Spiderman said:
I believe it drafts by next available player, no matter what the position. So if all of your running back slots are filled and the next available is a running back, you're still going to pick him (leaving a slot open somewhere when the draft is finished, say Defense or Kicker or whatever).
Spidey,
I'm sorry to say your Spidey-sense gave you a false positive on this one. I actually just read up on the Yahoo! draft process (having signed up for two autodrafts) and the procedure is as follows:
Each league has a set number of starting roster spots (e.g. 2 qbs, 2 rbs, etc.)
The autodraft will select players from the start of your list, regardless of position, but it will fill all starting slots before selecting backups.
For the purposes of this league, if you set your autodraft queue such that you list 32 quarterbacks at the top of your list, followed by 32 running backs, your draft will be:
QB
QB
RB
RB
RB (to fill the WR/RB slot)
highest ranked non-QB non-RB player
The one thing I'm not positive about is whether it will select that third RB or if it considers WR/RB or WR/TE as a "backup" role. But it won't draft 32 QBs for you, regardless of who's left on your list.