The Need To Slow Down

Everyone likes a challenge. We need to be pushed out of our comfort zone. Hell, it’s the only way that we grow as individuals. Once the clock hit zero on the fantasy season, I was immediately looking for something new. I still had the itch. I had just finished my first dynasty season and I wanted more. Lucky for me, @DynastyFF_KyleM on twitter posted about a league that one of his followers was forming. He wanted to do a start-up Superflex (SF), dynasty league, via auction. I was instantly intrigued. I am in ZERO Superflex leagues and I’ve been begging my home leagues to switch. The value of the QB is almost non-existent in them and I’m bored of the basic PPR league. I wanted something new and exciting and here it was. I jumped at the opportunity and thus began a strangely beautiful adventure.

Every league I’ve ever done in the last decade-plus was with friends or acquaintances or even colleagues. This was the first time where I would be in a league with a group of guys that I’ve never met. There is always an interesting dynamic to it. In my home leagues, I have a reputation. I’m a guy who does the research, reads up to date info, and makes big moves fast. That has led me to swindle quite a few people and now years later people are extremely skeptical of my offers or motives. I’m seen as the snake waiting to strike. But now I have a fresh chance and with people who share a passion for the sport like I do. I had to make sure not to set a bad impression on a group that I hope will last years and years. That’s the point of a dynasty league right?

As the league was formed, we had to come together to vote and lay down the ground rules. With many eager (like myself) to scratch that itch, we decided to do a slow draft that would start as soon as MFL would be ready for it. We even ran a trial period during the playoffs to allow everyone to familiarize themselves with the process. That was absolutely crucial. If you’ve never done a slow auction through MyFantasyLeague (MFL) then see if you can find a way to run a trial on it just to make sure you understand how it works. I think the most important reason was because of the use of a proxy bid. Proxy bids work like this: I nominate Michael Thomas for $85. It shows up on MFL as $1 and then others start bidding. If someone bids $40 then I still hold Thomas but I hold him for $40. It isn’t until someone raises the bid above my $85 that I will need to bid again. This was an absolute game-changer and something I didn’t consider much beforehand.

As the process began, we decided that each of us would nominate two people to begin and then from there we would follow a randomized order on nominations. And as soon as the draft began, prices skyrocketed. There were 24 legitimate bids on the board. Mahomes. Lamar. CMC. AJones. Chubb. Juju. Watson. Mixon. Michael Thomas. It was the works. Guys we all want on our dynasty teams and it was really reflected on the bidding. Guys like Mahomes, Lamar, and CMC would go into the $100 range rather quickly. We had $500 to spend and it felt like being a kid in the candy store. The money was burning a hole in my pocket. The excitement was getting to me and that was a problem. I had to think back to my main strategy.

My strategy was to grab two QBs that I value. I’ve consistently heard that you need to make sure you have at least a couple of good QBs in a SF league. I wasn’t going to make the mistake of coming up short with them. The problem was that I didn’t want to drop $100 on one QB no matter how good Mahomes and Lamar were. So I immediately started to look for value. I thought I found it with Aaron Jones. Most RBs were going for low 70s and some for the 80s and there sat Jones for $45. So I bid $50, I was quickly outbid and then had to make adjustments to my proxy until I was able to grab him at $67. I was feeling good but I knew the QBs were coming and I needed one. Josh Allen and Dak were the two guys on the board. Their prices hit the 90s. I knew that if I didn’t grab one I’d be stuck with the Ryans and Cousins of the world that I had in tiers below. So I did the one thing that every fantasy auction player should avoid, I placed a bid in a panic. Allen only had an hour left before the high bidder was going to land him. I didn’t want to risk it or wait. I threw an extra dollar on top of the Josh Allen bid, his clock rest and I’d end up winning him for $92. While it felt great to lock in one of my QB1s, what I didn’t realize was that the prices on QBs were about to plummet.

With everyone tying their money up in position players, the value for QBs dropped quickly. We went from $150/Mahomes, $125/Lamar, $100/Watson, $97/Dak, $92/Allen to $76/Wilson (I snagged him and couldn’t pass it up), $45/Baker, $36/Winston, and $43/Wentz. I could have grabbed Winston and Wentz combined for the price of Allen and used savings on a WR to help fill out my starting lineup. This was the big rookie mistake for me and the lesson that I wanted to pass on to other first time slow auction players. Do your best to avoid drastic overspends early. Be patient and wait to see what is going to happen in the draft. You have to let it come to you because the draft flow can change quickly. One guy ended up with Drew Lock for $45 because he was put up for auction early and the bidder wanted to lock in a young potential stud, but as the draft went on that proved to be a massive overpay. The same thing that happened for QBs happened for WRs. Hill went for $108 but then OBJ went for $44 later on. Patience is key. Try to put guys that you think are middling out there earlier when people have the money to blow. Someone like a Tyler Boyd might have gone for mid-50s if he was nominated from the start, but after the first 60 players or so he probably only goes for mid-20s.

I’ll be following this with some subsequent posts about this league, strategy I noticed, and how I tried to save my draft. Thank you for following this journey with me!