Chasing the Perfect Salary Cap Draft

Photo: Ken Blaze, USA Today Sports

Succeeding in a salary cap draft takes more preparation than a normal serpentine draft. You need to be able to approximate what the prices will look like, figure out your own strategy for attacking the draft, divide up your cap dollars among the positions according to their importance, and then map out what you think a blueprint for success looks like.

For this blueprint, we will assume the following conditions:

• 12 Team League
• $200 salary cap
• Starting Roster: 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 K, 1 DEF
• Each roster will have 16 players
• PPR Scoring
• Normal redraft setting where teams set their lineups every week and can add and drop players from the waiver wire

In a salary cap draft, it is not as simple as showing up and trying to buy cheap players. Oftentimes cheaper players are priced that way for a reason, and other times those players can be good values but not provide the punch and upside you want your team to have. To figure out how to find value and also find top players, you'll have to use your blueprint to keep you on course. Here is how to do that.

Player Values

Salary cap drafts have come far enough that you don't need to reinvent the wheel to come up with values for all the players. The easiest way to approach your values is to use the Footballguys Salary Cap Values. It is also not a bad idea to find different sets of player dollar values on the internet to give you a proper sampling of what the market is doing to help you dial in what your own values should be.

At a minimum, you should come up with tier breaks at every position and make sure the prices reflect the drops in value. For example, after the second running back (Christian McCaffrey) is off the board, there is a tier break before RB3, Bijan Robinson. There is a corresponding drop of $18 in value from McCaffrey to Robinson on the Footballguys Salary Cap Value page. This is just an example, and those tier breaks could differ on your own sheet if you want to make your own values. But the main point here is critical: tiers are not just important in salary cap drafts; they are essential. So this is one of the more important steps in preparation for the draft.

One thing to remember is that if you aren't using the Footballguys values, it isn't necessary to be perfect when apportioning your own dollar values up and down your cheat sheet. It is more important to get a snapshot of how the community is seeing salary cap values in the days leading up to your draft. When you get in the draft, understand that the values you have are just a guideline. Player prices fluctuate from draft to draft based on when they are nominated, who is bidding, and what money is left in the room. Don't be too rigid following what the prices are supposed to be, or you will have an uneven draft. Instead, follow your pre-draft plan, and if a player you want fits your allotted salary for that slot, you will stay on track.

Allocating Your Cap Dollars

In recent years I have found it profitable to follow a strategy where I do the following:

• Roster one good running back and one nearly elite wide receiver
• A quarterback who is not bargain basement but won't command a top price - usually something in the $8-$12 range
• Several cheap tight ends that allow a chance to find a breakout player but don't command a large percentage of the salary cap
• Attack the wide receiver value from Amon-Ra St. Brown (WR7) down to Mike Evans (WR34) and land as many highly ranked players from this group as cheaply as possible
• Draft two to three rotational running backs that can serve as an RB2
• Spend almost nothing on Kicker and Team Defense

This year things are shifting a bit in salary cap draft rooms as wide receivers have become increasingly in demand. While this formula outlined here is still a good one, it is likely that more money needs to be pushed to the wide receiver spot this year to accomplish the same goal as in previous years. It is also a little bit easier to find a high-volume RB2 this year, and finding a relatively cheap one gives you the freedom to push more money to wide receiver.

Finding Value During the Draft

Before the draft, you should compare your values from your own cheatsheet or value sheet with the numbers you have allocated to the positions on your blueprint. This enables you to have a snapshot of what your team will look like should you land the perfect player for every spot. Drafting the perfect player means that you rostered the best possible player you could afford for that position while sticking to the strategy you envisioned ahead of time.

A good way to find value is to make sure to remember that you cannot let tiers get too scarce before you attack them. Nominating a player you want, like Tee Higgins, will have a higher probability of finding value if Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson, and Jaylen Waddle are still available.

You can also find value by paying attention to players who have not generated a lot of buzz from their camp performance or preseason game performance or who are coming back from playing through injury in 2022. There are plenty of players who are disrespected by fantasy drafters for some reason, and finding those players usually nets strong value in a salary cap draft. Najee Harris is an example of this for 2023 drafts.

Your 2023 Salary Cap Draft Blueprint

Based on these ideas, here is what a possible team could look like for your 16-man roster in a 12-team league. If you land a player for cheaper than you had allocated, then don't be afraid to overpay at another position, using that extra money to improve somewhere else. Value is only important insofar as it helps further your strategy. Don't get caught up trying to score a deal on every player. If you pay more than a player is worth but land an impact player within the framework of your strategy, it does not matter what the raw dollar value was. You can't take the money with you, so keep track of where you are relative to what you wanted to spend. Here is my favorite strategy and the team you can try and land from it. Continue reading below to find out how to execute it.