On Saturday, June 13th, Belly Up Fantasy hosted it’s third Mock Draft, this time for Auction Leagues. The following is a recap of how my draft turned out, along with analysis of why I got guys when I did. This is the entire draft.

Budget: $200. Start 1QB, 2RB, 2WR, 1TE, 2 FLEX
QB: Tom Brady $2 Pick 98, Joe Burrow $18 Pick 1
RB: Saquon Barkley $71 Pick 3, Nick Chubb $48 Pick 15, Jordan Howard $1 Pick 94
WR: A.J. Brown $25 Pick 40, Darius Slayton $18 Pick 33, A.J. Green $8 Pick 46, Jarvis Landry $2 Pick 76
TE: Mike Gesicki $5 Pick 86, Rob Gronkowski $1 Pick 58

Auction drafting is, in my opinion, the most fun and exciting form of drafting there is. Every player is available to be had, as long as you are willing to spend. Teams nominate players to be bid on, and then the fun begins!

QB

Joe Burrow was the first player nominated In our auction mock. I saw his price at $7 and wanted to bid him up some to make other people spend more. As I went to increase the bid to $8, someone bid $17 and my bid became $18. This was my only setback in this draft. I wasn’t looking to spend $18 on Burrow, but the price didn’t enrage me and I figured this would be a fun way to see if I could still get the team I wanted. I feel I did.

Tom Brady was my last pick at 98, and he will be my starting QB to begin the season. $2 is amazing value for Brady, who I currently have as my QB12 in redraft formats.

RB

Saquon Barkley was nominated, and I knew coming into this auction mock I was going to be involved in acquiring him. He is my number one player on the board, and McCaffrey had just gone the pick before for $86. So I felt at $71 I got reasonable value for him. I wanted to lock down my RBs and then build the rest of my team with guys I figured would be cheaper later.

Nick Chubb was the next guy I targetted, as he was nominated 15th. $48 for him ate more into my budget, but again, RB is so important to me in auctions, and I was willing to spend over half my budget to lock down guys I knew would produce for me. Chubb fell just short of the rushing title in 2019, and I expect a solid year in 2020.

Jordan Howard was nominated by me at pick 94, and I suspected there would not be a bidding war for his services. I was correct. I got the starting RB at Miami for $1, and I am high on Miami in 2020. The value here for Howard was fantastic. He was signed prior to Breida who was available when they went and got Howard.

WR

Darius Slayton was nominated at pick 33, which is early to me in an auction mock, but guys I was drafting with know I love him. So I figured I might as well bid him up if people thought I would buy him. It worked out that I grabbed him for 9% of my budget, which to me is amazing value. I am seriously high on Slayton in 2020. He will be the unquestioned WR1 of potent NYG offense.

A.J. Brown is a guy I am higher on than anyone I have seen across the industry. Again, some of the guys I drafted against knew this so I was prepared to spend, and $25 really ate into my budget at this point. But I don’t care, I want my guys, and since RB had been locked down already, I splurged a bit to lock in the guy I have ranked as WR3 on my board.

A.J. Green then came up pick 46, and I felt his price point was too low to allow him to go to someone else. $8 bucks for a guy who prior to this season was widely considered a top-tier guy, and who I consider to be undervalued, sounded just fine to me.

Jarvis Landry at $2 is borderline theft. Landry is a ppr machine and outperformed OBJ last year. As a flex/depth position, this made way too much sense for me. I have Landry ranked higher than Beckham for 2020.

TE

Rob Gronkowski was a guy I nominated because I wanted Gesicki bad and wanted to put some TE up for nomination to force people into filling their rosters. Nobody bid on him, and I happily took Gronk for $1 to slot him into a flex/depth position.

Mike Gesicki is the guy I wanted all along. I knew some of the guys were aware of this, so when he came up, I was resigned to max bidding for him to acquire his services. Thankfully, I only had to spend $5 on him. I have him as TE3 in redraft format and am looking forward to him rewarding me for my insane exposure to him in 2020.

All in all, I am very satisfied with my roster. Getting Burrow early cramped my budget a bit, along with the hefty amount I spent to lock in my two stud RBs, but as you can see from my roster, I was able to flesh out a solid roster around those backs. I would feel confident heading into 2020 with this roster.

Want to practice mocking yourself? Think you can do better? Follow me @realryanhicks to see all of my work, and to get involved in our mocks. Follow BellyUpFantasy to stay up to date on all of our content. Get ready for BellyUp Fantasy consensus rankings, which will be coming soon and posted on the BellyUpFantasy website!