Confessions of a Salary Cap Newbie, Volume One: The Auction

Derek Willett

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After accepting a position as a writer with DLF, I asked myself what I could do to expand my dynasty football knowledge.  At the top of the list was becoming familiar with the world of Salary Cap leagues.  I’ve always been interested in the process, but have never gotten around to actually joining a league.  Since I am brand new to this type of league, I decided to create a series focusing on my journey as I enter this new world of Dynasty football.

The first step, of course, was to find a league.  Fortunately, we have a wonderful resource here within the DLF Forums that helps potential owners find just about any league type they can think of. Within just a few minutes of browsing the “Help Wanted” sub-forum, I was able to locate a start-up Salary Cap league with a small buy-in that would be perfect for me.  A few days later, I was ready to start the initial auction.

League Scoring/Rules

The league is fairly standard from what I’ve seen elsewhere.  We have a 26-person offensive roster with a $1,000 budget.  It is a one point PPR league, starting one quarterback, two running backs, three wide receivers, one tight end, one kicker and defense, and one flex option (RB/WR/TE).  Each player will be assigned a contract of 1-4 year, with a maximum of 65 years total.

The Plan

The initial plan for my team was to acquire a stud RB (I was hoping for C.J. Spiller or Jamaal Charles) and load up on mid-level wide receivers.  I figured I could hold out on quarterbacks and tight ends for a little while, picking up a few second tier options.  I also wanted to spend 90% of my budget on about 10-12 players out of the 26 that will be on my roster, since I trust my evaluations of the low-level prospects I can pick up at the end of the draft.

The Early Auction

Within the first few days of the auction, my team was taking shape, albeit it in a different way than I planned.  The first six players to join my team were CJ Spiller ($200), Rob Gronkowski (141), Cam Newton ($136), Randall Cobb ($125), Antonio Brown ($88), and Tavon Austin ($86).  While Spiller and Cobb are players that I’m very happy with at their price, I feel as though I spent a little too much on Brown and Austin.  Newton and Gronkowski are both players that I didn’t intend to target, but decided to acquire due to what I considered to be good values.  With these six players, I had spent $776, which equates to 77.6% of my overall budget.

It was at this point that I needed to start taking advantage of values that fell to me.  I quickly picked up Mark Ingram ($35) and Jonathan Stewart ($36), two running back options I’m projecting to finally break out this year.  I also picked up Jared Cook ($32), and a few wide receiver options I was thrilled to get at bottom-dollar prices – Stevie Johnson ($35), Kendall Wright ($25), and Keenan Allen ($22).

These players combined brought me to a grand total of  $961.  While I had built a solid group of players, I was left with only $39 to fill out the remaining 14 spots on my roster.  It was clear at this point I was going to have to bargain shop.

Bargain Picks

With 14 spots remaining and only $39 to spend, it was time to focus on the cheap options who I think may contribute in the future.  The first step was ensuring I had a backup quarterback, but with so little money available, I had to be careful that I didn’t get into a bidding war with someone.  I was able to settle on Geno Smith for $13.  Of the available options at the time, I liked his upside more than others.  I think Smith will take over the starting spot in New York this season and I like his future prospects quite a bit.  I also added Mark Sanchez for $1, in the event that Smith doesn’t immediately take over the role.

The remainder of my team was filled mostly with rookies or low level players that I feel have the potential to develop into solid fantasy options in the future.  These players included Isaiah Pead, Ronnie Hillman, Bilal Powell, Leonard Hankerson, Jeremy Kerley, Aaron Mellette, Andre Roberts, Aldrick Robinson, and Kenny Stills.  I also added DeAngelo Williams as a short-term handcuff for Jonathan Stewart and a couple of D/ST options.

Salary Cap Management

This is the part where things started to get a little tricky for me.  I have been participating in start-up auctions for many years, but the added nuance of deciding how valuable I feel each player will be (and for how long they will remain productive at their current price) was a challenge.  I knew I had a few young players at cheap prices I wanted to ensure I held on to for the maximum length of time (four years).  Geno Smith at $13, Ronnie Hillman at $1, Mark Ingram at $35, Kennan Allen at $22, Stevie Johnson at $35 and Kendall Wright at $25 were all relatively easy choices for me.  All those players have very small salaries and have at least four years remaining in their prime playing careers.  I also elected to give four year contracts to Cam Newton at $136 and Rob Gronkowski at $141.  While both of these contracts are at a higher level, I felt they were still values for the respective players.

While I am a huge CJ Spiller fan, I only elected to give him a three year contract.  As he is currently 25 years old, I don’t expect him to remain at a $200 value beyond that point, given the general fear owners have over aging running backs.  If he is still producing at a high level in three years (which I believe he will), I expect to be able to re-acquire him in free agency for a cheaper cost at that time.  I also gave a three year contract to Randall Cobb.  This was the most difficult contract decision I made.  While I would have loved to give him a full four year contract, I wanted to make sure I had a slight buffer in place in the event Green Bay doesn’t use him at the high level I expect.  While he showed quite a bit of promise last season, he still only managed to perform at the WR14 level.  His salary placed him as the 11th highest wide receiver in our league, so while it’s fair value currently, I prefer on setting myself for long-term values rather than simply fair market prices.

I also provided longer three year contracts to Leonard Hankerson (who I have high hopes for this season) and Isaiah Pead.  While Pead is not guaranteed to earn a significant piece of the St. Louis running game, his $7 price-tag made the longer contract worth the slight gamble.  Jonathan Stewart also was given a three year contract as he will be 29 at the time it expires.

I then handed out short-term contracts to both of the aging backups that I picked up (DeAngelo Williams and Mark Sanchez), and a number of the lower level players that I acquired.  I did give two year contracts to some of the players that I’m a little higher on (Jeremy Kerley, Aldrick Robinson, Jared Cook), but mostly handed out one year contracts to these players.  Tavon Austin was only given a two year contract, and Antonio Brown was given a one year contract, because I believe I overpaid for both of them.

When dropping a player, my team will be penalized with a 25% charge of the salary for the player’s remaining contract.  If the player only costs $1 however, there is no penalty.  Many of these one dollar players will likely be released for free agent pickups in the future.

Final Thoughts

I do have a number of regrets.

Given the values that ended up being available at wide receiver, I was bit overzealous with my spending on Antonio Brown and Tavon Austin.  While I like both players, their prices were much higher than what I had to spend on comparable level players on my team.  While in a standard auction I wouldn’t be concerned about spending a little more on these players in the early parts of the auction, the salary cap aspect caused me to have to set shorter contracts for both players.

I also would have liked to save a little more money for future free agent  options. As it currently stands, I am only $3 under the cap.  In order to bid on free agents next year, I’ll likely have to trade or cut a higher contract player on my team to have money available.

Overall, I enjoyed the added wrinkle of having a salary cap to work with.  While I made a few mistakes along the way, I feel confident about the long-term prospects of my team.  I have elite options at every position and have many values that I have locked up for longer contracs.  I am looking forward to building this team in the future and will likely look to add a few more salary cap leagues in the upcoming years.

What are your thoughts on the team I built?  What would you have done differently? If you are interested in seeing the winning prices for each team, it can be viewed at the link here.  My team name is “Derek’s Daycare.”

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