When I first learned about best ball, I fell in love just like everyone else. It seemed inevitable that we would eventually have major prizes offered in DFS contests, but I had no idea it would start so quickly. Draft.com is providing best ballers a $1,000,000 contest this season and I’m going to tell you about it today then show you how my first draft turned out.
If you haven’t played best ball yet, it isn’t quite like other fantasy football leagues. In best ball, there are no trades, no waivers and no setting lineups. Instead, you just draft a much deeper roster before the season and your best possible lineup is selected each week. As you might imagine, there is loads of strategy involved. How many quarterbacks do you select? What types of wide receivers should you go for? Is it better to go for upside or safety? You will have a blast thinking about these questions throughout your day as you prepare for your drafts. When you decide to enter, make sure to be prepared because the draft moves quickly. Utilize your queue so you don’t get caught off guard.
Here is how this specific contest works, because obviously with so much money involved, it isn’t a standard 12-team league. You must first win your league of 12 teams over the first 12 weeks. If you do that, you are guaranteed to win at least $100. So yes, go for upside (Andrew Luck, Corey Davis, Sony Michel, etc) otherwise you are more likely to finish 3rd to 6th. After that, your team will compete in Week 13 and if you finish in the top 3 of that 12-team league, you’ll advance to the next round. You’ll then need to finish top 3 in both Week 14 and Week 15 in order to advance to Week 16 where prizes get huge (from 2k up to 100k). You can view the full rules here.
With all that explained, let me show you how my draft came together.
Get a free $3 Best Ball entry into a 2018 DRAFT contest with your first deposit 
The Cornerstones
1.12 Leonard Fournette (RB – JAX)
2.1 Dalvin Cook (RB – MIN)
3.12 Sony Michel (RB – NE)
4.1 Mark Ingram (RB – NO)
When I build my best ball rosters, I always enter the draft insistent on taking the best available players with my first four picks then adjusting from there. The difference between picks at this stage is substantially greater than the difference between the best available and a total reach in round 12. My philosophy is that you can always fill your best ball holes with depth, but you can never make up for missed value early. That is precisely how I ended up taking four running backs with my first four picks.
Trust me, I’ve never done this before, and I don’t expect to ever do it again, but it is just how the draft ended up. I don’t regret it whatsoever. It may be unconventional, but it merely means I have no need for running backs the remainder of my draft and will now end up with eight or more wide receivers. Three of those eight will surely provide big enough games each week for the unit to pull their weight. It goes without saying that these four running backs, assuming two don’t end up on the IR, will far exceed the standard running back output in best ball leagues, and will often times assume the flex spot of my lineup.
Mid-Round Magic
5.12 Marvin Jones (WR – DET)
6.1 Jamison Crowder (WR – WAS)
7.12 Jordan Reed (TE – WAS)
8.1 Randall Cobb (WR – GB)
9.12 Dak Prescott (QB – DAL)
10.1 Jameis Winston (QB – TB)
Rounds five and six sucked. I was virtually certain I’d get two of my seven targets, and wouldn’t you know it, exactly zero dropped to me. It isn’t that I mind Marvin Jones or Jamison Crowder. I mean, Crowder is among my most owned players thus far, and Jones was a top-five fantasy receiver last season. My problem with the picks is knowing they aren’t Amari Cooper and Sammy Watkins. Plus, I had to reach for Crowder, knowing he wouldn’t make it back to me.
In the next group of picks, I added Jordan Reed at tight end before the cupboard was entirely bare. If he stays healthy, it could be the pick that advances me to Week 13. I then pulled the trigger on Randall Cobb, who is a virtual lock to be a WR2 if both he and Aaron Rodgers stay on the field all season. I don’t usually grab my quarterback until round 12, where I target Matt Ryan and/or Alex Smith. That wasn’t in the cards for this draft, however, as quarterbacks flew off the board early. Both of my targets were taken right out from under my nose so I scooped up Dak, who was a top 10 QB last season, and Jameis, who was unbelievably good when healthy in 2017. While they aren’t my favorite best ball targets, it certainly beats the pants off entering the season with Joe Flacco and Ryan Tannehill.
The Late Game
11.12 Kelvin Benjamin (WR – BUF)
12.1 Jack Doyle (TE – IND)
13.12 Geronimo Allison (WR – GB)
14.1 Chris Godwin (WR – TB)
15.12 Sam Bradford (QB – ARI)
16.1 Austin Seferian-Jenkins (TE – JAX)
17.12 Keelan Cole (WR – JAX)
18.1 Ryan Grant (WR – IND)
Typically at this stage of a best ball draft, my picks end up very familiar. I don’t mind reaching a round or two for Allison or Bradford, and I nearly always grab Cole and Grant with two of my final three picks. Usually, however, I ended up with Justin Jackson, but seeing that my running backs are stacked, I just needed sufficient backup tight ends and a gob of wide receivers. I know Benjamin is by no means a sexy play, but he does happen to be the top wide receiver in his offense by far. He should give my core some stability for weeks when upside players like Godwin and Cole don’t go off. Now, you can go for a bunch of boring depth pieces in these stages, but I’ll tell you from the experience of hundreds of best ball leagues, those are not my teams that have won. Rather, it is the team who drafts Kareem Hunt before Spencer Ware gets injured, or the one who takes a chance on Alvin Kamara in the late rounds. That is why I go almost exclusively for upside in these later rounds because if you hit on two breakout players with a few late picks then you’ve got a terrific chance at advancing to Week 13.
Final Roster
QB – Dak Prescott, Jameis Winston, Sam Bradford
RB – Leonard Fournette, Dalvin Cook, Sony Michel, Mark Ingram
WR – Marvin Jones, Jamison Crowder, Randall Cobb, Kelvin Benjamin, Geronimo Allison, Chris Godwin, Keelan Cole, Ryan Grant
TE – Jordan Reed, Jack Doyle, Austin Seferian-Jenkins
Get a free $3 Best Ball entry into a 2018 DRAFT contest with your first deposit
