Fantasy Focus – The Auto-Draft Blues

Fantasy Football is at its peak this time of year, where the most important and exciting event of the year takes place – THE DRAFT. Since it seems I’m the only fan of fantasy football who works at night (what gives anyway?), I will be missing 2 of my 3 drafts this year. Which means my fate in the fantasy football galaxy will be left to none other than the dreaded pre-set rankings list.

Today I’ll discuss what I did in a recent auto-draft, and what I’m going to do to change my fate for the better as I approach my next auto-draft in the Mile High Report Fantasy League on Tuesday night.

Now, I’ve already drafted one of my teams this way. And I actually ended up pretty ok by all accounts – I’m insanely good at RB and WR, arguably the most important spots… but I’m pretty weak at QB, TE and D/ST. My kicker is good, too… good enough to score 6 field goals against the Broncos in Week 1 last year, anyway.

This league is using the default ESPN rules, and feel free to check it out here. 10 teams, basic starting setup (one of everything except 2 RBs, 2 WRs and a FLEX). Here are the results of my draft:

1. Steven Jackson, STL RB (2nd)

2. Marvin Harrison, IND WR (19th)

3. Travis Henry, DEN RB (22nd)

4. Brandon Jacobs, NYG RB (39th)

5. Jamal Lewis, CLE RB (42nd)

6. Roy Williams, DET WR (59th)

7. Anquan Boldin, ARI WR (62nd)

8. LaMont Jordan, OAK RB (79th)

9. Julius Jones, DAL RB (82nd)

10. Isaac Bruce, STL WR (99th)

11. Vernand Morency, GB RB (102nd)

12. Matt Leinart, ARI QB (119th)

13. D.J. Hackett, SEA WR (122nd)

14. Daniel Graham, DEN TE (139th)

15. Jeff Wilkins, STL K (142nd)

16. Packers D/ST (159th)

A lot of Rams and Broncos on this list… I’m really surprised I got Travis Henry in the third round – even with the knee injury, this league was called “Mile High Salute” and had more than its fair share of Broncos fans. I’ll gladly take him though.

So here’s the roster:

QB: M. Leinart
RB: S. Jackson, T. Henry, B. Jacobs, J. Lewis, J. Jones, L. Jordan, V. Morency
WR: M. Harrison, R. Williams, A. Boldin, I. Bruce, D. Hackett
TE: D. Graham
D/ST: Packers
K: J. Wilkins

Upon looking at this, the first thought that came into my mind was “quarterback.” I think Leinart has upside, but I need a steady backup. Unfortunately there wasn’t one to be found. I looked at waivers and saw two guys I felt were worth taking a gamble on – Rex Grossman from Chicago and Trent Green from Miami. I went to waivers and hoped to get either of them by dropping Morency (I don’t need 7 RBs at the cost of no depth at any other spot).

Next thought was defense… last year I rode the Ravens defense and Larry Johnson to the championship game, and while the Packers defense has a good secondary and sacking defensive machine Aaron Kampman, I need better. Just my tastes. So I made an offer to a guy lacking running back depth (he has 3) – I’d give him LaMont Jordan for his Ravens Defense. It’s the perfect trade for me – moving from depth to acquiring a starter. I hope he doesn’t read this, but I’m prepared to give up Jamal Lewis for the trade to go through – he’s very lacking at RB and I think he could definitely use another body.

Tight end, I’ll just have to live with until something else comes up. Can’t shuffle the entire roster around all at once…

So now I’m faced with a similar situation on the MHR league. I won’t be there for the auto-draft, and while I’m thrilled to be playing in an online, public league, I’m really disappointed I won’t be there. But I’ll live… I’ve shuffled around the pre rankings a bit based on the different rules (.2 PPR, 6 pts QB TD, a lot of different yardage bonuses), and I’ve set my list with a few changes.

Now, I KNOW at least half of my opponents read this blog, so I’m not going to tip my hand. But using my trusted source, I’ve shuffled around my list. The trick with auto-drafting is to move your sleepers up a bit, so you hope you hit them before others jump on it. Since most of my sleepers are Broncos (ahem Jay Cutler and Brandon Marshall), and this is a Broncos fansite league, I don’t expect to be getting them.

Now, there are really no guarantees in doing this – part of the reason you get a plethora of RBs and WRs is because they’re most common in the upper rounds, and they’ll get skipped as my opponents draft to fill the roster instead of going BPA. This is why I can nab an Anquan Boldin in the 7th round – tremendous value. But there isn’t a quarterback left in sight – Boldin got skipped as all my opponents found their ball slingers.

So if I’m really set on a quarterback, I’ll move him up 10 or so places. It’ll be a reach if I get him, but at least I won’t be stuck with such little depth. I’ve done this with the guy I think I can get (a bit of an underrated guy, but still one of the best in the league) – again, I don’t want to show my hand so my draftmates take advantage.

As I come to the end of this little rant/article, I realize the sad truth – there really isn’t a true strategy that works for auto-drafting. It’s a lot of luck (which I happened to have last time, in my opinion – I think I have one of the best teams in the league), a tiny bit of preparation, and a lot more luck. And a very busy post-draft trading/waiver process.

If you happen to fall into that unenviable position of mine, feel free to piss and moan along with me. Not only are you automatically behind all of your competition, the funnest part of the entire fantasy year is taken away from you.

Rant over… time to find this year’s Maurice Jones-Drew…