This article is part of our NFL Observations series.
We had our annual RotoWire Steak League auction today -- a 14-team, half-PPR, IDP league. The stakes are modest ($20 buy-in), but the side bet can be steep -- $500 worth of steak dinner if you finish last among your group of seven or eight.
Here are the results:
My auction went almost as well as could be expected -- until I made a grave error, a total mental lapse in the end game. The team is still okay, but it should have had so much more depth for almost no cost.
I started by going to the mat for Jonathan Taylor, and I got Najee Harris at a good price while doing some enforcement. Then I was patient. I pushed DK Metcalf up to $47, but let him go at $48, A.J. Brown to $41 before letting him go at $42, and Terry McLaurin to $42 before letting him go at $43. I already had two of my top-12 guys, and I had no problem shopping in the Amari Cooper ($23), Chris Godwin ($31) and Odell Beckham ($18) tier.
The key was to go cheap at QB and TE and save money to pick my spots in the end game. When Matthew Stafford came up I went to $7 and said to myself, "If it goes to $8, I'm out." It went to eight, and I had one stray thought, "What if Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars are a mess early on?" (My other remaining QB target was Lawrence.) So I smashed $9, and it stuck, leaving me with $11 for my flex and entire six-man bench.
Meanwhile -- and this was predictable -- Lawrence went for $2, Kirk Cousins and Matt Ryan $1. With that extra $7, I would have bought Jaylen Waddle ($4) and at least one more decent RB or WR.
Not the end of the world, but just a split-second loss of discipline. Hopefully, my starters stay healthy, as it would be a real shame to have to buy these nutless monkeys steak.
