Caveat (Auto)Drafter

There's no denying the popularity of fantasy football drafts. Many of you will be participating in more than one between now and Labor Day, including those of you who sign up for the People's League (hint, hint). If you go to a million Web sites, you will probably get a million different strategies and pointers for handling your draft. We at the People's Pigskin would like to offer one tip at this time:

Treat the autodraft option the way you would your seat cushion on an airplane: something to be used only in an emergency.

Earlier tonight, I was involved in a live draft for another league. I arrived in the draft room about a half-hour in advance. A few of the players arrived just a few minutes before the scheduled start.

Some never arrived at all. They relied on their pre-selected player lists and the autodraft option.

The results speak for themselves. In the fifth round, one of the auto-drafters picked Sidney Rice. This would have been a fine pick last week, before we learned that he might miss the first half of the season. In the seventh round, that auto-drafter picked Vincent Jackson, who is facing a three-game suspension and may miss even more time than that.

Now, if you have to use the automated draft option because of a family emergency or something, go over your list verrrrrry carefully. You don't want to be the one starting this guy because your list was out of date.