If you read my article on Wednesday about 2-QB fantasy football auction draft strategies, hopefully you remembered me mentioning a live 2-QB auction mock draft that fellow Sports Jerk Rich Hribar and myself were putting together.
We wanted to test out his 2-QB quarterback auction values and see how a live 2-QB auction mock draft would turn out. The 2-QB auction mock wrapped up Thursday night, after a nearly three hour long process, and I’m here today to go over some of the results.
Settings for the mock were as follows:
- 12 teams
- 14-player rosters
- Starting roster: 2-QB/2-RB/3-WR/1-TE/2-Flex (RB/WR/TE)/1-D/ST
- Three bench spots
- Passing touchdowns were worth 6 points
- Receptions were worth 0.5 points
- The total budget for each roster was $200
If you’re interested to see how each team fared in the draft, you can check out the completed rosters here, and if you want to see how each team’s winning bids turned out you can do so here. I’ll be going over the quarterback position in detail later.
With this being my first ever 2-QB auction mock, and only my second auction mock draft of any kind, I went into the auction draft with an open mind and decided to just go with the flow of the mock.
That was my first mistake.
What I should have done, and which was something I had planned on doing, was to sit back, observe everybody else, and save my money until later in the draft where I would be able to make some value picks once the big spending spree was over.
The reason I wanted to do that was because I had theorized when you have to account for two starting quarterbacks, players would get bid up to a point that would be out of my price range, or that I didn’t deem valuable.
Then the auction mock began, and there I was, watching the action unfold, and out of the first four wining bids, another fellow Sports Jerk, Bryan Knowles, won three of them. Bryan’s haul included Aaron Rodgers ($49), Doug Martin ($49), and Calvin Johnson ($54). Those three happened to be the highest bids at their respective positions, minus Martin, who was second only to Adrian Peterson‘s $50 winning bid.
Those three bids wound up costing Bryan 76% of his total $200 budget. Having only $68 remaining to spend on 11 players was going to make things for Bryan a little difficult the rest of the way.
The tone of the early part of the auction was set. Spend fast, and spend furiously.
As the draft kept going, the bids were going Vin Diesel and Paul Walker on us, and I just wasn’t sure what to make of it all. I’m inexperienced when it comes to the world of auction leagues, 1-QB or 2-QB, and failed to comprehend just how different everybody’s values were on certain players.
Instead of standing my ground, and watching as drafters deliriously overbid, I wound up jumping in on the action and nabbed my first two players: David Wilson ($29) and Jimmy Graham ($35). I like Wilson a lot this year, but looking over the final results, there’s no way he should have been won for more money than, say, Marshawn Lynch ($28), or Darren Sproles ($24), for example.
I got caught up in the frenzy, and didn’t want to miss out on a running back, and got into a bidding war on Wilson.
That was my second mistake.
Graham is another story, and the way you feel about Graham and the tight end position this year will determine what your true value of him is. At $35, Graham wound up coming in at $14 dollars more than what Rob Gronkowski ($19) went for. The late round tight end values were abundant as you had Jordan Cameron go for $2, and Owen Daniels, Robert Housler and Kyle Rudolph each going for $1.
With my first two winning bids, I felt I overpaid and decided it was time to save my money for later on in the draft.
The main purpose of Thursday’s live 2-QB auction mock was to use it as a learning experience. I wanted to see how others would attack a 2-QB auction mock, and what I could improve upon in my next 2-QB auction mock attempt.
What I learned about my auction strategy is that it’s timid, and my patience needs work. Instead of waiting for values at certain positions, I dug in, and basically threw money away. Take a look at my overall roster below—there were many mistakes and overpays …
QB1: Robert Griffin III – $38
QB2: E.J. Manuel – $1
RB1: David Wilson – $29
RB2: Chris Ivory – $25
WR1: Steve Smith – $11
WR2: Mike Williams – $9
WR3: Brian Quick – $1
TE1: Jimmy Graham – $35
Flex1: Ahmad Bradshaw – $11
Flex2: Dennis Pitta – $13
D/ST1: St. Louis Rams – $2
Bench: Latavius Murray ($6), BenJarvus Green-Ellis ($3), Kevin Kolb ($3)
BenJarvus Green-Ellis ($3) and Latavius Murray ($6) are a couple of players I wish I could just throw back into the pool. Those $9 combined dollars could have been better spent elsewhere. And looking at my running back depth overall, I should have tried harder to land Matt Forte ($31), instead of the Ivory/Murray/BJGE trio. Pairing Forte with Wilson would have made me feel much more confident about my running back situation.
If you’re counting at home, that was the third mistake.
The next mistake I made was leaving money on the table; $14 to be exact.
That leftover money could have been used to grab a better wide receiver, and there were a lot of good values at that position. Cecil Shorts ($11), Pierre Garcon ($11), Michael Floyd ($4), DeAndre Hopkins ($2), and Demaryius Thomas ($13) would have been preferred options to Brian Quick ($1), as my WR3. The Demaryius Thomas pick was the best value of the night, and we’re still not really sure what happened. I think it was a collective nap time experience for all of us, except Sean Morris of BrunoBoys.com, who snagged Thomas, while the rest of us were sleeping.
In an auction draft the goal is to spend all of your money so you can strengthen your team. I didn’t do that, and it was one of my biggest regrets once the draft was over.
Now let’s focus on the quarterback portion of Thursday’s 2-QB auction mock and go over the different strategies utilized by owners when bidding on quarterbacks. There was no one universal 2-QB auction draft strategy employed last night, as we had quite the variety.
Here are two 2-QB auction draft strategies I discussed in Wednesday’s article, and how they turned out:
‘Nothing But Studs’ approach:
–Drew Brees/Matt Ryan
–Cam Newton/Russell Wilson
–Tom Brady/Peyton Manning
–Andrew Luck/Tony Romo
‘Stars and Scrubs’ approach:
–RG3/Kolb and Manuel
-Rodgers/Flynn
Then there were also two approaches I didn’t go over that I’ll quickly go over now. One approach saw teams teams grab a group of QB2, or potential QB2 quarterbacks, to constitute their fantasy quarterback depth chart. I have dubbed this strategy ‘The Second Level’ approach. The other strategy was a simple one, in which teams drafted a QB1, and paired them with a solid QB2. I don’t really have anything catchy to name this strategy, so I’ll go with ‘Safety First.’
‘The Second Level’ approach:
-Rivers/Freeman/Foles
-Bradford/Gabbert/Palmer
-Eli/Schaub/Locker
-Dalton/Flacco/Roethlisberger
‘Safety First’ approach:
-Kaepernick/Cutler
-Stafford/Alex Smith
In total, 33 quarterbacks were selected, accounting for $630 out of the total $2,400 allocated spending dollars, which means 26.42% of the draft’s available money was spent on the quarterback position. Out of the twelve teams, four teams went with two quarterbacks, seven took three quarterbacks, and one team won a total of four quarterbacks.
Below is a breakdown of each team’s quarterback depth chart, and the total money they spent on the position:
The 2-QB auction strategy that I was thinking about going with heading into the draft was of the ‘Stars and Scrubs’ variety. I was hoping to land one of the top quarterbacks, and then pair them up with a very cheap QB2 so that I could use my money elsewhere.
I was able to accomplish that, as I spent $38 on RG3, and wound up in a mini-bidding war with Rich Hribar, as we wound up fighting over the last QB of the elite QB1 tier. Rich was sticking to his values and didn’t want to go over a certain threshold, whereas I had no problem ponying up the funds for RG3, who wound up being the third most expensive quarterback. A few people in the auction room saw that as an overspend, and when comparing RG3 to some of the other winning quarterback bids, I see their point.
To me RG3 is a quarterback I can envision finishing the season as a top-three fantasy quarterback, and was willing to pony up the cash required to get him. The second half of my ‘Stars and Scrubs’ plan worked out for me as well, as I was able to grab Kolb ($3) and Manuel ($1) as my QB2/QB3. The plan is to start whoever wins the starting quarterback job in Buffalo, and I don’t think it cost me all that much. Some might not be as high on the Bills’ offense, or their quarterback, whoever it winds up being this year, but you can’t count me in that group.
The re-tooled Bills’ offense, under new head coach Doug Marrone is one that is stocked with offensive weapons in C.J. Spiller, Fred Jackson, Stevie Johnson, Robert Woods, Da’Rick Rogers, Marquise Goodwin, Scott Chandler, and Chris Gragg, and it has the potential to be a high scoring one. Having the quarterback who leads that offense being my team’s QB2 is one I will have no problem with, and I didn’t have to spend a whole lot to secure the services of Kolb and Manuel. One thing I didn’t do, and which can be seen as another one of my auction draft mistakes was not drafting a true QB3. Taking Green-Ellis and Murray early in the draft took away two bench spots on my team, one of which I would have gladly used on a cheap quarterback like Brandon Weeden ($2).
Looking at the final quarterback results, I would say John Fortes, who wound up with Brady/Peyton/Tannehill had the best stable of fantasy quarterbacks. He got two QB1s that he won’t have to worry about, other than bye weeks, and backed them up with a capable QB2 in Tannehill. It did cost him the most though, as he spent a total of $80 on the trio. Auctions drafts go to show you, that if you’re willing to spend the money on the players you want, you can do so.
The best value quarterback harem, in my opinion goes to Rich. Dalton, Flacco, and Roethlisberger are all quarterbacks who have the potential to put up QB1 numbers on a consistent basis, and he was able to spend less than $20/QB. If this there were a real draft he’d more than likely be able to use one of his three quarterbacks as trade bait to a quarterback needy team.
If you look at each of the twelve teams, and the quarterbacks they wound up with, it’s hard to argue that any drafter didn’t come away happy with their situation. Perhaps Bryan, with Matt Flynn as his QB2 could have fared better at the QB2 position, but he was hampered by his free-spending ways early in the draft. How you perceive Rivers’ and Freeman’s 2013 potential could also have you wavering on Rick’s quarterbacks, but, at $13, Freeman could be seen as a value pick. If Foles winds up the starter for the Eagles, that was a $1 investment that will pay high dividends.
I’m not shy to admit that I wasn’t entirely pleased with how things unfolded for me during the auction, and I’ve pinpointed each of the mistakes I made and regrets I had. I chalked this 2-QB auction mock up to a learning experience. It’s going to take time honing your 2-QB auction strategy, and the more drafts, mock or real, you participate in, the better a fantasy football player you will be in the long-run. I can now learn from my mistakes, which will hopefully help me produce better results in future 2-QB fantasy football auction drafts.
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