How you decide to build your roster in best ball fantasy football (along with every other format) is an underrated approach to gain an edge versus your opponents. Fantasy gamers can be so blindly driven by player-versus-player takes that they can overlook the actual strategy behind drafting an optimal team.
The different player takes obviously play a role, but for this article, the focus will be on the best ball roster construction i.e., how many of each position you should be looking to draft and when you should be spending your hard-earned draft capital.
Be also sure to check out my best ball primers for breakdowns on all four of the major draftable positions.
Best Ball Roster Construction Strategy & Advice
Basic Overview
Typically you should be looking to draft anywhere from 2-3 quarterbacks, 4-6 running backs, 8-10 wide receivers, and 2-3 tight ends. As a recommended practice, the less high draft capital you invest in a position, the more you should look to draft that particular position. Essentially you are making up for a lack of quality with quantity.
Ergo, if you end up missing out on the top-tier elite quarterbacks early in drafts, you are probably better off going with a three-QB build that features guys going later. This way, you are putting yourself in the best position to mitigate the value lost by not selecting a top signal-caller. Same goes for tight end.
And wide receivers are the bloodline of best ball. In some formats, you can have up to four wide receiver scores any given week. You want to draft them early, in the middle, and late.
Quarterbacks
You NEED to acquire top-10 fantasy quarterback production in some form on your roster. Luckily last year’s results suggest this can be done in a multitude of ways. You can still happily draft a top-five quarterback by ADP standards, but don’t necessarily be so gun-hoe on taking the first QB off the board. Case in point, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen finished first and second, respectively, in points scored, but neither was the top advancing quarterback. The top advancing QBs were being drafted later but still early relative to the double-digit rounds.
According to Tom Strachan, mid-tier quarterbacks such as Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, and Matthew Stafford were amongst the best in advance rate for Best Ball tournaments in 2021. And that sentiment remained true in 2022 as guys like Kirk Cousins, Trevor Lawrence, and Tua Tagovailoa boasted the top advance rates from the middle tier. Best to correlate these types of players after already selecting their top pass-catchers from the earlier rounds.
I’d highly recommend a late-round “elite” quarterback approach for your first quarterback target. You want to be drafting the QBs at the back end of the elite tier of fantasy QBs to capitalize on the value while also capturing a high ceiling. No guarantee that these QBs will match the production of those going ahead of them, but the entire roster itself should be superior.
The QB position is also the one the position that is least likely to sustain an offseason injury. Therefore their value should stay static leading up to the season. They are a safer investment that won’t bottom out before the season kicks off.
And for your second quarterback – you should draft at least two good quarterbacks in best ball – follow a pseudo-late-round QB approach. It’s probably better described as a middle-round/middle-tier approach considering the best hits from this past season came from the QB15-21 range (Picks 115-165). But here you are looking for a steady body that can stay healthy/active for a full 18-game season. Looking for pocket passers with high projected passing volume (perfect for stacking) or guys with mobility are the ideal targets.
Among the QBs being drafted outside the top 100 picks (QB15-21), the ones with the highest advance rates played for teams that attempted at least 550 passes. And the ones that didn’t were the Daniel Jones/Justin Fields rushing fantasy quarterbacks. Among the top-10 quarterbacks last season in total points scored, eight rushed for at least 250 yards.
Call it the 55-25 rule. Can quarterback “X” throw 550-plus times and/or rush for 250 yards? Those are your top targets, as are the passers that have one or multiple weapons being drafted earlier in the draft. Drafting from the pool of a talented Steelers offense? Draft Kenny Pickett for easy stacking late in drafts.
And when in doubt, trapped in the doldrums of the REAL late-round quarterbacks – the guys nobody wants to draft – just draft your third quarterback based on total projected games played and potential stacks (cheap starters). It’s these overlooked stacks that could end up paying dividends to not only help you advance but provide a spike to your roster in the best ball playoff format.
A final name that should not be overlooked late in drafts is Washington Commanders quarterback Sam Howell. Apparently, Washington feels content entering the year with Howell as the team’s starter after he impressed in his Week 18 debut. The former UNC product scored 19.2 fantasy points versus the Dallas Cowboys while flashing his potential as a rusher (5-35-1). The Commanders are not short on offensive weapons, making Howell an ideal dual-threat quarterback to stack super late in early best-ball drafts.
Running Backs
The top dogs at running back still tend to be drafted very early on (inside the top 10), and there’s credence to taking a stud early to lock in the production. Last season, six of the top-ten RB scorers in points per game finished with top-ten advance rates. Six of the ten (and eight of the top 12) finished inside the top 10 in total points scored. The ADPs of these running backs were extremely front-loaded. Of the top-nine scoring RBs, six owned ADPs inside the top-10, with the others ranging from RB14-RB26.
After you draft your stud RB, you punt the position – the “hero” RB approach – with WR taking over at the forefront. And it’s not until your roster has been adequately filled with WRs, QBs, and/or an elite tight end that you dip your toes back into the RB pool. The goal should be to end drafts with five-to-six running backs, with most formats only requiring two starting RB slots. That’s why I like the hero RB approach so much. You’ve got one spot dialed in, and the other spot can be filled by the rotating carousel of remaining RBs on your roster. Saquon Barkley, Austin Ekeler, Derrick Henry, Christian McCaffrey, Leonard Fournette, and Nick Chubb all provided solid alive rates as part of early-running back builds as Round 1 & 2 picks.
The second RB spot can be played methodically. You can draft one or two incumbent starting RBs that can provide production during the beginning of the year while drafting others for production in the back half of the season throughout the playoffs. As I identified in the RB Best Ball Primer, many slow starters such as Cam Akers, Jerick McKinnon, Tony Pollard, James Conner, A.J. Dillon, and Kenneth Walker – still ended up being useful with strong finishes.
For those that are drafting extremely early leading up to the start of the NFL season, I do lean slightly toward heavier six-RB builds. Remember that the NFL Draft and summer training camp months create havoc for running back depth charts. Embrace the inevitable chaos by not overweighting current depth charts subject to change and target players later who would benefit the most if/when an off-season injury/surprise roster transaction occurs.
Because running backs tend to be the colossal ADP risers in the wake of an injury, be okay loading up on them towards the backend of the draft. This early in the offseason, I think there’s a semblance to going with more RBs – before the injuries have occurred – than closer to the start of the season.
Wide Receivers
When in doubt, draft a wide receiver. Be aggressive in drafting WRs in the early-to-middle rounds, and be sure to load up on the position with so many roster spots to fill. Eight to nine receivers should suffice. And stack WRs not just with their QBs, but with their WR/TE teammates as well. An underrated aspect of this is that if one of them goes down or misses time, the other likely benefits from a higher target share – especially in the case of No. 2 pass-catchers.
That’s where you can really get your edge – exposing the values of No. 2 WRs that are discounted in drafts. They are viewed as No.2s by the market, but it’s not because they aren’t talented or are in bad situations. In fact, it’s the opposite in most cases, which is why they are the perfect targets in drafts. And their prices will almost always be kept in check to some extent due to the presence of the No. 1 wide receiver on their own team. Call it the “WR1 firewall.”
Some WR2s (by ADP) that could deliver massive ROIs in 2023 include Christian Kirk, Tyler Lockett, Brandon Aiyuk, Diontae Johnson, Jameson Williams, Jahan Dotson, Cortland Sutton, Donovan Peoples-Jones, Elijah Moore, Rondale Moore, and Hunter Renfrow.
But don’t be dissuaded from locking in a bonafide wide receiver stud early on like Justin Jefferson or Ja’Marr Chase. Eight of the top ten drafted WRs based on ADP in 2022 finished inside the top eight in points per game. And the two misses – Mike Evans, Deebo Samuel – still finished inside the top 20.
When compared to their WR counterparts, running backs also slightly fell flat. But not at the top. Among the top-5 combined advance rates for RBs and WRs, RBs owned four of the five highest. But among the top 25 hit rates, only eight were running backs. Six running backs finished inside the top 15. What this data suggests is that WRs are a better bet in the aggregate to return a positive advance rate, but hitting on the right running back late can be the true difference-maker.
To really get your edge at wide receiver outside the top tier, you need to hit on these discounted No. 2 WRs in the middle-to-late rounds as the actual difference-makers/level-jumpers. The RB Dead Zone and the WR Shred Zone are the “Spiderman Meme” from Rounds 3-6. It’s why having at least one running back before the Dead Zone is so ideal because it prevents you from reaching on a running back that’s being artificially pushed up due to position scarcity.
Tight Ends
The top-six scorers in points per game at tight end returned an 83% top-6 alive rate. Ergo, if you draft a tight end that finishes inside the top six in total points scored, it’s an advantage in the best-ball format. And I’d argue that we would have seen a perfect six-for-six ranking in 2022 had the Lamar Jackson injury not derailed Mark Andrew’s end to the season.
And for the most part, these tight ends come as no surprise at the top of the tight-end landscape. The top six tight ends in points per game were all selected within the top ten based on ADP.
Note that when you spend that high-end draft capital on that top-six tight end, do not overly invest elsewhere in the position. You have more work to do addressing the other holes on your roster created by taking a tight end early. When you follow an elite tight-end build (recommended), you only need to draft two TEs (unless stacking opportunities present themselves). But when you are taking all late-round guys, go for a three-man approach.
And do your best to stay out of the middle. Draft an elite guy, or just wait. It’s no coincidence that zero TEs drafted in the TE10-TE19 range had high alive rates. No tight end drafted in this range finished with an alive rate higher than 7% (Hunter Henry, TE16 ADP).
Similar to WR, you also want to do your best to stack TEs with QBs. Especially in the half-point scoring format that Underdog Fantasy uses. And that’s because you want the touchdown correlation, as scoring drives a ton of production for non-elite tight ends. It’s why you always want to stack a tight end and quarterback in DFS tournaments rather than play a non-correlated tight end, even in a better on-paper matchup. Because when a quarterback has a spike week with multiple touchdowns, there’s a strong chance the tight end scores and enters into your lineup that specific week.
David Njoku is that “GUY” for me in 2023. Only Travis Kelce saw more red-zone targets among tight ends from Weeks 1-17. If Deshaun Watson‘s TD rate regresses closer to his career rate (5.8%), Njoku will be a top best-ball tight end when you consider his ADP (TE10).
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