The mock auctions are now back online again for the 2013 season.  Go try a mock auction now.  Here’s a screen shot from an auction:

They are still a bit buggy, so please be patient and be active in reporting bugs as you see them.  It’s a new application that will be constantly improved over the next few weeks.

The NFL Draft is over, and the dust is starting to settle.  In the first ADP update of 2013, no rookies have gone higher than the 6th round, where Le’Veon Bell is being drafted on average at 6.12.

Here is a highlight of the top four rookies in standard scoring ADP for 12-team leagues:

Le’Veon Bell – RB (PIT) ADP: 6.12

Bell stayed under the radar until the Steelers grabbed him in the second round.  He has a clear shot at the lead role, and could become a bruiser that racks up yardage.  He doesn’t have the upside of an elite-level running back, but could be a solid RB2 this year.

Montee Ball – RB (DEN) ADP: 7.01

Montee Ball was drafted in the late second round into a solid situation in Denver.  He has a clear path to getting a lot of carries if he can prove that his college production translates well to the NFL.  He’s a bruiser with a slow 40 time (4.66) but good instincts.

Eddie Lacy – RB (GB) ADP: 7.08

Going into the draft, Lacy was the highest rated running back in many mock drafts, but ended up as the 4th RB off of the board.  His landing spot seemed ideal until Jonathan Franklin (ADP: 11.01) got drafted by the Packers two rounds later.  His value will stay capped until he can prove that he’s better than Franklin and that he can stay healthy.

Tavon Austin – WR (STL) ADP: 8.04

The speedster out of WVU was the first receiver off the board in the NFL draft, and he’s the first receiver going in fantasy drafts as well.  Tavon Austin is expected to produce immediately in St. Louis and should do even better in PPR leagues.  If you don’t think that his size is an issue (only 174 pounds) then target him in the mid-eighth round.

Conclusion

The rookies are starting low, but are climbing up the ADP charts.  Go do a mock draft now to stay on top of where these guys are being drafted.

I just got done with a draft in the Footballguys Players Championship.  It’s a really fun contest where you can win a bunch of money.  First place for the regular season is $2,500, and you can win up to $150,000 if you win the whole thing.

If you haven’t checked it out, here are the contest rules.  It’s a unique format that’s PPR, except for TE’s who get 1.5 PPR.  There are two flex spots also, so the lineups can vary greatly from team to team.

There are a few draft spots open up until September 5th, so hurry up and join a league!

You can now host a private draft with the Commish Membership!

Schedule the draft whenever you want it, and then send custom invite codes to your league mates.

Your league gets it’s own draft lobby, and uses the same draft interface that’s used for the mock drafts.

It’s great for hosting your real draft, or for doing private mock drafts.

Read about Private Draft Hosting on the applications page.

When you’re ready, sign up for the Commish Membership here.

Quick update:

The draftboard view of the ADP page now has clickable functionality.

Click on a player on the table, and it darkens their cell. Click again to un-toggle. This can be used as a quick-and-dirty draft guide to track who has been taken in your draft so far.

Try it now!

Mock auctions just went live.

They’re very new, and there’s probably some bugs. Please send feedback if you experience any problems.  Consider this a beta period while the kinks get worked out.

The first auctions are just standard scoring for 10 and 12 leagues, and more formats will be added soon.

They’re pretty exciting.  If you haven’t done an auction before, you really should try it.  The pace is much faster, and it’s more fair than a draft because you have a chance to get every player.

So take a breather from drafting and go try a mock auction now.

This off-season has seen a lot of action. In this first edition of the 2012 ADP Update, let’s see how some wide receivers were affected by recent changes.

Hakeem Nicks Breaks His Foot

On May 26h, Hakeem Nicks had surgery to repair a broken bone in his foot. Although it isn’t considered too serious, it has affected both his and Victor Cruz’s draft value:

The recovery time is expected to be 12 weeks, which means he’ll miss all of the summer, but is expected to be ready for week 1. His drop in ADP reflects that fantasy owners may have some concerns about his recovery time and whether he’ll be 100% when he comes back.

Brandon Marshall’s trade from the Dolphins to the Bears was seen as positive. His ADP jumped from the end of the 3rd round to the beginning of the 3rd, and is still climbing:

Being reunited with Jay Cutler has increased expectations for Marshall, who had two 100 reception seasons with Cutler in Denver.

Greg Little is a second-year WR that led Cleveland last year with 61 catches, 709 yards, but only had 2 touchdowns. When Cleveland drafted Trent Richardson with the 3rd overall pick in the draft, it was seen as an improvement to the entire Browns offense, and Little benefited:

Little should see some improvement in his second season, and the addition of Richardson should open more room in the secondary for him.

For all the ADP data you can handle, including new and improved graphs, check out the ADP page, which is updated daily.

A new draft tool launched this week, it’s called the Scenario Calculator.  Check it out, it’s completely free.

It aims to be a more interactive way to look at ADP data.  ADP is useful, but when you’re drafting, a player’s ADP is the point at which there’s a 50% chance that they’ll be drafted already.  If there’s a player you really like, you probably want better odds than that of drafting them.

The Scenario Calculator can help here.  Plug in your league size and league type, and then pick a draft spot that you’ll be at.  The Scenario Calculator then takes that day’s ADP data and tells you what the chance is of each player being there at that pick.  The calculations involve not only the player’s average position, but the standard deviation as well.

Here is a screen shot of it:

It’s a free tool that gives you more insight into your draft, so try it out now.

A much-requested feature just launched today.  You can now create custom rankings to use in the mock drafts.

Here is a screen shot of managing the rankings from within your dashboard:

This feature is available to all Premium Members.

To manage your rankings, go to your user dashboard and click the ‘Custom Rankings’ tab.  From there, you can create and edit separate rankings for Standard and PPR/Flex draft formats.

If you’re not yet a Premium Member, you can sign up here.

Here’s a quick update to let everyone know about some improvements to the user dashboard recently:

• Mock draft list now shows 50 drafts
• Mock drafts archived by year
• Improved formatting of mock drafts table
• Easier to navigate to Draft Simulator, Draft Calculator, and Lineup Calculator pages

You can see the changes on your dashboard, and if you don’t have a free account yet, you can create one here.

Also, there was a glitch in the PPR rankings that caused QBs to be ranked higher than they should be. That has just now been fixed, and you should be able to draft with reasonable rankings again.  It was part of an update to the ranking system that will keep the rankings updated every day.

Lastly, bye weeks have been updated to reflect the NFL schedule that was announced today.