The $20 Draft
An auction draft you play against a friend. Everybody gets the same budget and the same empty roster. Players come up one at a time, you bid or you pass, and at the end the rosters go side by side. Pick a sport.
The $20 Draft
Auction NFL players against your friend. Same budget, same empty roster. Outbid them, or let them overpay.
Josh Allen
Final rosters
Judge for yourself first. Then flip the ratings.
How to play
The setup
Two to four players, one screen. Single-position modes give you $20 for five players. Lineup and team modes give you $30 for a full roster ($40 for the nine-bat MLB lineup and the soccer Starting XI), with every position mixed into one deck, and you can only bid on someone if you still have a spot for them.
Bidding
Cards come up one at a time in a random order. The opening seat rotates, the opening bid is $1, and the turn goes around the circle: raise or pass. Once you pass you're out on that player. When only one bidder is left standing, he's theirs at the current price. If everyone passes on the opening, he's gone for good.
Two skips
Each player gets two skips for the whole game. Passing when nobody has bid yet costs a skip. Once your skips are gone you have to open the bidding on whoever comes up, so nobody can wave through every bench player waiting for a star. Passing on someone else's bid is always free.
The budget rule
You can never bid so much that you can't afford $1 for each spot you still have to fill. The game caps your bids automatically.
No hiding
When a player fills their roster, the auction carries on without them. Once only one player is left with open spots, passing is off for them: they take whoever comes up next at $1 until the roster is full. And when the deck is down to exactly as many cards as there are open spots for a position, passing locks for everyone, so nobody finishes with an empty slot.
The deck
Every deck is about 85% starters and 15% bench, and the bench shows up late. The deck grows with the player count. Wait too long for the perfect card and you're drafting backups.
The verdict
Rosters go side by side first so you can argue. Then reveal the hidden ratings for a score, a grade, the steal of the draft and the biggest overpay.
The ratings
Current NFL players carry their Madden NFL 27 overall rating, every position including defense. Current NBA players are rated on 2025-26 per-game production (points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, twenty-game minimum). Current F1 drivers and constructors are rated on 2026 championship points. Current MLB hitters are rated on 2026 fantasy points per game on a curve for their position (runs, hits, extra bases, homers, RBI, steals, walks; forty-game minimum), starters per start on innings, strikeouts, wins and runs allowed, relievers per game with saves and holds on top. Current soccer strikers are rated on 2025-26 league goals and assists per 90 minutes (discounted outside the big five leagues), wingers half on that and half editorial; midfielders, defenders and keepers are editorial, because the box score doesn't measure them. Hover a rating on the verdict screen to see its basis. Coaches, rookies, players who barely played, NFL players Madden doesn't list, and every all-time pool are editorial calls, and say so.
On a computer
Keys 1, 2 and 3 bid. P or space passes.