | $23 | 78% |
| RB Isaiah Crowell | $29.19 | $24 | 82% |
| WR A.J. Green | $28.93 | $39 | 135% |
| RB Todd Gurley | $27.65 | $31 | 112% |
| • WR Michael Crabtree | $27.64 | $19 | 69% |
| WR Demaryius Thomas | $27.32 | $22 | 81% |
| WR Doug Baldwin | $27.18 | $26 | 96% |
| RB DeMarco Murray | $26.92 | $31 | 115% |
| • RB Mark Ingram | $26.76 | $17 | 64% |
| WR Dez Bryant | $26.24 | $33 | 126% |
| WR Golden Tate | $26.11 | $23 | 88% |
| QB Tom Brady | $25.96 | $20 | 77% |
| RB Jay Ajayi | $23.66 | $28 | 118% |
| • WR Emmanuel Sanders | $23.37 | $7 | 30% |
| QB Drew Brees | $23.13 | $21 | 91% |
| • RB Tevin Coleman | $23.10 | $9 | 39% |
| • TE Jordan Reed | $22.99 | $16 | 70% |
| RB Lamar Miller | $22.82 | $23 | 101% |
| RB Joe Mixon | $22.27 | $19 | 85% |
| • WR Pierre Garcon | $21.79 | $15 | 69% |
| TE Travis Kelce | $21.50 | $19 | 88% |
| • TE Zach Ertz | $21.32 | $5 | 23% |
| WR DeAndre Hopkins | $20.99 | $28 | 133% |
| WR Davante Adams | $20.59 | $16 | 78% |
| RB Christian McCaffrey | $20.45 | $20 | 98% |
| RB Dalvin Cook | $20.38 | $31 | 152% |
| WR Jarvis Landry | $20.37 | $18 | 88% |
| • TE Greg Olsen | $20.06 | $13 | 65% |
| RB Leonard Fournette | $19.95 | $35 | 175% |
| RB Paul Perkins | $19.78 | $16 | 81% |
| RB Carlos Hyde | $19.16 | $15 | 78% |
| WR Jamison Crowder | $19.13 | $15 | 78% |
| QB Andrew Luck | $19.04 | $20 | 105% |
| • RB Theo Riddick | $18.78 | $12 | 64% |
| WR Willie Snead | $17.93 | $16 | 89% |
| TE Jimmy Graham | $17.26 | $14 | 81% |
| • TE Eric Ebron | $17.22 | $8 | 46% |
| • RB Adrian Peterson | $16.53 | $12 | 73% |
| • RB Matt Forte | $16.09 | $7 | 44% |
| WR Stefon Diggs | $16.05 | $13 | 81% |
| • TE Kyle Rudolph | $15.58 | $10 | 64% |
| WR Allen Robinson | $15.53 | $24 | 155% |
| TE Rob Gronkowski | $15.36 | $16 | 104% |
| • WR Sterling Shepard | $15.16 | $3 | 20% |
| • RB Derrick Henry | $14.58 | $10 | 69% |
| • RB Kareem Hunt | $14.35 | $8 | 56% |
| QB Russell Wilson | $14.25 | $17 | 119% |
| RB Marshawn Lynch | $14.15 | $19 | 134% |
| RB C.J. Anderson | $14.00 | $11 | 79% |
| WR Terrelle Pryor | $13.63 | $12 | 88% |
| QB Matt Ryan | $13.47 | $17 | 126% |
| RB Spencer Ware | $13.32 | $10 | 75% |
| WR Brandin Cooks | $13.25 | $16 | 121% |
| WR Sammy Watkins | $12.92 | $19 | 147% |
| WR Keenan Allen | $12.92 | $21 | 163% |
| QB Jameis Winston | $12.69 | $16 | 126% |
| QB Kirk Cousins | $12.42 | $14 | 113% |
| • RB Bilal Powell | $12.18 | $8 | 66% |
| QB Philip Rivers | $12.11 | $16 | 132% |
| • WR Donte Moncrief | $11.82 | $5 | 42% |
| • RB Robert Kelley | $11.22 | $5 | 45% |
| QB Dak Prescott | $11.17 | $14 | 125% |
| • RB Duke Johnson Jr. | $11.16 | $4 | 36% |
| • WR Rishard Matthews | $10.93 | $2 | 18% |
| • WR Adam Thielen | $10.49 | $6 | 57% |
| TE Delanie Walker | $10.24 | $11 | 107% |
| • WR Corey Coleman | $9.57 | $6 | 63% |
| QB Matthew Stafford | $9.53 | $12 | 126% |
| • ST Kansas City | $9.51 | $4 | 42% |
| WR Kelvin Benjamin | $9.19 | $10 | 109% |
| • RB C.J. Prosise | $9.01 | $6 | 67% |
| • WR Marqise Lee | $8.98 | $4 | 45% |
| TE Hunter Henry | $8.89 | $9 | 101% |
| QB Marcus Mariota | $8.66 | $13 | 150% |
| • WR John Brown | $8.32 | $6 | 72% |
| • RB Thomas Rawls | $8.25 | $3 | 36% |
| RB Danny Woodhead | $7.91 | $16 | 202% |
| QB Eli Manning | $7.80 | $8 | 103% |
| • PK Stephen Gostkowski | $7.62 | $3 | 39% |
| QB Derek Carr | $7.56 | $13 | 172% |
| • TE Jason Witten | $7.46 | $1 | 13% |
| TE Martellus Bennett | $7.21 | $6 | 83% |
—Ian Allan