Fantasy Football 101: Controlling Your Superflex Auction Draft

A Superflex auction draft might be one of the most niche league formats to play in. While both settings are becoming more popular, combining them makes for a very interesting draft day. To dominate your draft, you need to be focused on the QB position during your nomination phase.

Trend Setter

The early part of the auction is always a tumultuous time. Everyone is excited for the draft to have started, they all have money to spend and yet some are unsure of how high the salaries might go. No one wants to be the manager who overspends way above everyone else early on.

The early part of the auction is not the time to get cute. You want big names and big salaries on the board to see where the market for the positional players is going to be. Your early nominations should be focused on “mini-reaches” – not nominating the top available QB, but the 2nd or 3rd one on the best available list. The goal is to get baseline spending within the league and keep pushing the QBs into the bidding war.

In Superflex, that means you must be focused on QBs. You need to know where the market on QBs is in the league because it will drive everything else. As I pointed out in the Budget Builder article there is a finite amount of money for a specific number of players. If your league’s spending on QBs appears to be low, then you can rest assured the prices for RBs and/or WRs will be inflated. But if your league is going gaga over QBs, then be ready for some “deals” at those other skill positions.

To improve your understanding of the overall league spending, you need to get the market set at QB early because the Superflex setting will inflate the QB market. Start your draft with QB nominations until at least 15 QBs have been nominated. Depending on your league mates’ nominations, that might only take two nomination rounds or it could take four. Don’t let up. You need the market set.

Mid-Round QB Nominations

When it comes to QB nominations in a Superflex league, you’re also doing what I call “roster filling.” In a 1QB league, once everyone has their starting QB, the salaries for QBs 13+ will drop significantly. In Superflex, everyone is looking for two very good QBs, usually from the top 15 or so. That means 8-12 teams are competing for those last few QBs you’d feel good starting each week. Additionally, almost everyone is also planning for a third QB. In a 12-team league, that means at least four teams won’t get a third QB with a starting job, and realistically, after QB24 the list of available QBs is less than exciting. That’s where nominating QBs that you’re not going to be targeting assures they fill up your opponent’s roster spots AND takes them out of the auction for future QBs. Keep nominating QBs! You want your opponent to spend money on QBs while they still have it in their bank.

Late-Round QB Nominations

At the end of your draft, all of the QBs with a starting job for Week 1 will have been drafted. If you have filled out your roster of QBs, I suggest against nominating back-ups without a job. If Baker Mayfield wins the Tampa job, perhaps the manager who rostered him will also be interested in Kyle Trask, but getting stuck with a backup as your fourth QB is now clogging your roster from high-upside RBs and WRs. Worst of all, you’d likely drop Trask after Week 1 for the hot waiver-wire player.

Backup QBs

Much like the RB position, some fantasy managers will want to draft their QB’s backup. Unless you’re in a really deep league, there are only a few scenarios where you would consider the QB handcuff. The first might be if you’ve missed out on a solid QB3 and fall into a scenario like we have in Tampa. Rostering both players to fill that 3rd QB role might make sense. Additionally, it’s not necessary to roster the backup QB to your stud QB. Unless there is a major injury, that QB is clogging up a valuable roster spot.

Conclusion

In a Superflex league, the demand for QBs is dialed up to 10, so use your nominations to push your opponents to the max budget. Getting QBs nominated early and often will drive up their salaries, while lowering the overall spending for RBs and WRs. To that point, your league mates will still be nominating the top-ranked RBs and WRs, so as managers spend big bucks there as well, you’ll be driving down the market for the mid-tiered RBs and WRs. Take advantage of your nominations to dominate your draft!