Succeeding in a salary cap draft takes a little more preparation than a normal serpentine draft. You need to be able to approximate what the prices will look like, figure out your own strategy for how you want to attack the draft, divide up your cap dollars among the positions according to their importance, and then map out what you think a blueprint for success looks like.

For this blueprint, we will assume the following conditions:

• 12 Team League
• $200 salary cap
• Starting Roster: 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 DEF
• Each roster will have 16 players
• PPR Scoring
• Normal redraft setting where teams set their lineups every week and can add and drop players from the waiver wire

In a salary cap draft, it is not as simple as showing up and trying to buy cheap players. Often cheaper players are priced that way for a reason, and other times those players can be good values but not provide the punch and upside you want your team to have. To figure out how to find value and also find top players, you’ll have to use your blueprint to keep you on course. Here is how to do that.

PLAYER VALUES

Salary cap drafts have come far enough that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel to come up with values for all the players. The easiest way to approach your values is to use our Salary Cap Cheatsheets located here. You can also find different sets of player dollar values on the internet to give you an idea of what the market is doing and help you dial into what your own values should be.

At a minimum, you should develop tier breaks at every position and ensure the prices reflect the drops in value. For example, after the fifth running back (Joe Mixon) is off the board there is a tier break before RB6, Dalvin Cook. There is a corresponding drop of $5 in value from Mixon to Cook on the Footballguys salary cap value sheet. This is just an example, and those tier breaks could differ on your own sheet if you want to make your own values. But the main point here is critical: tiers are not just important in salary cap drafts, they are essential, so this is one of the more important steps in preparation for the draft.

One thing to remember is that if you aren’t using the Footballguys cheatsheet values, it isn’t necessary to be perfect when apportioning your own dollar values up and down your cheat sheet. It is more important to get a snapshot of how the community sees salary cap values in the days leading up to your draft. When you get in the draft, understand that your values are just a guideline. Player prices fluctuate from draft to draft based on when they are nominated, who is bidding, and what money is left in the room. Don’t be too rigid following what the prices are “supposed” to be or you will have an uneven draft. Instead, follow your pre-draft plan. If a player you want fits your allotted salary for that slot, you will stay on track.

ALLOCATING YOUR CAP DOLLARS

In recent years I have found it profitable to follow a strategy where I do the following:

• Roster one good running back and one nearly elite wide receiver
• A quarterback who is not bargain basement but won’t command a top price – usually something in the $8-$12 range
• Several cheap tight ends that allow a chance to find a breakout player but don’t command a large percentage of the salary cap
• Attack the wide receiver value from Deebo Samuel (Consensus WR7) down to DeAndre Hopkins (WR41) and land as many highly ranked players from this group as cheaply as possible
• Draft two to three rotational running backs that can serve as an RB2
• Spend almost nothing on Kicker and Team Defense

FINDING VALUE DURING THE DRAFT

Before the draft, you should compare your values from your own cheatsheet or value sheet with the numbers you have allocated to the positions on your blueprint. This gives you a snapshot of what your team will look like should you land the “perfect” player for every spot. Drafting the perfect player means that you rostered the best possible player you could afford for that position while sticking to the strategy you envisioned ahead of time.

A good way to find value is to remember that you cannot let tiers get too scarce before you attack them. Nominating a player you want, like Allen Robinson, will have a higher probability of finding value if Brandin Cooks, Mike Williams, and D.J. Moore are still available.

You can also find value by paying attention to players who have not generated a lot of buzz from their camp performance, preseason game performance, or who are coming back from a big injury in 2021. There are plenty of players who are disrespected by fantasy drafters for some reason, and finding those players usually nets strong value in a salary cap draft. Diontae Johnson is an example of this for 2022 drafts.

DRAFTING THE PERFECT SALARY CAP TEAM

Based on these ideas, a possible team could look like for your 16-man roster in a 12-team league. If you land a player for cheaper than you had allocated, don’t be afraid to overpay at another position, using that extra money to improve somewhere else. Value is only important insofar as it helps further your strategy. Don’t get caught up trying to score a deal on every player. If you pay more than a player is worth but land an impact player within the framework of your strategy, it does not matter what the raw dollar value was. You can’t take the money with you, so keep track of where you are relative to what you wanted to spend. Here is my favorite strategy and the team you can try and land from it. Continue reading below to find out how to execute it.

Starting Lineup

• QB1 ($11) – Russell Wilson, Dak Prescott, or Trey Lance
• RB1 ($43) – Joe Mixon, Dalvin Cook, or Najee Harris
• RB2 ($18) – Travis Etienne, AJ Dillon, or David Montgomery
• WR1 ($38) – Stefon Diggs or Davante Adams
• WR2 ($23) – Keenan Allen, Courtland Sutton, or DJ Moore
• WR3 ($17) – Terry McLaurin, Marquise Brown, or Jaylen Waddle
• TE1 ($8) – Dawson Knox, Albert Okwuegbunam, Cole Kmet, or Hunter Henry
• K ($1) – Tyler Bass, Evan McPherson, or Harrison Butker
• DEF ($1) – San Francisco 49ers, Baltimore Ravens, or Indianapolis Colts

Bench

• RB3 ($12) – Rhamondre Stevenson, Chase Edmonds, or Kareem Hunt
• RB4 ($6) – James Robinson, Dameon Pierce, or Melvin Gordon
• RB5 ($4) – J.D. McKissic, Brian Robinson, or James Cook
• WR4 ($12) – Darnell Mooney, JuJu Smith-Schuster, or Jerry Jeudy
• WR5 ($4) – Brandon Aiyuk or Russell Gage
• WR6 ($1) – K.J. Osborn or Nico Collins
• TE2 ($1) – David Njoku, Evan Engram, or Brevin Jordan

EARLY IN THE DRAFT

Don’t forget there are often deals immediately when the draft starts. Pay attention to the possibility, and don’t be afraid to act to score a deal on an elite player. If you are in the first five nominations of the draft, you should try to push through a low Tier 1 player or a top Tier 2 level player at any position. Nominating a player like Joe Mixon in the first three to five nominations could net a strong value.

If you don’t find a deal immediately out of the gate, you should be biding your time and not doing much initially. You can’t forfeit the chance to get top talent, so pay attention to how fast the elite players are drying up to figure out when to jump in. But generally, you want to watch the room and see how values will go before getting too involved.

EARLY TO MIDDLE STAGES

You should come out of the early part of the draft with one or two elite or nearly elite players per your blueprint. The early-to-middle stages are for building the bulk of your team through value hunting. The players you are landing here, however, are still players that form the backbone of your fantasy team. In this zone, you are chasing guys like your RB2 and your WR2 through WR4.

Stick to your blueprint to maintain the proper amount of flexibility later in the draft when caps start to get scarce around the room. This stage in the draft should give you a few more players at the right price. This is usually the right time to lay low with your nominations by putting players up that you do not intend to roster. This allows you to float through a couple of rounds while you stalk the deals. Do not try to force it at this stage. Just wait for value for the amount you have allotted in your blueprint, land your guy, and go back to looking for deals. Once again, balance the players left with how aggressive to be. You can’t always afford to wait, but in this critical stage, you can’t overpay. You’ll be set up to fail later in the draft.

MIDDLE TO LATE STAGES

You want to be done trolling for the big pieces you need at this point. You should have landed those by now, and your focus should now be on nominating players you want who finish your roster out how you envisioned.

Remember that it is a mistake to think that teams without much money left are completely irrelevant. In this phase of the draft, you will often see teams overspending because they are desperate, using up their cap completely, or realizing they waited too long to act, and now the top players are gone. This is when you may see some true outlier prices (high and low) because people have their eye on certain players they want, and their caps are getting low. They won’t want to bid if it costs them the player they are waiting on. As long as you have been sticking to your blueprint, you’ll have money to capitalize on those opportunities.

THE FINAL FEW ROUNDS

When the draft is winding down, many teams will either be done or only have $1 per player left to spend. You don’t want to be one of those teams. Saving a bunch of money for the end of the draft isn’t smart but saving a few extra dollars so you can spend $2 instead of $1 for some of these players is a good habit. In this zone, high-value handcuffs and high-upside lottery tickets, are found.

Unless you are overly concerned for the stability of your team, you should stay away from low upside players who might plod along to a WR4 or RB5 finish like Jarvis Landry or Rex Burkhead. This stage of the draft is for finishing your team with upside or handcuffs to take your team over the top should they hit.

ATTACKING QUARTERBACK

In recent years there has been a value pocket below the top tier due to the prevalence of two types of drafters – those who love elite quarterbacks and those who wait as long as possible to pay as little as possible. Last year this produced one of the more valuable quarterbacks in Jalen Hurts. This year Russell Wilson is the perfect player for this category, but if you don’t land him, then Dak Prescott or Trey Lance should fall into the right price range.

Get used to the idea that you won’t have one of the top quarterbacks. But it is possible to land a quarterback like Kyler Murray or Jalen Hurts for a few bucks over what you have allotted, so be on the lookout for that. However, if none are available (Hurts, Murray, Prescott, Lance, or Wilson) for the right price, you should pivot to Matthew Stafford or Aaron Rodgers. If that happens, you can go for a backup quarterback like Derek Carr or Justin Fields to see if you can catch lightning in a bottle.

LANDING YOUR RUNNING BACKS

This blueprint will not allow you to go for one of the top running backs. Your team will be much stronger if you resist that urge. Instead, look at Dalvin Cook, Joe Mixon, or Najee Harris as your RB1. Sometimes you will find a deal on one of those, but don’t be too worried if you don’t. That is how it goes with running backs in salary cap drafts, and you should be prepared to pay market price (and sometimes above) to secure the top runners.

At the second running back spot, you can possibly land Travis Etienne, although that might be hard for $18. Should that not work out, you can pivot to A.J. Dillon first and then look at David Montgomery as a cheaper volume play.

Later on in the draft, you want to try to find a guy who can challenge for 200 touches like Kareem Hunt, Rhamondre Stevenson, or Chase Edmonds as your RB3. From there, you can try to get two more guys with complementary roles and have demonstrable upside should they find a bigger role. Those types of guys are James Robinson, Dameon Pierce, J.D. McKissic, Brian Robinson, or James Cook.

WIDE RECEIVER BLUEPRINT

Salary cap drafters tend to value running back points over wide receiver points. Use this to your advantage by trying to land a top-five wide receiver if possible. Stefon Diggs fits the bill, but if he doesn’t go cheaply enough, you should be able to land Davante Adams. If you don’t get either of those two, simply shave some money off that position and land Deebo Samuel or CeeDee Lamb. The ideal result would be getting one of those four players and then Keenan Allen as your WR2. If that doesn’t work, that’s okay because a player like D.J. Moore or Courtland Sutton still makes a fantastic second pass-catcher.

Don’t try to force the issue at wide receiver in general. There are at least 30 receivers who have the potential to return WR2 numbers, so focus on landing the best ones you can in that price range. Some of those guys can be impact players for your squad but in your WR3 spot. These guys include Terry McLaurin, Marquise Brown, and Jaylen Waddle.

Go after your WR4 and WR5 by waiting on players like Jerry Jeudy, Darnell Mooney, or JuJu Smith-Schuster. The sheer number of wide receivers means if you are patient, you will find deals that fit your blueprint. Your WR6 can be a $1 flyer you don’t care too much about because that is likely to be the player you cut first when it is time to make waiver wire pickups.

TIGHT END THOUGHTS

It is possible to draft a top tight end (Travis Kelce, Mark Andrews, Kyle Pitts) and still have a good team, but it will hurt your bench depth. If you are a skilled manipulator of the waiver wire and your FAAB budget, then this may be a play you want to make

However, this blueprint assumes that the money will be better spent on acquiring values and depth that can get you through a long season. It is unlikely you will roster one of the top three guys and fairly unlikely you’ll have a shot at George Kittle or Darren Waller. Concentrate instead on landing a tight end with touchdown upside like Dawson Knox or Hunter Henry.

Tight end can be volatile, so taking another one or even two more is a profitable play in the long run. Cheap options like Evan Engram or David Njoku can often be had for only a few bucks, so if you have to cut money somewhere you can come off of Knox or Henry and take two guys from the lower tiers to try and piece together starter-level production. A shotgun approach to tight end – casting a wide net – is a strong play in salary cap draft rooms if the roster limits allow.

KICKER PLAN

Don’t pay more than $1 for your kicker. Last year those who paid up for Harrison Butker or Greg Zuerlein learned this lesson. They could have easily found a kicker on the wire like Daniel Carlson or Evan McPherson if you didn’t land a good one in your draft. Nevertheless, plenty of solid options this year can be had for $1.

TEAM DEFENSE APPROACH

Some leagues award more points for defenses. In those leagues, you may want to allocate an extra couple of dollars for the position. Otherwise, spending more than $1 on defense is not a good idea. Drafters generally agree with this thought in most rooms, so getting a top defense may not be as hard as you think. Target San Francisco if possible, as their first two games are Chicago and Seattle. After that, you can hold them for positive matchups. Baltimore and Indianapolis are good consolation prizes if you don’t land the 49ers.

FINAL THOUGHTS

• Pay attention to the tiers above anything else. If you need a player from a tier that is drying up, the best way to attack it is not to wait but to nominate from the tier before it is down to the last one or two guys. Overpaying for the last guy in the tier happens in every draft. Try not to be one of those who got caught waiting.
• Early in the draft, you want to define where your draft will go by nominating some players you want in tiers that are still full of talent. However, if bidding is fast and furious, you must keep your targets in your pocket until people have calmed down and the prices come back to earth. The cardinal rule of drafting is that if prices are way too high, they will come back down. Judging whether or not you can wait is your job, which can only be done by the drafter assessing the room during the draft.
• If you aren’t going to bid on the elite running backs, you can gain an advantage by NOT nominating them early. Attacking other positions or lower-ranked running backs can sometimes get a small discount while people hang back for the top guys on the board. Footballguys staffer Maurile Tremblay said it best: If four managers are waiting on a $60 player, you have tied up $240 of cap space by leaving him on the board. Once he is rostered, that number drops to $60 instead of $240. Let other managers nominate the top guys.
• Early in a draft, if you think there are some lower-ranked players you don’t want to have on your team or who are getting a significant amount of preseason buzz, then don’t hesitate to nominate them way earlier than normal. Often, a player like George Pickens, who would be a $2-$5 player will go for $7-$10 when caps are full and people are having fun throwing money around.
• Similarly, nominate the top kickers and let people pay $2-$4 for them. The same tactic can apply to defenses if you have an overly aggressive room.
• Always keep track of every team’s cap situation as each player is rostered. When you are in a bidding war, or later in the draft, this information tells you how serious your opponent is for a player or if you can stick them because they are bidding you up.
• Use the Draft Dominator to keep track of all your cap situations. Learn to nominate players to target teams with a lot of cap or players that will further your strategy.
• Stick to the blueprint you’ve conceived in the hours and hours of preparation leading up to the draft. This blueprint inspires calm and collected thoughts while you are in the middle of a bidding war during the draft.

Above all, remember that no strategy is foolproof, and there are limitless situations you can see in any salary cap draft. Sometimes your plans won’t work, but if you are prepared, you know where to pivot. The name of the game is flexibility. Use your values as a guide. Use your blueprint as a guide. But never stick so dogmatically to either one that you lose sight of what you are trying to build. This blueprint should yield you a strong team with depth, upside, and the punch to win a title. Happy drafting!