The only thing worse than auto draft, is not playing fantasy football. How dastardly is it that some leagues do a mandatory auto draft. I did one, once. You can rank players and prepare what you think will happen, but when some Lions homer takes Matthew Stafford with the third overall pick, you have to adapt.
Humans have survived as long as we have because we adapt. Fantasy football is not a matter of survival, but the ability to adapt to the draft in front of you is usually the difference between a playoff team or not. If you can’t make your draft you have two options, find a proxy that knows what he or she is doing, or get stuck with a nightmare team.
I asked around and got some stories of auto drafts gone horribly wrong. Probably the most common nightmare scenario is the team with three top quarterbacks and no running backs. Could you imagine taking Tom Brady and Matthew Stafford with your first two picks? Auto draft can. What about the guy who ended up with Antonio Gates, Jason Witten, and Tony Gonzalez. Who needs three tight ends? Auto draft does. You know how you don’t end up handcuffing your stud running back? Let auto draft take over and you won’t get Ben Tate to help when Arian Foster’s hammy tightens up.
Fantasy Draft Proxies is an easy solution to this nightmare scenario. You can’t dominate your fantasy football league unless you dominate your draft. You can’t dominate your draft if you auto draft.