Now that the fantasy football auction player prices are officially set, it’s the perfect time to lock in your 2025 fantasy football auction draft strategy and game plan.
Unlike snake drafts, auctions give you total control over how to build your roster, which means preparation is everything. Knowing the correct values, tiers, and budgeting approach can be the difference between landing a roster full of league-winners or burning through your bankroll too early.
Whether you’re new to auction drafts or a seasoned vet, having a pre-draft strategy sets the stage for a successful season.
STEP 2: AUCTION STRATEGY – DEVELOPING A GAMEPLAN
Part 1: How to Dominate a Fantasy Football Auction Draft – Setting Player Prices
Part 2: How To Dominate a Fantasy Football Auction Draft – Developing a Game Plan
Part 3: How To Dominate a Fantasy Football Auction Draft – In-Draft Strategy & Tips
Now that you’ve set the perfect 2025 fantasy football auction player prices — customized with your league settings/history and value-based drafting — it’s time to formulate a league-winning auction game plan. Below, we use our pricing tool to form a blueprint, analyzing how to attack and budget for each position.
DOWNLOAD THE ULTIMATE AUCTION TOOL
OVERALL AUCTION VIEW & TRENDS
After inputting my league rules and site-specific numbers, I first like to look at the Auction sheet for a few minutes. Scroll through the list and see if any of the values are particularly different from what you were expecting. You will probably find a few that pop out.
All the following screenshots (zoom in) and analysis are based on a 10-team, half-PPR league with 1QB, 2RB, 2WR, 1TE, 1FLX.
Your league might be different, so this series aims to teach you how to analyze any league format and draw sound conclusions. Read part 1 to learn how to customize the tool to your league settings.
Three things jump out at me:
- Finding league-winning players is much easier in the first round of your draft, so grabbing 1 or 2 of the top-ranked “sure things” in the top five makes a ton of sense.
- The QB and TE positions are generally undervalued based on these league settings at nearly every price point. I would be okay chasing a top option or settling for a mid-tier option with upside for the right price, but given this data, I don’t want to draft $1 QB and TE starters and miss out on significant value.
- The WR position is generally overvalued at the top, but you can find some value later in the draft. I will plan to pass on the elite receivers and pursue value with mid-tier options.
After scanning the data overall, I filter the Auction sheet by position (see: POS column, second in from left, and filter) to spot any position-specific trends.
2025 AUCTION QB DRAFT STRATEGY
As a general rule, I like to budget the QB position last. In a single-QB league, there are typically viable options at any price point, while other positions often have steeper drop-offs in value. I found some great value at RB and WR, so I didn’t have much money left over for QB in this particular build.
If these were the true QB prices, I would prefer to draft cheap options. I went with Kyler Murray in this build because he’s a cheap option with significant value based on his projection. He is also a mobile quarterback with significant rushing upside. If you don’t like Kyler, Bo Nix, and Justin Fields are also cheap dual-threat options, and Dak Prescott has flashed significant upside before.
I have no problem targeting Josh Allen, Jayden Daniels, Jalen Hurts, or Lamar Jackson in your auction draft if you can fit them into your budget, but they have a real opportunity cost. Each is going for at least $26 on average, and Allen is much higher at $34. They didn’t fit on this particular build, but you can play around with the tool and try to build teams with an elite QB.
Two-QB leagues are, of course, different – adjust the settings in the tool to see their prices skyrocket.
2025 AUCTION RB DRAFT STRATEGY
Summary: Budget a huge portion for RBs. Try to secure at least one guy with high-end RB1 potential.
At first glance, many running backs are being undervalued by AAV, with a lot of positive sites skewing towards the top. It may seem like the optimal RB strategy would be to punt the position and stick with cheap options, but our goal is to draft players with league-winning upside.
As you can see, running backs with an ADP in the first four rounds are by far your best chance to draft league-winners. I want at least two players in this range with the best chance of dominating their team’s rushing and receiving share.
If the price is right, I would even consider drafting two of Christian McCaffrey, Jahmyr Gibbs, and Bijan Robinson, and Saquon Barkley since they are the clear top options at the position, but that won’t be realistic in most drafts. The Wolf is avoiding McCaffrey this year due to injury risk, but like in previous versions of this guide, I still believe he has the highest upside of any running back this year. I am happy to draft him in an auction, especially if I can get him a little cheaper than the top guys.
Josh Jacobs and Breece Hall look like great values based on the spreadsheet and are being drafted in the first four rounds, but there are many different alternatives in this range.
High-end backs are expensive, but I am willing to spend on them because I know I can find cheaper players at other positions to fill out my roster. If you play in a larger league, two elite backs might be too expensive, so I encourage you to download the tool and check out custom values based on your league settings.
2025 AUCTION WR DRAFT STRATEGY
If you can afford one top WR, go for it. But generally, after paying up for RBs, target the mid-tier WRs to round out your starting lineup. Then, load up on high-upside, low-cost “Penny Stocks” like Keenan Allen or unproven young guys like Jayden Higgins at the end of the draft.
Because the wide receiver position is deeper than running back, drafting a receiver to start in your flex spot is typically the best strategy in full-PPR leagues. But since the sample team is only half-PPR, I decided to plan for 3 RBs in the previous section, leaving only 2 receivers to round out the starting lineup.
Since we are planning on spending a lot on a high-level RB like McCaffrey, plus other expensive options in Josh Jacobs and Breece Hall, we need to save some money at receiver. Mike Evans and Tyreek Hill both stand out as potential elite options without elite price tags, and ESPN has them going for a total of $47 on average. Perfect for this team’s budget.
2025 AUCTION TE DRAFT STRATEGY
Most tight ends have positive site skews, meaning the position is collectively undervalued. You can build a team around almost any option, but the goal is to draft high-upside players. George Kittle is the Wolf’s favorite pick in fantasy football this year, and I completely agree. He has the upside to dominate the position, but you can get him for about $10-15 cheaper than Brock Bowers and Trey McBride.
Kittle has huge upside as Brock Purdy’s top target this year, and he would be my ideal TE in most auction builds this year.
If you miss out on him, I would recommend spending more at other positions, and spending a few dollars on someone like Mark Andrews, Tyler Warren, Tucker Kraft, or Evan Engram. All have potential to be top-2 target earners on their respective teams, a major key to producing an elite fantasy TE season.
AUCTION MOCK DRAFT SUMMARY
After breaking down the data by position, my initial plan would be to draft cheap QBs, a high-end running backs, mid-tier receivers with upside, and Kittle at tight end. A sample starting lineup I like would be something like this:
QB: Kyler Murray $4
RB: Christian McCaffrey $53
RB: Josh Jacobs $37
WR: Tyreek Hill $29
WR: Mike Evans $18
Flex: Breece Hall $14
TE: George Kittle $21
Total: $176
Note that this sample team is for a 10-team half-PPR league. Your league might be different, but you can still use the same process to generate a realistic sample team for your league.
If you dislike the players I selected, that’s okay! You can swap them for comparable alternatives and end up with a team you like better. Similarly, I can plug in alternatives if a few players go for more than expected.
This team should leave me with around $24 to draft bench players I like, as well as some breathing room to spend a bit more than I expect on a few players. I usually plan to spend about $180 on my starting lineup, so this fits perfectly.
I probably won’t finish my draft with this exact roster, but I can build a similar team in most drafts. To complement your first sample team, I would suggest having a list of similarly-priced alternative players you like for each starting spot to build your margin of safety. In addition, if you experiment and map out 5 or 10 different builds, you will likely have something that resembles your real draft, no matter how it shakes out.
DOWNLOAD THE ULTIMATE AUCTION TOOL
Our Auction Series is all you need to dominate your 2025 Fantasy Football Auction Drafts. Don’t miss a single part:
- Part 1: Setting Player Prices
- Part 2: Initial Game Plan and Budget by Position
- Part 3: In-game domination
