Fantasy Football Auction Salary Cap Draft Rankings 2023

It’s here, the final weekend to create your fantasy football team before Week 1 kicks off.

A lot of digital ink is spilled yearly prepping fantasy football players for their drafts. One of the best and still underused ways to accumulate talent for your fantasy football team is the auction draft.

Never played? No worries, friend. The following is an extensive breakdown of player values from yours truly and detailed explanations of each position.

The following cannot be stated enough: Auction values are subjective. Every drafter has their “guys” who will always dictate drafts.

Be ready to adjust your values and draft plan.

Please also double- and triple-check your league rules. The ones you’ll see shortly are a catch-all for the purpose of presenting auction drafts to players new(er) to the format.

Auction Salary Cap League Settings

• Lineup: 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 Flex (RB/WR/TE), 1 K, 1 DST
• Standard 0.5 PPR Scoring:
  • 1 point per 10 Rushing/Receiving Yards
  • 4 points per passing TD
  • -2 points per Interception
  • 6 points per Rushing/Receiving TD

Note: Fantasy auction values are current as of Thursday, Aug. 17.

Stay tuned during the regular season for our fantasy football rankings for upcoming weekly 2023 matchups.

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Key to Auction Salary Cap Values

• Rk: Rank
• Player: Player Name
• Bye: Bye Week
• Pos: Position
• Tm: Team
• Pos Rk: Positional Rank
• $$: Cost

Auction Salary Cap Draft Values

Auction Salary Cap Values Explained

Not every position is created equal for fantasy football. Just like drafters can follow average draft position, or ADP, for snake drafts, auction/salary cap drafts use numeric (dollar) values as a way to judge a player’s value for their team.

With each position group, you’ll see a screenshot of my process and how I divvied up a portion of funds for the position.

Quarterbacks

Above, you see the player name, dollar amount, and the percentage of your $200 budget spent if acquiring that player (0.125 = 12.5%).

More often than not, you will pay for elite QBs. Add in the running factor for a lot of the upper-tier signal callers, and you could be spending at least 10% to get one.

That is not something I like to do, but it also depends on how high the first couple QBs go.

This applies to every position, but let’s say you have QBs in tiers in terms of wanting to spend auction money on them. It is realistic to expect that the first and last QBs in a specific tier would go for less than the ones in the middle.

It’s the bell curve effect of auction drafting. Plan accordingly.

There is enough value in one-QB leagues to wait out the higher-priced options, especially if the bidding pushes $30-plus.

Running Backs

Running back auction values are arguably the toughest to nail down since your preferred roster construction/preferred RB depth will dictate how much you try to spend.

“Hero RB" players can thrive in auction drafts as a handful of backs are worthy of higher bids. Then, you disappear until player values dip.

I am more inclined to price the position closer together without noticeable jumps in price since it’s more fluid. It also bears mentioning that the upper tier of running backs are the players more likely to dominate backfield work loads.

Wide Receivers

In the same vein as running back, wide receiver has a large range of players that can require you to spend auction dollars. The bell curve for wideouts is such that trying to be the first to get a top-tier player is ideal for saving funds.

Waiting out a position can get you in trouble in a hurry, but as long as you are comfortable with doing so, you will find value once you get closer to players around $30. Receiver is a position where I want to guarantee my three starters are locks, week-in and week-out.

Tight Ends

There’s not much different with the tight end landscape. Travis Kelce remains in a league of his own, and then there’s a second tier of good players.

After that, you’re throwing darts.

For the first time in a couple of years, there are a number of tight ends that extend the double-digit price tag section. I ranked Evan Engram as a $10 player, and he’s the perfect example of how you can get value from him at his price tag or make an overpay if he reverts back to his Giants playing days.

There is talent below the $10 range, but due to the volatility of the position and some of the offenses those players are tied to, it is important to temper expectations.

How to Play Auction Salary Cap & Strategies

I mentioned under QBs that the bell curve effect is a predictor of cost for the position. It applies to every position and is crucial to your draft strategy.

Being the first in a tier means you get your guy, and more often than not, it could come at a cheaper cost. If you get Lamar Jackson as the QB1 off the board for $25, that means the market has been set for the upper tier of the position.

Your leaguemates may value Patrick Mahomes more than Jackson, which could lead to a $30 cost to roster him. Maybe another leaguemate thinks Jalen Hurts is the best and now has two QB prices to gauge the cost of Hurts.

When the last of the top QBs is spoken for, Jackson’s $25 tag may end up being the value of the tier.

There is also the wait-and-see approach. Let the other competitors spend their money early and often, and mine the values left.

Great in practice, but not in execution. More often than not, one of “your guys" is going to go in the early bidding, which means you either ditch the idea of rostering that player, or you get in on the action.

Joining the bidding could also be at the most expensive portion of a position bell curve.

All it takes is one player to mess up your plan. If you cannot ebb and flow in an auction/salary cap format, you’re bound to leave with a roster you wish you didn’t have.

Get your guys and make sure that your starters are players you want to see in your lineup every week. Your bench is meant to have fluidity.

Auction Salary Cap Advice & Tips

What is an auction fantasy football league?

Auction fantasy football drafts use a salary cap to draft players. Instead of waiting your turn to make a pick, you can bid on specific players.

If you have the highest bid, you get the player.

Which scoring system to use in auction leagues?

The correct answer is what you and your league mates prefer. My answer is any form of scoring that includes some version of points per reception (PPR) and points per carry (PPC).

The reason standard scoring may not be the best scoring model is it does not force fantasy managers to divert with their bidding. Sometimes it is OK to have a simple draft, but auction drafts lend themselves to the unpredictable since you find out a lot about your league mates through their bids.

How does a fantasy football auction work?

Bidding is done like a snake draft: One manager selects a player and then announces what the starting bid is. Bidding can range from $1 to the maximum amount the manager with the most money can bid on a player.

The bidding manager will have to decide if they’re OK with getting that player at whatever dollar value they announce since there is always a chance that they’ll end up landing that player.

What is the difference between an auction and a snake draft in fantasy football?

Snake drafts limit a manager’s ability to select a specific player. If you do not have a top-three pick, it is unrealistic to expect to roster Justin Jefferson in 2023. With an auction draft, you can roster him — and potentially Christian McCaffrey — since you have funds that allow you access to both stars.

Why $200?

This is a number used across multiple fantasy football platforms but is not gospel. Going up or down $20-$50, depending on league rules, helps decide what the salary should be for all managers.

How did you decide on player pricing?

Player pricing is done by how I want to allocate my dollars. I prefer to look at each position and decide how much I want to be invested in each position.

One-off positions such as QB and TE will not have as much money allocated to them as RB and WR.

I also take into account the percentage a player would take out of the dollar pool I have to work with.

No rankings for kickers and defenses?

All kickers and defenses/special teams are dollar bids. Let your league mates spend more if they desperately want a specific player or team.

Variance looms large here, which means you’d be risking precious funds on positions that are less concrete and change yearly.