On Sunday July 12, in a suite at the Cosmopolitan, 12 of us got together for the Stopa Law Firm $10K auction. The prize is split between highest total points and whoever wins the playoff tournament.
The parameters are as follows: 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 2 TE, 1 FLEX, 1 QB-FLEX, 1 K, 1 D and six reserves, half-point PPR scoring. Here are the results:
FUNSTON | VAN RIPER | STOPA | PIANOWSKI | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
QB | Russell Wilson | 41 | Philip Rivers | 17 | Drew Brees | 39 | Tony Romo | 23 |
WR | Julian Edelman | 16 | AJ Green | 41 | Kelvin Benjamin | 22 | Julio Jones | 43 |
WR | Golden Tate | 16 | Keenan Allen | 15 | Vincent Jackson | 4 | Randall Cobb | 36 |
WR | Larry Fitzgerald | 3 | Davante Adams | 3 | Torrey Smith | 2 | Jeremy Maclin | 5 |
RB | Marshawn Lynch | 41 | DeMarco Murray | 34 | Jamaal Charles | 44 | Matt Forte | 36 |
RB | Arian Foster | 35 | Andre Ellington | 22 | Rashad Jennings | 7 | CJ Spiller | 22 |
TE | Antonio Gates | 2 | Jimmy Graham | 30 | Rob Gronkowski | 51 | Zach Ertz | 15 |
TE | Rob Housler | 1 | Cody Fleener | 2 | Ladarius Green | 2 | Kyle Rudolph | 2 |
W/R/T | Latavius Murray | 20 | Lamar Miller | 20 | Alfred Blue | 1 | Mike Wallace | 2 |
Q/W/R/T | Joe Flacco | 9 | Robert Griffin III | 8 | Colin Kaepernick | 19 | Alex Smith | 2 |
K | Adam Vinatieri | 1 | Dan Bailey | 1 | ---- | Justin Tucker | 1 | |
DEF | Chiefs DEF | 1 | Seahawks DEF | 1 | ---- | Rams DEF | 2 | |
BN | Marcus Mariota | 7 | Montee Ball | 2 | Bishop Sankey | 2 | Reggie Bush | 2 |
BN | Nick Foles | 3 | Marques Colston | 1 | Knile Davis | 1 | Chris Ivory | 2 |
BN | Duke Johnson | 2 | Javorious Allen | 1 | James Starks | 1 | Kendall Wright | 1 |
BN | Larry Donnell | 1 | Kevin White | 1 | Tre Mason | 2 | John Brown | 2 |
BN | Pierre Garcon | 1 | Jimmy Garrapolo | 1 | Charles Clay | 1 | Blake Bortles | 4 |
BN | Donte Moncrief | 1 | ||||||
BN | Phillip Dorsett | 1 |
LISS | EVANS | ERICKSON | DEL DON | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
QB | Matt Ryan | 23 | Andrew Luck | 55 | Aaron Rodgers | 48 | Matthew Stafford | 16 |
WR | Dez Bryant | 43 | Mike Evans | 30 | Jordy Nelson | 34 | DeAndre Hopkins | 22 |
WR | Calvin Johnson | 37 | Brandon Marshall | 13 | Alshon Jeffrey | 34 | Brandin Cooks | 29 |
WR | Brian Quick | 2 | Anquan Boldin | 3 | Devonte Parker | 1 | Andre Johnson | 22 |
RB | Eddie Lacy | 45 | Justin Forsett | 29 | Le'Veon Bell | 41 | Carlos Hyde | 20 |
RB | Devonte Freeman | 8 | Ryan Mathews | 9 | DeAngelo Williams | 5 | Jeremy Hill | 36 |
TE | Jordan Cameron | 4 | Delanie Walker | 7 | Martellus Bennett | 13 | Julius Thomas | 4 |
TE | Jordan Reed | 1 | Virgil Green | 1 | Vernon Davis | 5 | Austin Sefarian-Jenkins | 1 |
W/R/T | Joique Bell | 6 | Ameer Abdullah | 17 | Darren McFadden | 11 | TJ Yeldon | 17 |
Q/W/R/T | Cam Newton | 24 | Jay Cutler | 8 | Charles Sims | 1 | Sammy Watkins | 9 |
K | ---- | Connor Barth | 1 | Cody Parkey | 1 | ---- | ||
DEF | ---- | Texans DEF | 1 | Packers DEF | 1 | ---- | ||
BN | Victor Cruz | 1 | Tevin Coleman | 11 | Dan Herron | 1 | Amari Cooper | 10 |
BN | Heath Miller | 1 | Jonathan Stewart | 8 | Matt Cassel | 1 | Jameis Winston | 9 |
BN | Terrence West | 1 | Geno Smith | 2 | Justin Hunter | 1 | Doug Martin | 1 |
BN | Dwayne Bowe | 1 | Nelson Agholar | 3 | Percy Harvin | 1 | Marvin Jones | 1 |
BN | Stevie Johnson | 1 | Steve Smith Sr | 2 | Terrance Williams | 1 | David Cobb | 1 |
BN | Josh McCown | 1 | Isaiah Crowell | 1 | ||||
BN | Ryan Mallett | 1 | EJ Manuel | 1 |
PAYNE | SALFINO/MATTEK | SCHOENKE | BEHRENS | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
QB | Ryan Tannehill | 17 | Sam Bradford | 13 | Peyton Manning | 30 | Tom Brady | 25 |
WR | Odell Beckham | 46 | Demaryius Thomas | 45 | Antonio Brown | 44 | TY Hilton | 27 |
WR | Martavis Bryant | 19 | Jordan Matthews | 25 | Emmanuel Sanders | 19 | Roddy White | 6 |
WR | Breshad Perriman | 3 | Nick Toon | 4 | Michael Floyd | 6 | DeSean Jackson | 8 |
RB | LeSean McCoy | 36 | CJ Anderson | 39 | Alfred Morris | 18 | Adrian Peterson | 42 |
RB | Melvin Gordon | 33 | David Johnson | 5 | Mark Ingram | 19 | Todd Gurley | 17 |
TE | Jason Witten | 3 | Travis Kelce | 26 | Maxx Willams | 1 | Greg Olsen | 18 |
TE | Mychel Rivera | 1 | Josh Hill | 8 | Dwayne Allen | 1 | Owen Daniels | 4 |
W/R/T | Joseph Randle | 19 | Eric Decker | 10 | Frank Gore | 19 | LeGarrette Blount | 10 |
Q/W/R/T | Teddy Bridgewater | 15 | Andy Dalton | 12 | Ben Roethlisberger | 23 | Eli Manning | 21 |
K | Stephen Gostkowski | 1 | ---- | ---- | ||||
DEF | Bills DEF | 2 | ---- | Cardinals | 1 | |||
BN | Stevan Ridley | 1 | Charles Johnson | 6 | Giovani Bernard | 8 | Shane Vereen | 5 |
BN | Jay Ajayi | 1 | Mark Sanchez | 1 | Cody Latimer | 2 | Derek Carr | 2 |
BN | Jared Cook | 1 | Kenny Stills | 2 | Carson Palmer | 6 | Jarvis Landry | 4 |
BN | Marqise Lee | 1 | Lance Dunbar | 1 | Devin Funchess | 1 | Allen Robinson | 6 |
BN | Jerrick McKinnon | 1 | Andre Williams | 1 | Jonas Gray | 1 | Brandon LaFell | 3 |
BN | Dorial Green-Beckham | 1 | Jaelen Strong | 1 | Tyler Eifert | 1 | ||
BN | Roy Helu | 1 | James White | 1 | ||||
BN | Troy Niklas | 1 |
My strategy was to buy 4-5 star players with most of my budget and fill in the rest with cheap, fungible players I'd be able to swap out as needed. I executed it pretty well with Eddie Lacy, Dez Bryant, Calvin Johnson, Matt Ryan and Cam Newton (top-10 QBs qualify as stars in what's essentially a two-QB league.)
The one error I made was paying $8 for Devonta Freeman midway through the auction as he would have been a $1-$2 player in the end game. For some reason, when Peter Schoenke brought him up at $7, I thought the bidding would keep going, even though that made no sense.
My rule in NFL auctions (and also in mixed league MLB ones) is to pay top dollar for the upper echelon guys and save the rest of your money to control the end game. It's those $5-$15 bids on middle-round players that kill you. (I probably shouldn't have paid $6 for Joique Bell, either. While the value was fine, it cost me a lot of flexibility in the end game, too.)
The other choice everyone had to make was either to buy the top few defenses and kickers or pass on them altogether, have a bigger bench and wait for training camp developments to unfold before deciding who to drop before Week 1. Because we auctioned so early, it was an easy call for me to have the bigger bench. Had this been late August, I might have tried to get the Bills defense or Adam Vinatieri.