This is the 2025 version of Joe Dolan’s yearly Auction/Salary Cap Draft Plan, with updated strategies and example teams for the new season
Fantasy football auction leagues (also known as salary-cap leagues on multiple providers) feature my favorite way to draft, full stop.
There is constant action, with strategies changing on the fly. You have to pay close attention to the league around you — what other players are doing absolutely affects the way you should play. Most of all, you have to come in with a plan. That’s why I’m here to help.
Planning for an auction/salary-cap league is much less precise, though — in snake drafts, Average Draft Position (ADP) gives us a reasonable, if not bullseye-accurate, range where we can expect players to be drafted. That allows us to go into snake drafts with more specific plans than we can carry into an auction. After all, in an auction, you theoretically have a chance at every player. If you draw the #8 pick in your snake draft, you know you’re not getting Ja’Marr Chase. But in an auction, it doesn’t matter what nomination slot you get.
That’s what makes them so much fun to do. You’re going to end up with some wild roster constructions in auctions, with some teams balanced from top to bottom, others loaded up at one position but not another, and yet other teams going with massive “stars and scrubs” approaches.
Because there’s no real way to predict what the other players in your auction draft are going to do, I want this to read like my thought process when I’m going through an auction draft, which is the format I use for two of my biggest leagues of the year with my friends. I’ve had plenty of success in those leagues, and I think my plan is a pretty simple, common-sense one. This article will be an update on my past Auction Draft Plans, with some strategies specific to the 2025 season, and others adapted from past years.
For this Auction/Salary-Cap Draft Plan, let’s assume a 12-team league with a PPR scoring system, with 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 2 R/W/T FLEX, 1 PK, and 1 D/ST starting. The budget we’re working with is the standard $200. Obviously, drastically different starting lineups or league sizes will dictate different strategies (for instance, leagues that require 3 WR to start), but I thought this was the most balanced starting lineup approach to take in breaking down my plan, and it’s the format I use in my longest-running auction league (though we eliminated kickers years ago).
Before getting to Draft Day itself, let’s get into a few universal tips every auction drafter should know as they prep.
We have PPR, half-PPR, and Superflex Auction Value Cheat Sheets, as well as an interactive Excel Auction Tool
Pre-Draft Pointers
Tiers, Tiers, Tiers
I think “Tiers” drafting — grouping similarly ranked players instead of following a strict, rigid set of numerical rankings — is a good strategy to take in even a snake draft. One thing fantasy players should pound into their heads is that just because one player is ranked at RB7 and one player is ranked at RB8, it doesn’t mean there’s a drastic difference between the two.
Say you’re in 10 drafts and are given the same “either/or” choice in each one. Sure, you’re drafting De’Von Achane over Tony Pollard 10 times out of 10 if given that choice. But what about Pollard vs. Joe Mixon? Is it 7 to 3? 6 to 4? 5 to 5? They’re probably too close in your rankings to be 100% sure you’re making the right decision when you draft one. That’s because Pickens and Ridley are similarly tiered on your draft sheet.
In auctions, since you have a shot at drafting any player you want, tiering them is the most important thing you can do before your draft. That’s why we “tier” our Auction Cheat Sheet; although you may disagree with us and want to make adjustments (such as creating narrower tiers).
Say Ladd McConkey went for $10 more than you thought he would, even though he was a target. See if you can get Brian Thomas or Drake London for a price more in line with what you were thinking.
It’s imperative to remember which tier you must get a player from. You may have internally decided that Tier 1 RBs are too expensive, and that’s fine. However, perhaps you also concluded that to make your plan work, you need two Tier 2 RBs. It’s essential to bid smartly but aggressively within the player tiers you need to attack.
Also, do not assume the people in your league are dumb and that you’ll be able to get away with constant values. The average fantasy player has become much smarter, and one thing I’ve noticed in every auction I’ve ever done is that the “last” player available in a perceived tier gets priced up. For instance, even though Derrick Henry might be well behind Bijan Robinson on your personal rankings, if everyone in the league perceives him as being the final player available in a certain tier, don’t be shocked if he goes for more money than the “better” players drafted before him.
That’s why I try to get players in my targeted tiers — at least at RB and WR — while there are still players left in that tier. Getting constantly caught bidding at the back end of a tier is a great way to run out of money quickly and to be “drafting from behind,” not to mention constantly drafting the last player in a tier might naturally result in a worse team — paying a premium for an inferior product.
When it comes to nominations, I don’t always nominate a player I want. Let’s say I’ve already drafted a top-tier RB and don’t want to double-dip, and I attacked the middle of the tier, as I suggested above. If I see one player left in that tier — let’s use the Henry example from above after all the other “RB1s” get drafted, for instance — I love throwing the chum into the waters and watching the sharks swarm. It creates action where I don’t need to exert energy, and it eliminates money and competition for players I do want at other positions or tiers.
Mostly, Go Cheap at QB
NOTE: This strategy focuses on 1-QB formats.
In the past half decade, a gradual shift toward drafting quarterbacks earlier — and for higher prices in auction leagues — made sense given the power of cheat-code QBs.
Guys like 2018 Patrick Mahomes, 2019 Lamar Jackson, and 2020 Josh Allen won leagues at barrel-bottom prices. The idea was simple: identify a mid-to-late-round QB who might be unproven or rough around the edges, but is super athletic and can add value in the run game. Profit!
