2017 Fantasy Football Draft Prep: Here are six simple rules to land Odell Beckham, Le'Veon Bell and whoever else you want in your auction draft

If you're into bidding and nominating instead of snaking and waiting, these tips based on our 12-person auction will help set you apart from the rest of your league.

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It is disappointing to keep seeing Fantasy leagues stick to traditional snake drafts rather than go toward the fun and excitement of auctions.

What the heck is wrong with you guys?!

Auctions are amazing. It's the only way to build a Fantasy dream team. In our 12-team auction this week, Chris Towers has Antonio Brown and Julio Jones. Jeff Gerttula has Le'Veon Bell and Devonta Freeman. George Maselli has David Johnson and Ezekiel Elliott. You cannot get those combinations in typical drafts! 

Auctions are also way more fun. League trash talk literally begins on Draft Day as material you can use to badger teammates forms and can last throughout the season. You don't think I'm going to give Jamey Eisenberg an earful about spending $12 on Ameer Abdullah?! 

Ultimately, auctions are where Fantasy owners go for a next-level experience. And because they're a completely different breed than snake drafts, the strategies involved aren't the same. 

Using the results of our auction, here are some major pointers you can think about using in your leagues.

1. Have a plan

My favorite advice for auction drafters is to create tiers by position, and then by expectation. By grouping them together in advance and then keeping track of who goes for what amount, you'll have a "road map" that shows you how much to expect to pay for players at various Fantasy values as the draft moves on.  

Here's a small example of one of my tiers for quarterback: 

Elite	Excellent	Very Good
Aaron Rodgers	Drew Brees	Matt Ryan
Tom Brady		Kirk Cousins

Early on, Ryan went for $5, then Rodgers went for $12. Immediately, a range could be assumed for the other passers based on this information. Sure enough, Brady was won for $10, while Brees sold for $6. I waited for Cousins and got him after 101 other players were nominated, including 11 quarterbacks. While I was prepared to spend up to $5, I landed him for $2. Knowing the market on players within a tier will help you determine "fair" prices to bid. 

If you don't do this then you could fall prey to overspending. Pierre Garcon ($11) and Christian McCaffrey ($17) were some early examples of that from our auction. 

2. Don't blow all your money early

The above example also plays into the time-honored tradition of waiting to spend some of your budget for the back half of the nominations. A good rule to live by is saving at least 20 percent of your budget for the last 50 percent of the auction. That way you'll have some change left over to use when bargains typically come into play. I consider Tyreek Hill ($6) and Jarvis Landry ($3) two such steals because I waited to fill out my lineup. 

It's also potentially vital to any gameplan to wait for your quarterback. The position is deep and you should plan to spend little on passers you can find later on. Kirk Cousins ($2), Ben Roethlisberger ($2), Andrew Luck ($3), and especially Derek Carr and Philip Rivers (a measly $1 each) were examples from our draft. 

Bargains and steals are what make or break your team in auctions. If you want to come away from your auction happy, follow this rule. 

3. ... but don't wait too long ... 

Two folks in the auction, Jamey Eisenberg and Jeff Tobin, waited a while to start getting players. It led to two interesting moments past the halfway point. With Eisenberg and Tobin both starved for running backs, Doug Martin was the 97th nomination and a small bidding war ensued, with Eisenberg getting him for $8. 

The very next nomination was Ameer Abdullah, and a much larger fight went down. Both bidders were so aggressive that Abdullah wound up on Eisenberg's team for $12! That's more than DeAndre Hopkins, Demaryius Thomas, Joe Mixon, Mark Ingram and as much as Rodgers! 

We're not done. About 10 nominations later, Tobin got into another brouhaha for Thomas Rawls and had to pony up $10 for his services, a buck more than Carlos Hyde and C.J. Anderson!

And finally, Eisenberg found himself with $10 left to spend on one roster spot, so he dropped the whole thing on Samaje Perine. There should be some sort of gag gift for Fantasy owners who waste their dough like this. 

It's okay to wait for bargains, but don't let the good players pass you by! There's no worse feeling that being forced to overspend for a good-but-not-great player because you waited too long to fill some needs. 

4. ... and don't Be like Mike

Mike Kiser is one of the best guys around at CBS Sports. He loves sports, especially football, but he might not be big on spending. With 100 fake dollars to spend on football players in a Fantasy league, Kiser left an astounding $33 on the table after the auction! 

Had he taken the $33 he didn't spend and the $6 he used to land Adrian Peterson, he would have been able to get David Johnson on his team. 

You can't turn your fake dollars into something you can spend in the real world, so don't be afraid to bid. When you're on the fence about adding that extra dollar to get a player you like, GO FOR IT. 

5. Spend smart

It never hurts to develop a strategy for how you plan to spend your budget. For instance, if you really like David Johnson or Le'Veon Bell, you should prepare to pony up at least 30 percent of what you've got on either. Two owners went that route in our auction. Or, if you really are focused on a balance approach, ignore anyone who will cost you more than 20 percent of your budget. Jeff Tobin went that way and he's got a nice receiving corps. 

You can also plot a scheme around specific positions. My goal coming into the auction was to lock up the top two running backs from teams I expected to be run heavy, but without spending more than 30 percent of my budget on each duo.  

Part 1: LeSean McCoy was nominated 12th. Knowing that Johnson went for $38 and that Jordan Howard fetched $21, I was prepared to spend as much as $25 just on McCoy. I wound up getting him for $23. 

Part 2: I was up two nominations later and knew my best chance to land a pair of Bills rushers was to nominate Shady's backup, Jonathan Williams. I did it for $2 since I didn't believe anyone would bid $3. My plan worked and I had both Bills for $25. Success! 

Part 3: All offseason long I knew I wanted to get the Titans running backs on my auction team because it's much easier to get them in this format than a draft. So when DeMarco Murray was nominated 30th overall, I sprung into action. I think I paid a bit too much at $23, but since I got the Bills guys at $25 total, I had a few extra bucks to play with. I would not have gone higher. Of course, getting Murray also meant getting ... 

Part 4: Leave it to my colleague, Jamey Eisenberg, to nominate Derrick Henry when he knew I had to have him. Not only did he put Henry out there, but he did it with a $3 bid, meaning I had to spend at least $4 to get him. It was very smart of Jamey, but it didn't deter me in the least. 

I spent a total of 52 percent of my budget for the Bills and Titans backfields. By comparison, Maselli dished out 59 percent on David Johnson and Ezekiel Elliott, and Gerttula laid out 58 percent on Le'Veon Bell and Devonta Freeman. No other owner exceeded 40 percent of the budget on their starting running backs, and several were under 30 percent. However, I was fine with the extravagance, especially since the 52 percent essentially covered four roster spots and secured the best two running backs from those teams for the entire season. No matter what happens to McCoy or Murray, I'm set.

You could also do this plan with receivers -- Towers unloaded 66 percent of his budget on Antonio Brown and Julio Jones while Brinson came away with A.J. Green, Michael Thomas and Willie Snead (locking into the Saints) for 61 percent. 

6. Nominations matter

Not only should you enter your Fantasy drafts knowing who you want, but you should also enter knowing who you don't want. And in auctions, knowing who you don't want can be to your advantage. 

Assuming you don't want to just get your $1 bids for a DST and a kicker out of the way first, you should begin your nominations with players you don't want. This forces other owners to spend their moolah, and you want them to do that so you don't have to battle them for the guys you do want later.

If you take the extra step to keep track of your opponents' rosters, you'll also know what their needs are. During our auction I focused on Eisenberg's team and his needs and floated some running backs hoping he would overspend on them. As you know by now, he totally did. Good ol' $12 Abdullah. 

If you're into handcuffing your running backs like I was with McCoy and Murray, then nominating them for a couple of bucks is in your best interests. Remember, if you nominate them for $2, it means someone will have to go $3 to take them away from you. Most handcuffs don't go for $3.