Photo: USA Today Sports

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So, your league has decided to do a salary cap draft. It may seem daunting at first, and it is natural to have some anxiety about it, but there are some simple things you can learn right from the start that help you become a proficient drafter, even if you have little to no experience. Using the salary cap draft format demands a different skill set than drafting in a normal serpentine fantasy draft. It requires a level of attention that serpentine drafting does not, and a lot of emotion is also involved. Controlling that emotion with preparation and sound strategy is how you win your salary cap draft. Here are some basic concepts to learn to get off to a fast start.

Salary Cap Draft Concept #1 – Budget Management

If your salary cap draft is online the website software does a lot of the heavy lifting for you by keeping track of everyone’s money, how much their maximum bid is, and how many roster spots are still left to be filled on everyone’s teams. But if you’re drafting in a live salary cap draft you will have to do some extra preparation.

It cannot be undersold how important it is to keep meticulous records as the draft proceeds. Keeping track of everyone’s cap situation with a pencil and paper is possible, but that’s not recommended. Instead, using a computer spreadsheet is the way to go, or better yet, the Draft Dominator from Footballguys is the best piece of software out there to track a salary cap draft. To become a top-tier drafter in this format, you must know what every player in the room is doing, or your rosters will never reach their full potential. You will bump up against most, or all, of the other managers in the room as you bid during the draft and your decisions can’t be informed unless you know everyone’s cap situation at every moment. Make this a priority before you learn anything else.

Another essential function of budget management is learning to spend your money at the appropriate time. That may sound easy, but walking the fine line between spending enough but not spending too fast is the eternal struggle for drafters in a salary cap draft. Some managers get carried away buying too many top-level players when the draft starts; others shrink from the moment and don’t spend enough. The best way to walk this fine line is budget management and meticulous record keeping. Every time someone lands a player, you should see what that does to that manager’s team, their ability to buy players going forward, and how it shifts their needs. Those factors are then internalized so you can call upon them the next time that drafter is bidding for a player. Remember that the salary cap format doesn’t have big lulls like a serpentine draft. Instead, you’ll be forced to constantly assess and reevaluate every drafter’s positions (as well as your own) as you go because there is no time to go through that process when the bid timer is ticking down.

The final thing to mention is one you’ll hear a lot about, but it’s important enough to warrant a comment. You must spend all your money. Even if you get near the end of the draft and there aren’t many players left that you care about, you should still spend all you can on whatever is left. You may not need a third quarterback or a second defense, but sometimes rostering a strong player is less about your roster and more about keeping them from someone else. Landing Tua Tagovailoa or the San Francisco defense when you don’t need them is still correct if you have money and roster spots to burn. Spend. The. Money. If you finish the draft and find that you have a small amount of $4-$6 left, it’s still a mistake because that money could’ve easily gone towards upgrading a position on your team. Failing to be aggressive in spending your whole cap will hurt your team’s upside.