Common Salary Cap League Mistakes

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The Salary Cap Roundtable Series

Joining a salary cap league can be intimidating for even a seasoned fantasy football player. Fortunately, the Footballguys staff has experience in this format and will help you. Over the summer, we'll cover various topics ranging from basic to advanced strategies.

What common mistakes do you see other Salary Cap drafters making that people should avoid?

Christian Williams

The most common mistake I see from other Salary Cap drafters is valuing players exactly on par with consensus. Identifying players that you would bend your budget for prior to draft day is essential. Additionally, in my experience, most Salary Cap drafters come to the draft only considering player values. Positional budget restrictions can be key to constructing a balanced roster. For example, I may be higher on 4 running backs than consensus, so I choose to spend up. But the opportunity cost of doing so may weaken my wide receiver or tight end rooms. Furthering that, jumping the gun on players early in the draft and not practicing patience with your salary cap allocation can be problematic. Toward the end of drafts, it's much easier to find fantastic WR3 options at massive discounts if you have the cap space to acquire them. The final mistake I've seen that people should avoid: paying more than $1 for kickers or D/ST. Every dollar matters!

Chad Parsons

There is a fine line between being aggressive for a target or 'must have' player and throwing an entire team-building plan to the wind and hurting a Salary Cap league's results. A bidding war can lead to harmful results for the winner of said war, especially early in the nominations. The difference later in the draft would be more known variables with acquired players, remaining funds, and having fewer desired pivots available at that time.

Jason Wood

There are three mistakes I see most commonly. One, not adjusting for inflation or deflation dynamically. Two, fixating on specific players instead of tiers. Three, price enforcement to the detriment of your own plans.

Every draft is different, and if you see players going for well over your projected values early, you need to dynamically adjust the remaining player values. That's hard to do without using a software program like our Dominator. But it's critical because you need to decide whether you can also overpay to ensure you get elite players, and then know that the end game is going to be chock full of inexpensive options.

In salary cap drafts you cannot fall in love with specific players. If you think Josh Allen is the No. 1 quarterback and his projected value is $35, you have to be able to walk away if the bidding goes well past that. Too often I'll hear after a draft how someone felt their plans went off the rails when two or three specific players were overpriced early. That should never happen. Draft stats via tiers, not the names on the jerseys.

Ensuring a leaguemate doesn't get an extreme bargain is a smart defense, but you need to be careful. For example, if you've already spent $80 on receivers and that was your allotted budget for the position, and suddenly a receiver is coming off the board at $5 you had valued at $15, going that extra dollar or two may derail your own roster construction. It's a delicate balance. Sometimes you have to let other people get bargains.

Jeff Haseley

Bargain hunting is wise, however, you generally don't want your entire position group to be bargain-hunter wide receivers or running backs. I've seen people get two or three less expensive options only to lose out on a higher-ranked player at the same position because they either didn't bid enough or the pool ran dry on elite players. Another mistake I've seen people make waiting until the last high-end player of a particular position group is on the board, which usually results in a bidding battle you either lose out on or spend more than you anticipated. Don't be the last to get your higher-priced player(s).

Drew Davenport

One of the biggest ones I see is people trying to nominate late-round players early in the draft. The general rule you should follow is this: Diving too far down the player pool early in the draft will inflate the player's price. It might seem intuitive that if you call out Tyler Allgeier immediately in your draft you'll get a deal because everyone is more interested in the top players that haven't been nominated. But it doesn't work like that. When the room is full of money teams are more apt to think they can afford $6 for Allgeier when he should really be a $2 player later when the cap money is scarce.

The other big mistake I see is people not having a plan with their nominations. Too many people have no idea who they are nominating when it gets to them. You should get in the habit of knowing who you will be nominating with your upcoming nominations, and I like to plan these out sometimes two and three rounds in advance. That may not hold up, but it gets you thinking about how you want to steer the draft. Salary cap drafts are so unpredictable and there are a lot of factors that are out of your control. Nominations are one of the few factors you DO control. Don't waste it by looking down at your draft sheet and blindly nominating the top player available every time it is your turn.

Maurile Tremblay

Finishing the draft with money left over is a common one. If you've got more than 3% of your cap left over at the end, you surely left expected fantasy points on the table. Consequently, it's better to err on the side of acquiring players too quickly rather than too slowly.

Jeff Bell

Price enforcing on players you do not love or do not fit your build is the number one mistake. Never bid on a win you would not be happy winning. The draft itself is part of the competition in a different way than a standard snake league, but pushing it to the limit is where mistakes land, and in many formats, there is no ability to pivot into a trade while the draft is ongoing to recoup funds.

You have complete control in this setting so target players you believe in vs simply worrying if someone is getting a value.

Tripp Brebner

In IDP leagues, the top overall player at each position tends to command an enormous premium. Although Aaron Donald has earned his keep in DT-premium leagues more than once, the Myles Garretts and Darius Leonards of the league rarely outscore their peers by the margins bidding results suggest they would.

Andy Hicks

Bidding on players that you do not want. I’ve seen guys trying to push another drafter to max out their credit card and instead end up spending a significant amount more on a player they didn’t want.

Another common mistake is drafters getting two elite running backs at the expense of all other positions. Try to stick with your pre-draft budgeting at each position, allowing a small percentage either way.