Payne's Perspective: Recapping the $10K Auction

This will be the last week of "Payne's Perspective" as I start writing my weekly waiver wire column with draft season fully under way. Recently in Las Vegas I participated in colleague Mark Stopa's $10K auction league draft, an industry draft made up of 12 experts. Two of the participants drafted via phone while the other 10 were present in a suite at The Cosmopolitan. Here are some notable details about this draft:

• Every owner has a $200 budget. It was decided before the draft that the K and DEF positions did not need to be drafted, those spots could be used to take other position players.

• The rosters differ from a normal drafts in that there are three starting wide receivers, two starting tight ends, a flex spot (RB/WR/TE) and a super flex spot (QB/RB/WR/TE). Essentially, it's a two-QB league with the super flex spot, though an owner doesn't necessarily have to choose to do that.

• Complete results of the draft by owner are here.

• Here are my results:

QB Ryan Tannehill - 17
QB Teddy Bridgewater - 15
RB LeSean McCoy - 36
RB Melvin Gordon - 33
RB Joseph Randle - 19
RB Jay Ajayi - 1
RB Stevan Ridley - 1
RB Jerick McKinnon - 1
WR Odell Beckham - 47
WR Martavis Bryant - 19
WR Breshad Perriman - 3
WR Marqise Lee - 1
TE Jason Witten - 3
TE Mychal Rivera - 1
TE Jared Cook - 1
K Stephen Gostkowski - 1
DEF Buffalo - 2

• Quarterback is the most important position as it scores the most points making it necessary, in my opinion, to roster at least two. I decided that if I missed out on the upper-tier options, I'd go with two upside options that are young and haven't hit their peak yet. Tannehill has Jarvis Landry, DeVante Parker (when he's healthy), Kenny Stills, Jordan Cameron and veteran Greg Jennings. Bridgewater has Charles Johnson, Mike Wallace, Cordarrelle Patterson (not that I'm expecting much), Jarius Wright and Kyle Rudolph. Both of these quarterbacks have above average options at tight end, a wide receiver to stretch the field (Wallace/Stills) and a wide receiver with the skill set to be a No. 1 (Parker/Johnson). I tried to pair up Johnson with Bridgewater but was outbid by $1 ($6) when I could only max out at $5. I'm not thrilled Tannehill plays my defense (Buffalo) twice, so all I can do is cross my fingers for a couple of pick-six's (scoring my defense points and putting the ball right back in Tannehill's hands).

• So much of my team was about taking upside, which can raise the ceiling but also potentially lowers the floor. With my running backs, LeSean McCoy was a nice solid, rock to build around. I came into the draft targeting either Melvin Gordon or Todd Gurley and was higher on the former given his cleaner bill of health. I was disappointed to get Gordon for 33 considering Gurley only went for 17, but there was no way of knowing that was going to happen at the time I drafted Gordon. Still, Gordon should be a workhorse this season as long as he doesn't go the Montee Ball route. I'm still on the Joseph Randle bandwagon, and while $19 wasn't any type of steal, there's plenty of upside for him to outproduce this price. Jay Ajayi is a great $1 flier who will see touches from the start of the season and could unseat Lamar Miller at some point. Jerick McKinnon and Stevan Ridley have their upside, but I probably should have used one of those picks to add some more wide-receiver depth.

• My wide receiver corps likely left me open to criticism. Odell Beckham at $47 was the most expensive wide receiver taken, though 4-5 others were within $5 of his price. He was the one player I was willing to go to any price to get, and the takeaway is to make sure you get the player or players you want in a draft. There was no way I was walking away from this draft without Beckham only to watch him go off for another team. Martavis Bryant was another upside target, and if he can come close to pro-rating what he did from Week 7 and on last season, he'll pay off nicely. Here's where it gets a bit dicey. As I said earlier, everything would have come together had I not had my max bid outbid by $1 on Charles Johnson. As a result, I had to go with Breshad Perriman, a rookie wide receiver for the Ravens. Perriman should have the opportunity to start opposite an aging Steve Smith and doesn't have a ton of competition. Marc Trestman should help the offensive passing game, and Perriman possesses the skill set to make an immediate impact provided he gets the drops under control. Both Allen Robinson and Marqise Lee were on my radar as end-game picks, as the Jaguars passing offense should be much better. Getting the latter for $1 offers decent promise as he likely has as much of a chance as Robinson to be the main target in the passing game. Again, I probably needed to take one more wide receiver for my bench as opposed to three running backs.

• Tight end is interesting, especially with the requirement to start two. I was in on the Jordan Cameron bidding, partially in hopes of pairing him with Tannehill. Witten isn't a huge risk for $3, though Father Time is going to catch up to him at some point. Still, he's always been Tony Romo's safety blanket, and I don't have too high of an expectation for his production given his price. Mychal Rivera fits the mold of my "upside" team who just needs to take his second half of the season and carry it over to a full season. Derek Carr should be on the rise in his second season, and Rivera was second on the team in a few categories, including targets. Jared Cook, who seems to have never have filled his potential, makes for an adequate third option on my bench and could end up being one of my first drops when waivers roll around.

• It may have been a mistake to take a kicker (especially one with an early bye) and a defense as opposed to taking two more position players. However, I'm not going to have the headache of trying to stream the positions every week; I can just plug them in. Of course, I'll feel better about Gostkowski if Brady's suspension is reduced. It's worth noting that waivers start in a couple weeks, so it's not like the rosters are locked until Week 1 or the week before Week 1. Therefore, the kicker and defense spots that could have been used for position players aren't quite as valuable.

• You'll see regular updates on this league throughout the season as there are five RotoWire writers, as well as myself, participating. Again, there's $10,000 at stake, so it's a fun league yet there's some serious money to be won. Feel free to let me know in the comments sections what I did right or, more likely, where I screwed up.