Footballguys Staff Mock Draft 9, Auction, 12 team FPC scoring

Photo: USA Today Sports

LEAGUE PARAMETERS

• 12 teams
• 20 roster spots
• Starting Lineup
• 1 quarterback
• 2 running backs
• 2 wide receivers
• 1 tight end
• 2 flex (either a running back, wide receiver, or tight end)
• 1 team defense
• 1 Kicker

LEAGUE SCORING

• Offensive Players
• 4 points - passing touchdown
• 6 points - rushing/receiving touchdown
• 0.04 points - passing yard
• 0.1 points - rushing/receiving yard
• 1 point - reception
• Team Defense
• 6 points - touchdown
• 2 points - turnover recovered
• 2 points - safety
• 1 point - sack
• 10 points - Offensive points against: 0-0
• 7 points - Offensive points against: 1-6
• 3 points - Offensive points against: 7-14
• 0 point - Offensive points against: 15-20
• 0 points - Offensive points against: 21-99
• 6 points each - Number of Defensive and Special Teams Touchdowns

Starting with Team 1, we'll go over each team's winning bids

Andy Hicks - Team 1

Overall Strategy: The opposite of Zero RB

Best Pick(s):

DeMarco Murray ($24) - For all the money Andy spent on running backs, DeMarco Murray was by far the best value. Among the top 5 running backs for some staffers this season, Murray was the 10th-most expensive back in this auction. Jamaal *squints* Williams went for $23? More on that later.

Murray is absolutely a top-flight PPR option at running back, and Andy got him at a discount here. It’s possible he was trying to enforce pricing and got stuck with Murray as his third running back, but Murray will be an every-week starter at the position.

Worst Pick(s):

Adrian Peterson ($10) - The backfield in New Orleans is looking increasingly like Mark Ingram’s to own, and Peterson offers no pass-catching upside. It wasn’t the worst value in a vacuum, but Andy already had three solid backs to go with future pick Eddie Lacy ($16). Peterson is just a luxury here, especially considering what happened at wide receiver.

Evaluation:

Andy drafted the most well-rounded running back corps in this mock draft, but it came at the expense of other positions. Derek Carr and Matthew Stafford aren’t a bad platoon at quarterback, but just a few extra dollars could have landed Andy a much better QB1. Amari Cooper and Jarvis Landry are solid starters at receiver, but the rest of the corps is a mish-mash of boom-or-bust players more likely to bust.

post-draft questions

1. What was your strategy going into the auction and how did it turn out?
It is easy to get carried away and overbid on players you have fallen in love. My main strategy was not to expect to get any one player. In an auction you have a chance to draft ANY player, unlike other formats where you are a prisoner to your draft slot. If you draft at eg the 11 or 12 slot in a normal league you are never going to land a player like Julio Jones. In an auction you can get him. Same with David Johnson. 
Another strategy was to have money left at the end to snap up value. In previous auctions I have been caught out on many value players by not having cash left. 

For a 20 man roster I would expect
2- 3 QBs - 5% of budget
5-6 RBs - 40% of budget
6-8 WRs - 40% of budget
2-4 TEs - 14% of budget
2 K/D - 1% of budget

As was mentioned the value, outside the stud backs was good and I ended up starting heavy at the position. I already had Joe Mixon, Devonta Freeman and DeMarco Murray before any of the other positions. Adrian Peterson and Eddie Lacy landed with incredible value that was too good to pass up, so 52% of my budget ended up at the position. As a result my wide receivers are weaker that I would have liked (29% of budget). In hindsight I would have thrown my first real pick in Joe Mixon back to the pool and landed a receiver such as Sammy Watkins, Davante Adams, Emmanuel Sanders or Brandon Marshall. As we have 2 flex positions and only 2 starting receivers it is not a bad situation to be overloaded at running back. 
The strategy of saving money paid off as my depth picks were better than the $1 players I usually end up with. I had to bite my lip and pass up players like Andy Dalton, Thomas Rawls and Jordan Matthews for $3 though. 
Surprisingly my budget at Tight End almost ended up to be a match, but as Chad already mentioned the dollar values were above my expectations. I am not happy with this group and would have liked Coby Fleener, Julius Thomas or Cameron Brate at the $6 area instead. I got into a bidding war with Aaron over Zach Ertz, my last elite Tight End left and paid $4 more than I wished to.

2. What would you have done differently if you had the chance? This can be a strategy change, a bid you wish you made or didn't make, etc. 
As mentioned the Joe Mixon pick is one I would have liked back. I would like my roster more if I had Thomas Rawls, Brandon Marshall and Hunter Henry instead of Mixon, Breshad Perriman and Gerald Everett. Taking Mixon out would drop my RB spend percentage to 45% and upped my WR spending to about 35%. Closer to what I planned. I still like Mixon as a prospect, but only 15 backs had more money spent on them. The value in this draft clearly was at the running back position.

3. Which player's winning bid was the best value? One from your roster and one from someone else's. 
My favorite value pick was Adrian Peterson at $10. 32 running backs went for more and I expect the Saints to use him often and well. Sean Payton clearly doesn't think Mark Ingram can carry the load and if a fit Peterson is around, Ingram will be lucky to see 100 carries. 
There was plenty of value to be found in this draft, but of particular note was Robert Kelley by Jeff Haseley for $6. Kelley has clearly been given the starting role and Samaje Perine is going to have to outplay him to get a sniff. The incumbent tends to get the role under Jay Gruden. Another value pick was Brandon Marshall for $11 by Stephen Holloway. Stephen was in a position where he had the financial resources to get any player he wanted and Marshall landed at the stage of the draft where money was tight. Marshall usually does well in his first year on a new team, he's had plenty of practice at it. The last player I would like to mention is Jordan Reed who Maurile snared for only $21. Considering Gronkowski and Kelce went for $31 and $30 respectively, Reed is in the same tier.  Preseason injury news put people off bidding more, but he is an elite Tight End who was snared for mid tier Tight End value. 

Aaron Rudnicki - Team 2

Overall Strategy: Spread the wealth

Best Pick(s):

Carlos Hyde ($15) and Mark Ingram ($17) - The heavy discount continues on Carlos Hyde, who has done nothing but cement himself as the starter and possible bell cow in San Francisco thus far in training camp. All the rumors about Joe Williams starting and Hyde being cut or traded have been rendered fake news. Aaron drafted himself a potential fantasy RB1 for $15.

Similar sentiments follow Mark Ingram, who could be going for twice his price but continues to be dogged by the Adrian Peterson signing. Ingram should be a great PPR back with RB1 upside.

Worst Pick(s):

Jason Witten ($11) and Andrew Luck ($10) - It seems like every offseason I write off Jason Witten, and every year he proves he is a cyborg that has no concept of age. He turns 35 this season, though, and Father Time is relentless. Even in this format where tight ends get scoring boosts, it’s tough to see the value in Witten at $11. Aaron needed a starter, so he ponied up. But Gates had just gone for $2, and there were some much better options like Martellus Bennett and Coby Fleener that went for less than $10.

Speaking of $10, if this was a traditional auction draft, Luck for that price would be a huge steal. Given the pricing at quarterback in general, though, there were much better values to be had. We don’t know whether Luck will even start the season after his shoulder surgery, and it could take some time for him to return to form. Luck was the third quarterback off the board behind Aaron Rodgers and Deshaun Watson, so it was tough for Aaron to tell that he could’ve had Drew Brees or Tom Brady for $12.

Evaluation:

Along with Ezekiel Elliott, Hyde and Ingram give Aaron the best trio in this mock draft. Those three should be every-week starters -- one of them being in a flex spot -- on a team otherwise low on upside. Aaron didn’t skimp out at receiver, but the money he did spend was on a risky set. It’s possible he got himself a quartet of fantasy WR2s in Eric Decker, DeVante Parker, Alshon Jeffery, and Golden Tate, but will they give him enough consistency?

post-draft questions

1. What was your strategy going into the auction and how did it turn out?
My auction strategy is always to try and avoid overspending early. This allows me to have enough money available to take advantage of values that present themselves and to be able to spend for the players that I need in the middle/late portions of the auction draft. I think I had mixed success following this strategy as I probably overspent on a couple players that I didn’t really anticipate winning. I bid $50 on Ezekiel Elliott after David Johnson went for $59, but my thought was that he was part of the same tier and unlikely to miss time to suspension this year. I also bid $15 on Carlos Hyde fully expecting to be outbid only to wind up winning him. Similarly, I spent $16 on my top-2 QBs (Luck, Rivers) early on before really waiting to see what the price was going to be for this position. Despite these mistakes, I still had enough auction dollars left to put together a strong roster and was quite active in the middle portion after many teams had left themselves short on funds. That allowed me to put together a roster with good depth even if I’m missing some of the players I would have preferred.

2. What would you have done differently if you had the chance? This can be a strategy change, a bid you wish you made or didn't make, etc. 
As mentioned above, I would have certainly bid less on Elliott, Hyde, and my QBs early on. I was a bit too aggressive early while trying to bid up players I didn’t care that much about. That made me more cautious later on so when I was involved in a bidding war on players that I really wanted, I hesitated to overpay for them and likely let some go for prices that were too low. It’s hard not to get involved early in an auction draft when the elite players are often put up for bid, as if you wait too long you risk missing out on all of them. I’d recommend just looking for values early on before some of the prices have been sent, but if you see prices getting out of control then sit back and take advantage of the mistakes people are making later.

3. Which player's winning bid was the best value? One from your roster and one from someone else's. 
Eric Ebron stands out as an incredible value at $6. I actually tried to increase the bid, but just missed by a fraction of a second and wound up having to spend the same price on C.J. Fiedorowicz as well as $11 on Jason Witten, both of whom I have rated lower. I can only assume owners weren’t paying close attention at the time and he was one of the few that slipped through at a price well below market value. In terms of value on my roster, I felt very happy with most of the WRs I landed. Eric Decker ($10), Golden Tate ($15), and DeVante Parker ($11) all seem fully capable of WR2 or WR3 type numbers but the price for all 3 combined was less than the price for the top-6 WRs taken individually.

B.J. Vanderwoude - Team 3

Overall Strategy: Zero TE?

Best Pick(s):

Tyrod Taylor ($1), Ty Montgomery ($17) and DeSean Jackson ($8) - Even with the quarterback market being so depressed, Tyrod Taylor was a huge value at $1. Not that BJ will need him with Aaron Rodgers occupying the starting spot for most of the season, but it was a bit shocking to see Taylor go for so little.

Ty Montgomery may not get 20 touches a game, but he is going to be a force out of the Green Bay backfield. He has top-10 potential at running back in PPR formats, and he was barely drafted as an RB2 here based on his price.

Finally, DeSean Jackson is one of my favorite values in fantasy football this year, and that continued to be the case in this mock draft. True, he may boom or bust every given week, but $8 for an explosive No. 2 receiver on a potentially explosive offense is just fantastic.

Worst Pick(s):

The tight ends - Where have the tight ends gone? It’s an oddity when O.J. Howard is your starting tight end, but it’s a downright travesty when he is your starter in the FPC format. As good as he is, we aren’t sure Howard won’t cede more targets to Cameron Brate this season. The position is a lost cause for BJ, who is going to struggle scoring points there all year.

Evaluation:

Outside tight end, BJ drafted an outstanding team. It’s possible he can cover up the lack of production at tight end, but it will be an uphill battle.

post-draft questions

What was your strategy going into the auction and how did it turn out?
My strategy is similar for all for auction drafts. I typically attack the top tier at the running back and wide receiver positions and avoid overspending on the 3rd and 4th tiers where a lack of upside prevents those players from being in the conversation as the top overall player at their respective positions. Unfortunately, this draft was loaded with sharp players who have similar viewpoints, so I was forced to try and load up on high upside players at a discount, early in the auction process. The results were mixed, as I did not spend more than 12.5% of my cap on any individual player.  This allowed me to have a team with considerable depth, but in the end I was unable to snag the type of player who could carry my team for an entire season. 

2. What would you have done differently if you had the chance? This can be a strategy change, a bid you wish you made or didn't make, etc. 
If I had to do it over again, I would have preferred to combine the salaries of Ty Montgomery ($17) and Dalvin Cook ($19), and instead made a run at LeSean McCoy ($33), Devonta Freeman ($35) or Melvin Gordon ($31).  I am fairly certain that one of Montgomery, Cook or Paul Perkins can slide in opposite Todd Gurley and fill out my starting running back positions, but having two running backs that are not subject to a RBBC approach each week would have made my team stronger and a lot more consistent from week to week. 

3. Which player's winning bid was the best value? One from your roster and one from someone else's. 
Considering how easy it is to overpay for running backs early in the auction process, I thought Chad Parsons did a very good job of securing Jay Ajayi ($28), Leonard Fournette ($20), Theo Riddick ($8) and Danny Woodhead ($15) for roughly 35% of his total salary cap. He also added TJ Yeldon ($1) as insurance, and Derek Henry ($10) as a high upside luxury play at a time when nearly every other team in the league would have loved to make the same pick. My best value play was one of aggregate, averaging ($15) per wide receiver on Martavis Bryant, Larry Fitzgerald, DeSean Jackson, Donte Moncrief, Allen Robinson and Emmanuel Sanders. That group is without a doubt the strength of my team, and by not overpaying for any of them individually, it allowed me to be more aggressive on the quarterback position by snagging Aaron Rodgers for ($17).  You can typically find the best value at quarterback, but I was in need of a stud to anchor my team each week. Securing Rodgers allowed me to do just that. 

Danny Tuccitto - Team 4

Overall Strategy: Zero RB

Best Pick(s):

Odell Beckham ($45) and Rob Gronkowski ($31) - They may be expensive -- thus defying the notion of “good value” -- but Danny got possibly the top wide receiver and tight end in fantasy scoring while spending just $76. Gronkowski was a particularly good value in this format, where tight ends get 1.5 points per reception. Tight ends were more valuable in general, and Danny got Gronk at straight PPR prices.

Worst Pick(s):

Erik Swoope ($2) - I had to pick someone here. Swoope is Danny’s only other tight end, and he is far more hype than substance. He is the second tight, unproven tight end in Indianapolis, where we don’t even know if Andrew Luck is going to be healthy enough to start the season. If Gronk goes down for a few games, Danny is going to have a ton of trouble replacing his production.

Evaluation:

Danny has the strongest set of receivers coming out of this draft. Beckham and A.J. Green is a fantastic pair of fantasy WR1s, and Keenan Allen and Doug Baldwin should occupy the flex spots most weeks. Combined with Gronk at tight end and a solid pair of quarterbacks, Danny has one of the strongest teams out there. Running back could foil his plans for league domination, though, with Spencer Ware and a bunch of cheap upside plays are going to make it rough for Danny on a weekly basis.

post-draft questions

1. What was your strategy going into the auction and how did it turn out?
In a traditional, snake draft, the vast majority of your favorite players are literally impossible to acquire. In contrast, until you've spent something like 66 percent of your budget and haven't filled your roster, it's possible to acquire any of your favorite players when they're up for bid in an auction. This fundamental difference means an auction draft lends itself more to an "I'm going to get my guys no matter what" strategy.

The slight problem with this logic, however, is that many of "my guys" are also "other people's guys," so I'm going to end up overpaying too often via the price inflation inherent in auction bidding wars. Therefore, my goal is to limit the number of "my guys" to no more than five, and then round out the rest of my roster by focusing on acquiring "not my guys, but guys I do like" for a cost that's less than what they're worth.

To determine what they're worth, I used last year's version of this mock to determine what an RB1 costs, what a WR6 costs, what a TE11 costs, and so on. I then mapped my True Fantasy Points-based rankings onto these costs. Finally, I mapped ADP -- both position-specific and overall -- onto these costs to have a measure of market value.

As an example of my strategy, consider Odell Beckham, Jr., who is perennially "my guy." He was WR2 according to both my rankings and ADP, which maps onto a cost of $44. I ended up getting him for $45. Similarly, A.J. Green was a "my guy" this year, worth $38 via being WR5 in my rankings, and had an ADP cost of $39. I ended up getting him for $38.

In the context of limiting overpayment for "my guys," I did about as good as I could have hoped acquiring Beckham, Jr., and Green. I thought they were worth $82, the market thought they were worth $83, and I got them for $83. (Might as well add in another "my guy" here in Rob Gronkowski: I had him as worth $35 and his ADP cost was $35, but I was able to get him for $31.)

I also think I did well on the "not my guys, but guys I do like" side of my strategy. Long story short, I got Doug Baldwin, Jameis Winston, Keenan Allen, Dak Prescott, and Spencer Ware a total of $18 less than my rankings said they're worth, as well as a total of $14 less than their ADP cost.

In total, I ended up spending $198 on 18 players that my rankings valued at $211 and ADP valued at $214. This has to be deemed a success. There are things about my draft that I didn't like/failed miserably at, but implementation of my overall spending strategy was nowhere near one of them.

2. What would you have done differently if you had the chance? This can be a strategy change, a bid you wish you made or didn't make, etc. 
A few things here. First, I wouldn't have nominated Will Fuller for bidding (and therefore getting him for $1 when no one actually made a bid).  I was looking at my spreadsheet and didn't realize it was my turn until there were five seconds left on the shot clock, so I just quickly nominated whoever was near the top of MFL's wide receiver ADP at that point. Fuller caught me eye, so I clicked on him, totally forgetting he was hurt. It was near the end of the draft, where every dollar remaining matters, so having that extra dollar would have allowed me to get J.J. Nelson, who I was specifically targeting, a little later. Oops.

Second, I would have made sure to outbid David for Tom Brady rather than dropping out after bidding $11. I had Gronkowski, no quarterback, and plenty of budget left. Meanwhile, David had built a super-team that was only missing a quarterback, but he had already spent around 75 percent of his budget. I had Brady listed as a $15 value with an ADP cost of $17, so I really should have kept going, if for no other reason than making one last-gasp effort on behalf of the league to forestall David's impending dominance.

Third, I should have paid the extra $1-3 to win Dalvin Cook. He's one of my favorite running backs this year. I had him listed as a $19 value with an ADP cost of $17. He went for $19 after I dropped out at $18. As I don't mind overpaying for the one or two players I really like, in hindsight I should have gone to $20 or even $22. It was still relatively early in the draft, so that extra cost wouldn't have hamstrung me at all.

3. Which player's winning bid was the best value? One from your roster and one from someone else's. 
I'm just going by my spreadsheet here, wherein I converted my True Fantasy Points-based rankings and ADP into dollar values based on this draft's history. Compare these values to what players actually went for, and I've got a quick and easy metric for which winning bids represented the best value.

As such, David winning Demaryius Thomas for $23 was the best overall value as I had him at $34 in "true" value. What's more David was able to get Thomas at $4 under his ADP cost. Honorable mention goes to Aaron for winning Golden Tate for $15, which was $9 below what I had as his $24 "true" value and $6 below his ADP cost.

In terms of my own team, Doug Baldwin was my best value, whether according to my own rankings or ADP: I had him at $30 and ADP had him at $30, but I got him for $25.

David Dodds - Team 5

Overall Strategy: Draft the best team

Best Pick(s):

Martellus Bennett ($8) and Giovani Bernard ($9) - As if having Greg Olsen wasn’t enough, Dodds went out and got another top-10 tight end for less than half the cost. Martellus Bennett has huge upside with Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay, assuming he can get more volume than Packers tight ends have gotten in recent years.

Giovani Bernard’s price is only going to go up as the preseason wears on, but he was still a bargain at $9 here. Bernard is impressing in training camp, and he has a bead on third-down duties at the very least. He should be a PPR asset in 2017.

Worst Pick(s):

Anquan Boldin ($2) - I get wanting to get ahead of a potential Anquan Boldin signing, but do we really think he’s going to amount to much of anything from a fantasy perspective if he does wind up signing anywhere?

Evaluation:

Dodds has the best team in the clubhouse, hands down. He landed a surefire top-5 quarterback and tight end to go with a solid set of running backs and receivers. Lamar Miller and Marshawn Lynch are a great starting duo, and he has a fantastic foursome of Brandin Cooks, Tyreek Hill, Michael Crabtree, and Demaryius Thomas at receiver. This is how an auction draft is done.

post-draft questions

1. What was your strategy going into the auction and how did it turn out?
In an FFPC style format, I like to gauge how people are pricing the top of the position charts and then react from there.   By using the Draft Dominator and adjusting the sliders to react to the market, I felt I zeroed in on pricing quickly and just looked for bargains.  I wanted to spend approximately 90% of my cap for my top QB, top 3 RBs, top 4 WRs, and top 3 TEs.  It went according to plan and I actually did spend $180 of my $200 cap as outlined.    

2. What would you have done differently if you had the chance? This can be a strategy change, a bid you wish you made or didn't make, etc. 
While drafting, I had no regrets.  WR Quincy Enunwa going down a few days later and I wished I went a different direction there.

3. Which player's winning bid was the best value? One from your roster and one from someone else's. 
I love my pick of TE Gary Barnidge (FA) for a dollar.  FFPC is a TE premium league.  If he does sign with a team and become their starter, he likely would be worth $10+. A lot of decent WRs were available for the minimum at the end of the auction.  Robby Anderson, Tyler Lockett,  Allen Hurns, John Ross all should have gone for more.

Jeff Haseley - Team 6

Overall Strategy: Spread the wealth

Best Pick(s):

Terrelle Pryor ($15), Kenny Britt ($3), and James White ($5) - With all the hype building around Terrelle Pryor, it’s amazing he went for just $15. That’s the beauty of an auction draft -- if a player is nominated at the right time, he could be a huge discount based on how much money other owners have left. Pryor was the 83rd-nominated player and 30th-nominated receiver in the draft, by which time teams had spent an average of $128. He is a No. 1 receiver on the rise, and Haseley got a steal.

His replacement in Cleveland may not be gaining nearly as much fantasy steam, but he is also his team’s No. 1 receiver. If his quarterback situation is any better in 2017 -- a low bar to clear -- he could put up solid WR2 numbers in the fantasy realm. At $3, that’s great value.

The Patriots backfield is an unpredictable mess -- the good kind, anyway -- but James White is my favorite to emerge as the leading scorer. White is far cheaper than Mike Gillislee at any rate, and he’s liable to catch 65 passes this year.

Worst Pick(s):

Jamison Crowder ($18) - The value Jeff got with Pryor highlights the overpayment on Jamison Crowder. He’s not a bad PPR option by any means, but grabbing him for $3 more than his own No. 1 receiver was unfortunate. On top of that, Jeff now has two wideouts from the same team, and Washington isn’t exactly Green Bay or New England in terms of prolific offenses.

Evaluation:

Once again, Jeff gave us all a beautiful look at what can be accomplished in an auction if you spread your money around. He could have spent a few more dollars on his QB1 -- Cousins isn’t bad at $7, but Russell Wilson or Marcus Mariota could have been had for $10 -- but Haseley has a high-floor team with great depth. The ceiling isn’t as high as some of the risk-taking squads, but this is a playoff team out of the gate.

post-draft questions

1. What was your strategy going into the auction and how did it turn out?
Generally in auctions, I like to spend the majority of my cap on wide receivers and running backs while spending low on quarterback and tight end. In this FPC format, where tight ends have 1.5 PPR I knew I couldn't shop at the discount rack for a tight end, but I didn't want to spend too much that it will hurt my strategy of getting good, quality backs and receivers. I wound up with Hunter Henry and Julius Thomas at tight end, which isn't horrible, but it's probably not the ticket to winning the league. If I am to win it all, it will likely have to come from another position. I have a few candidates who could breakout like Christian McCaffrey, Terrelle Pryor, Sammy Watson and James White. Plus if DeAndre Hopkins returns to form it won't hurt my chances either. 

Spend totals
Quarterback: $10/$200 = 5%
Running Back: $80/$200 = 40%
Wide Receiver: $89/$200 = 44.5%
Tight End: $19/$200 = 9.5%
Defense & Kicker $2/$200 = 1%

I stuck to my strategy going in and had a close balance of spend between running back and wide receiver. I had control of the board at the end of auction, which is not a bad thing. It enabled me to handpick five players that others could not match my bid. These included James White, Jordan Matthews, Cole Beasley, Julius Thomas and Kenny Britt. I have a balanced team with plenty of firepower to compete, but if Hunter Henry doesn't continue to breakout, I could be in trouble going up against strong tight end teams. I have a four players on Washington, which could be good for my chances, afterall Kirk Cousins quietly had 4,900 yards passing last year and the team had the most field goal attempts in the league with 42. Now that Terrelle Pryor is on the roster, Cousins will have another red zone option that could propel him into that 30-touchdown pass range, as opposed to 24-26. I have four Washington players - Cousins, Robert Kelley, Jamison Crowder and Pryor. It's not a bad strategy to stack players on the same offenses, especially if that offense is among the league's best. Washington has the talent to be strong on offense and I have some of the top players. I'm okay with that decision. 

2. What would you have done differently if you had the chance? This can be a strategy change, a bid you wish you made or didn't make, etc. 
As I indicated prior, I stuck to my strategy and was pleased with it, however I feel I could've improved on my tight end stock. Jack Doyle was a player I was targeting, but in auctions if the choices dwindle, that means others also see the same player as a fallback or final push to acquire. That's exactly what happened with Doyle, who went for $16 rather late in the auction. I had the money to take him, but doing so would've limited my options on the aforementioned backs and receivers that I tallied at the end. Julius Thomas is not a horrible TE2, especially if Cutler comes into the fold, but Doyle would've been my preferred pick.  

3. Which player's winning bid was the best value? One from your roster and one from someone else's. 
I like several values on my team, like Kenny Britt for $3, C.J. Anderson for $13, Robert Kelley for $6, Latavius Murray for $2, but my best value may be Terrelle Pryor for $15. Kirk Cousins struggled to get the ball in the end zone last year as evidenced by Dustin Hopkins league-leading 42 field goal attempts. Pierre Garcon and DeSean Jackson have moved on to new teams, but Pryor comes in as a new offensive weapon, especially in the red zone. Cousins threw for over 4,900 yards last year which is good news for Pryor. To get him at $15 while other wide receivers went much higher was a huge win in my book. 

Other roster: Martellus Bennett for $8 is a steal by Dodds especially when you look at the prices spent on other tight ends. $11 for Jason Witten, $13 for Hunter Henry, $15 for Delanie Walker, $17 for Tyler Eifert, $18 for Kyle Rudolph, etc. David took advantage of the auction crew looking at another player at the position and therefore let Bennett slip by for just $8. Whenever you can find and take advantage of those instances, those periods of uncertainty from the majority of the owners, you're winning. David did that at least twice if not three times in this auction and came away with great value each time. 

Justin Howe - Team 7

Overall Strategy: Spend at receiver and tight end

Best Pick(s):

Russell Wilson ($9) - Quarterbacks were cheap in the draft, but Russell Wilson may have been the best value. He is a top-5 option who went for less than $10. What more could you want?

Worst Pick(s):

Jack Doyle ($16) - Doyle has become a polarizing player in the fantasy realm. I’m not down on him, per se, but at $16? He was the eighth-most expensive tight end in the draft, and Justin had already spent $30 on Travis Kelce. Yes, the format rewards good tight ends, but there were plenty better options that went for less money. Maybe he was the last of the good tight ends on Howe’s board given he was the 20th to be nominated.

Evaluation:

The Mike Brothers -- Thomas and Evans -- is arguably the best starting duo to come out of this draft. Beyond that, though, Justin’s receivers leave a bit to be desired, even though he spent $26 on Jeremy Maclin and Willie Snead. It won’t matter if Thomas and Evans perform up to expectations. Justin will have Doyle and one of his eight running backs in the flex spots, anyway.

post-draft questions

1. What was your strategy going into the auction and how did it turn out?
I wanted to tackle this auction in a zero-RB fashion, with most of my heavy money devoted to WR and TE. I knew I'd have a massive, upside-laden pool of mid-tier RBs from which to cobble together a corps down the road. And since the top WR tier is clustered mightily, I'd be able to sit tight (somewhat) and sniff out the value plays. It worked out nicely at the top, with Mike Evans and Michael Thomas coming a hair cheaper than I'd expected. In my eyes, I pulled a top-five and a top-eight wideout for less than they're worth, which is a massive boon off the bat in a PPR league.

The second part of my strategy was to land Travis Kelce at any (reasonable, say under $30) cost. He's the premier volume option at TE and carries the best chance to challenge 85-90 receptions; in a TE-premium system like this one, that's low-end WR1 territory. Paying $30 for him was a bit of a stretch, but he came to me for Dez Bryant/Amari Cooper money, which is what I'd generally hoped for. It cements me - strong ceiling, outstanding floor - at a potentially league-stomping position.

2. What would you have done differently if you had the chance? This can be a strategy change, a bid you wish you made or didn't make, etc.
I really jumped the gun by getting into it (somewhat) over Sterling Shepard. I'd wanted to secure a low-dollar wideout and, frankly, misjudged the remaining value. That $3 is a bargain for Shepard, but its timing blocked me from spending more than a $1 on one of the 15-20 better deals I saw fly off the board afterward. It was definitely a snafu.

I definitely wanted a second stud TE to start at flex and pair with Kelce, so I knew I'd be spending up at TE2. But I was ultimately bummed to have spent $16 on Jack Doyle. It's not that I think he's not worth it - he did come at a small discount from the tier directly above him - but I definitely shed value with that bid. Doyle's tier is a huge one, encompassing 5-7 similar TEs, and some of his peers came much cheaper. Martellus Bennett was a much better deal at $8, and Eric Ebron and Cameron Brate at $6 apiece would've brought more value. I'll need Doyle to banish Erik Swoope to nothingness and produce strong season-long volume to reap much on this one.

3. Which player's winning bid was the best value? One from your roster and one from someone else's.

I'm still patting my own back for building the zero-RB stable I did. The idea is to pursue heavy quantity and rely upon cheap backs with relative volume upside, and I like what I put together. I threw eight darts at the wall and landed several guys with much better volume outlooks than their costs suggest. The fact that I landed Kareem Hunt, Jacquizz Rodgers, and Darren Sproles for a total of $9 makes me feel that my approach panned out.

I have to hand it to Jeff Haseley for bringing home Kenny Britt for a criminal $3. Yeesh. Britt absolutely projects into the top 32 or so among WRs; how could he not? As the only thing close to certainty in Cleveland's passing game, he looks like a lock to threaten 130 targets and fantasy WR2/3 status. Yet Jeff landed him for less than Kevin White, Rob Kelley, or Gerald Everett went for. Try pulling that off in a draft.

Mark Wimer - Team 8