Over the past several years, we’ve seen a change in the fantasy football world. While traditional snake drafts are still popular, more of the general public have changed their draft format towards an auction or salary cap format.
Yet, most of the fantasy football information out there is about snake drafts, so there isn’t much discussion about auction league nomination strategies. There are a few commonly known strategies, including nominating kickers in the first round or injury-prone players. However, I have five nomination strategy tips to help you crush your auction league draft.
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Salary Cap League Nomination Strategies & Tips (2023 Fantasy Football)
Don’t Worry About Streaming Positions
You only get one nomination per round, so don’t waste it on a position that isn’t valuable to you. Many say nominate a kicker in the first round. The worst case is you get the kicker of your choice for a dollar, while the best case is you get a league mate to spend $2 on a kicker. However, what’s the point of wasting an early nomination to make your league mate spend an extra dollar?
Similarly, don’t nominate a defense until the end of the draft. Like kickers, smart fantasy football players stream their defenses every week. You don’t want to waste a nomination on a player that won’t be on your team in a week or two.
Furthermore, smart fantasy football players will stream the quarterback position in a 1QB league. Similarly, they won’t spend amounts to land a top-tier tight end. Last year you would have been wise to let your league mates spend a significant chunk of their budget on Josh Allen and Mark Andrews. Meanwhile, you stole Geno Smith and T.J. Hockenson for 10% or less of the cost.
Get the QB & TE Runs Going
Following up on the previous tip, don’t pay up for quarterbacks and tight ends in 1QB auction leagues. Instead, get your league mates thinking about paying up at those positions.
Travis Kelce is the only quarterback or tight end you should consider paying up for in your auction league draft. Yet, it’s better to let someone else pay up for the superstar. Put the future Hall of Famer up for nomination and watch your league mates drop 40% or more of their budget to snag the consistent TE1.
Similarly, anyone who has played in a superflex or two-quarterback snake draft knows it’s a matter of when, not if, the quarterback run happens. It’s always better to be the one to start the run than be at the end of it. Yet, it’s the opposite in 1QB auction leagues. You want your league mates to pay up for those top 4-6 quarterbacks early on, knowing the few extra dollars they spend now will benefit you later. Start the run at quarterbacks and sit back while everyone else burns through their budget.
Nominate Players You Don’t Want
Yes, this is one of the more commonly known nomination strategies. It’s simple – if you don’t want Player X, then get your league mates to spend every dollar possible on that guy. However, don’t nominate your least favorite first-round pick player.
Instead, nominate a player you don’t like in the third or fourth-round range of a snake draft. You don’t want to nominate the top-tier players for two reasons. One, most of your league mates likely view the top-12 players on a similar level. Two, your league mates won’t overpay for the player if most of the other top-12 players are still on the board.
The worst case scenario is that you get a player you don’t like off the board, and your league mate only paid an appropriate amount or even a slight discount. Yet, that’s less money they have to spend on someone you want a round or two later. The best case scenario is that your league mates get into a bidding war, and you kill two birds with one stone – wiping out their budget and taking a guy off the board you don’t like.
Nominate Players at the End of Tiers
Tiers are used in nearly every type of fantasy football league nowadays. However, they were originally created to help fantasy football players group together similar-level players. While tiers are awesome and critical to win your fantasy football league, they can also lead to some manipulation in auction leagues.
Early in your auction draft, everyone is trying to gauge the cost of an RB1, for example. Instead of nominating the top running back in the top tier, you should nominate the last one in that tier. One of two things will happen with that nomination.
Your league mates will be aggressive bidders and overpay for the last running back in that tier. That means the price for an RB1 has been set higher than you would like. However, it also means one team now has less money to spend elsewhere. The other possibility is that your league mates are cautious bidders and will let you get the running back at a discount. Even if you don’t have the winning bid, the price for an RB1 was set lower than it should be, creating potential discounts later in the draft.
Who Needs Friends?
Who can you count on if not your friends? Well, screw them! All is fair in fantasy football, including whatever information your friends in the league might have told you. Is betraying their trust cruel? Yes. Will I do it to win? Absolutely!
Everyone has their favorite player or sleeper target. Make sure you keep yours to yourself. If your league mates aren’t smart enough to keep that information private, that’s their problem. Protecting your budget is the most important thing to remember in auction leagues. Don’t get too aggressive with your budget; it will bite you later in the draft.
You want to encourage your league mates to overpay for players. One way to do it is by nominating players your league mates want the most on their team. Whether it’s their favorite mid-round player or late-round sleeper, the sooner they are up for grabs, the higher the price will be.
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Mike Fanelli is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Mike, check out his archive and follow him @Mike_NFL2.
