Questions from a Salary Cap beginner

[msp]

What are some good rules of thumb that beginners to Salary Cap leagues should know? What % of my budget should be spent on starters? Should I take more of a redraft or dynasty view when making my rankings? What's a normal % of budget for a top player to take up? What % of my budget should I generally leave unallocated to allow for picking up FA's, dealing with dead money penalties, etc?

[will6779]

How many teams in your league, starters and scoring? Is it idp? These factors weigh in a little more for cap leagues.

[msp]

16 teams. 1 QB, 1 RB, 1 WR, 1 TE, 3 Flex, no IDP. 18 man rosters. 1-4 year contracts, max total 50 years. 0.5 PPR, 5 points per passing TD, rest of scoring is pretty standard.

[will6779]

With small rosters ( 18). Like that i would go hot and heavy on my starting 7 and lock them up for 3-4 years each. I wouldnt have a problem spending up to 70% of my cap on them then waiting till prices come down and fill out the rest of my roster, you can get some really good deals if you wait it out. . I wouldnt sign them to long contracts unless i got a good deal on a player that has upside. Im assuming you are having an auction draft.

[msp]

I wouldnt have a problem spending up to 70% of my cap on them then waiting till prices come down and fill out the rest of my roster

At what point am I definitely spending too much on just my starters? 80%? 85%? 90%? 90 definitely seems high, but 70 seems just a little low.

[will6779]

Also try to keep in mind how your cap penalties and next years fas rules work. If you leave yourself some cap room there may be some bargains. Ex. Someone overspends on the auction badly and only signs his top players to one year contracts to get out from underneath them. With the whole league already commited to there core players, that player can be had for alot less than what he should of went for in the startup auction. It pays to look ahead.

[will6779]

I wouldnt go over 80%. It pays to have some depth in a 16 teamer. Also , i dont like my top player to be more than 15% of my cap. You will see players going higher but let the other teams deal with the contract. The more they spend the better deals you will get.

[bruiser]

I budget 95% of the cap for the auction. This leaves 5% for acquisitions and taxi squad promotions (if you have that). Also, don't be concerned so much with starter/bench budgets. Just like you shouldn't draft for team "needs", don't be concerned with "starters" in an auction; always buy the best value. Spend your money more wisely than the rest of league and they will be begging you for trades. You should always be looking for trade opportunities after an auction draft. If you're not tradin, your not tryin.

[msp]

Also, don't be concerned so much with starter/bench budgets. Just like you shouldn't draft for team "needs", don't be concerned with "starters" in an auction; always buy the best value.

I definitely agree with that. I just don't have a great sense of what % of my budget should be allocated to my top players so I feel like it would be hard to determine when a player is a good value.

[TommyL31]

To add to the startup auction logic. If it's a slow auction, in addition to having numbers for every player's 'worth' keep track of what guys are going for relative to those numbers so you have an aggregate idea of how the auction is going overall. This will help you determine whether people are overpaying or not. This always helps me determine whether to strike now or wait out the crazy bidding for all of the good values to fall through.

[bruiser]

To add to the startup auction logic. If it's a slow auction, in addition to having numbers for every player's 'worth' keep track of what guys are going for relative to those numbers so you have an aggregate idea of how the auction is going overall. This will help you determine whether people are overpaying or not. This always helps me determine whether to strike now or wait out the crazy bidding for all of the good values to fall through.

Regardless of the crazy bidding, stay your course

[TommyL31]

To add to the startup auction logic. If it's a slow auction, in addition to having numbers for every player's 'worth' keep track of what guys are going for relative to those numbers so you have an aggregate idea of how the auction is going overall. This will help you determine whether people are overpaying or not. This always helps me determine whether to strike now or wait out the crazy bidding for all of the good values to fall through.

Regardless of the crazy bidding, stay your course. Especially if the league is super deep. The more depth, the better for you. Your top spend could be the 25th highest paid player, but you'll slam the midsection and gobble up everyone that they "wanted" yet didn't budget for. Not to mention, you'll be in good shape each year under the cap.

You will be able to weather injuries better, too. Necessity.....

Agreed and wasn't suggesting to participate in crazy bidding (when people are over bidding) but sometimes a few early studs will go cheap as well and you need to know that. People often overbid early but if they are under bidding you need to react because when that happens that drives up later values of everyone else.

[bruiser]

Tommy, all good. I didn't take your comments as suggestive. I was just adding to your insight