A question on autodraft strategy...

[Mercer Boy]

Hi guys,

I am forced to do a Yahoo autodraft league with my friends. If you don't know how they work, it basically goes like this...

You have to take all your starting spots before you start getting reserves. You can exclude the computer from picking players, so you can conceivably exclude all the players in a certain position to start getting reserves first. But, that's not my question!

My question is this: Since you have to get all your starters first, what would be the advantage/disadvantage of waiting until the last mandatory starter round (9th round) to get your second running back?

In a 12 team league, you're going to get at worst the 24th best back. Instead of wasting a 4th rounder on him, you could get him in the 9th round (heck of a value)! This would allow you to get better players at other positions earlier. Does this make any sense?

[v dawg]

if i am understanding this correctly, every team has to fill qb, 2rbs, 2wr, te, D, K.... so eight positions before they can get a 3rd RB.

if that is the case, your strategy is great. the only change i would make is taking your 2nd RB in the eighth round. if you wait until the ninth round, who ever is ahead of you in that round could get RB's and you could end up with a RB worse than the 24th.

[Mercer Boy]

It's a 3 WR starter league...so the 9th round would be the last.

I copied the draft rules from Yahoo for you...

The autopick system first selects the highest-rated available player (based first on your pre-rankings and then our default rankings) that can fill one of the open starting positions on your roster.

After all of your starting positions are filled, the system determines a list of bench positions based on the number of starters at a position vs. the overall roster size. The system then selects the highest-rated available player (based first on your pre-rankings and then our default rankings) that can play one of the bench positions.

Given this system, it is important to remember that all starting positions are filled before any bench players are chosen.

[VHawk15]

The main disadvantage with this strategy is that you could just get a stud RB with your #2 spot instead of risking it until the 9th round. In my experience with autodrafts, there are usually lots of crazy picks in the second round. If you rank the players right, you could end up with a 1st round RB in the second.

Plus, I'm not sure I would trust Yahoo! with the fill-in roster thing and then settle for the 24th best RB. Also, drafting your #2 RB in the 9th doesn't allow for much RB depth/trade bait.

[BlitzBoyz]

Number one, don't trust Yahoo's rankings. At all. Second, take time to do your rankings, and do them honestly to the best of your ability and research. Autodrafts do screwy things... depending on how the other people set their rankings (or don't, and take yahoo's). Don't outsmart yourself trying to predict what it will do in the 9th (or the 4th for that matter).

I did a yahoo autodraft a couple of weeks ago and got A. Green at 1.10 and S. Alexander at 2.1. Hopefully you are not playing with the idiots I am in that league, but goes to show that you can't make assumptions about how people will set their ranks. Between Yahoo's bad rankings and human error you will see very good players ranked far below where they should be, and others picked laughably high.

Take your time, set your rankings carefully and then hit the waiver wire asap to fix the funky picks. Good luck with it.

[BlitzBoyz]

Sorry Mercer, I hit enter before I spotted your post count, didn't mean to talk to you like you were an idiot. That said, I stand by what I said - Yahoo will pick by your order till it fills all the starting spots, so if you have RB's first it will pick 2 then move to whatever non-RB you have rated next. Just do a solid ranking and you'll be at least competitive and probably better than that given the usual knowlege level here.

[TweakX]

So this is semi related as it pertains to the Yahoo autodraft - if our setup is Q/2RB/3WR/TE/D/K, and it forces you to take remaining starters first, does it make any sense to exclude all defenses and/or kickers so that you're not forced to take a defense/kicker in (presumably) the 10th/11th round? I feel like I'd much rather be building RB/WR depth at that particular point in the draft.

Thoughts?