The 2011-2012 NFL Season avoided a lost season and so back comes Fantasy Football. This year in the The All VETO n NO TRADE League we each paid $50 each again, but changed the draft from a typical snake draft to an auction draft. Basically an auction draft is instead of picking in order of position, every manager is instead given a budget to spend on any player that they choose to. This allows any player to be owned by any manager who’s willing to spend the most on that player. I’ve done a few of these drafts before, but knowing that this was new to most of the other managers i knew it wouldn’t be like any other ones. It was also different for the fact that we play with three IDP (Individual Defensive Players) which means a few more dollars needed to be saved for those extra players. With $200 to spend on 17 players that comes out to an average of a little over $11 each.
The draft ended up being very heavy spending on the elite players going for the big bucks while fringe players were bargains to have for those who had saved their cash for later in the draft. I actually ended up with a team that I didn’t imagine drafting. My first nomination was Darren McFadden which had been going for somewhere in the range of $33 in other drafts, i eventually wound up winning for $25 … which i later found out through the chat that he hurt himself with a fractured left eye socket … but thankfully it doesn’t seem as bad as it sounds.
My team looked more traditional going heavy with RBs with Jamaal Charles for $48 (who led me to my 3rd place finish last year), and Frank Gore for $33, whereas the other top running backs went from $51 to $62. Its very light on WR with all the elite WR going for big bucks typically being bought for $48 and i wasn’t prepared to spend that much, so my only good receiver ended up being DeSean Jackson for $34. As for my QB i knew i wanted one of the top 6 not named Peyton Manning so i ended up having to spend $29 on Tony Romo, and considering that other QBs went high Brady ($43), Rivers ($37), Brees ($36), Vick ($36, which also was one of the best bargains of the draft) it was more than i thought i would have to spend on a elite QB.
The rest of my team rounded out like this:
- Mason Crosby $1
- Jerome Harrison $1
- Jimmy Graham $4
- Santana Moss $6
- Michael Bush $4
- Jacoby Ford $1
- C.J. Spiller $4
- Eric Berry $1
- Emmanuel Sanders $1
- Jordy Nelson $1
- Delone Carter $1
- Donovan McNabb $1
