Recently, our crew of fantasy football analysts conducted a mock fantasy football auction draft. The 15-man roster consisted of one QB, two RBs, two WRs, one TE, one WR/RB, one K, one DEF and six bench spots. It uses NFL.com's standard scoring system.
Click here for Part One of our mock auction draft analysis.
What was your auction strategy?
I tried something different with my strategy. I wanted to see how many players I could get that I like to either rebound or break out this season. I knew going in I wasn't going to pay $65 for Arian Foster, but would I go $20 on Torrey Smith if I had to? Sure. I'm all about projecting forward. I didn't want to say 'Well, let me get a safe RB here, or a safe WR.' I wanted who I wanted, and I would wait as long as I had to in order to get them. I'm betting on myself to be right about my opinions for the season.
What was your favorite pick?
I had a couple of favorite picks -- and not all of them were about getting someone for the least amount of money. I'm really high on Dwayne Bowe this season, and getting him for $10 was a big get for me. Huge things are in store for both Greg Little and BenJarvus Green-Ellis and getting them for $7 apiece was terrific. But I think my favorite thing was outbidding Dave Dameshek for Eric Decker late in the draft. He's going to wind up being Peyton Manning's go-to guy, and I was prepared to pay whatever I had to, because I had $34 left to fill two bench spots. Is Decker worth $25? Not in a vacuum, but he was to me at that point in the draft.
What pick do you regret the most?
Honestly, my final pick. I really wanted to save that slot for Matt Ryan as he's my "2012 Matthew Stafford Breakout QB", but I didn't save enough $$$ at the end and got outbid by Michael Fabiano, who also had his eye on him. I was pleased with getting C.J. Spiller instead, but I'd have rather had Ryan.
Did your draft strategy work?
Every player I drafted was on my original list of guys I thought would rebound or break through. My only disappointment was not getting Percy Harvin, but his price tag got a little high and I'll live with that. I had no money left at the end, which means I budgeted correctly -- which was especially gratifying when I had to use all of my last $9 to get Spiller. Sorry Jamie Maggio!
What do you like/dislike about your team?
I love my team's depth behind my starters. If the season started tomorrow, my starting lineup would be this:
I'm pretty confident those guys would do a ton of damage in the point column. I'll put them up against anyone's starters. But more importantly, I'm pleased with having Stevan Ridley, Mark Ingram, C.J. Spiller, Torrey Smith and Greg Little ready to step in if they break through in 2012. I didn't want my team to be so top-heavy that I would struggle to fill the rest of the slots with studs. You've got to have it from everywhere if you're going to win in fantasy football.
There's not a lot I don't like right now, except for this -- I don't know how it happened, but Victor Cruz going for just $7? How did I (and all of us) let that happen? No, he wasn't on my list of players to get, so I tuned out a bit to strategize while the bidding was going on -- which is what I think everyone else did. I thought the interested parties would fight it out and he'd go for $20-$30. And I wasn't interested. It was obvious that Cruz is not high on everyone else's lists this year to duplicate his 2011, which is why everyone else stopped paying attention. But would I have paid $8 for him? You bet I would have. It just goes to show that even when a player that you're not going to bid on is nominated, you still have to pay attention because you could wind up with a steal.
