There is no offseason, only draft season. Or at least that’s how it feels these days, with all the major best ball platforms having launched their early best ball contests already. Average draft position (ADP) is still fluctuating massively with the fallout of free agency, along with the NFL Scouting Combine and Pro Days throwing spikes in ADP in the direction of any rookie who so much as winks at a camera.
DraftKings was the last of the platforms to launch their best ball contests with contests starting from $1. Before you dive in, why not try a few mock drafts through our fantasy football mock draft simulator so you can get a feel for early 2025 ADP? You can see the full draft results here.
There is no offseason, only draft season. Or at least that’s how it feels these days, with all the major best ball platforms having launched their early best ball contests already. Average draft position (ADP) is still fluctuating massively with the fallout of free agency, along with the NFL Scouting Combine and Pro Days throwing spikes in ADP in the direction of any rookie who so much as winks at a camera.
DraftKings was the last of the platforms to launch their best ball contests with contests starting from $1. Before you dive in, why not try a few mock drafts through our fantasy football mock draft simulator so you can get a feel for early 2025 ADP? You can see the full draft results here.
DraftKings Best Ball Fantasy Football Mock Draft
This offseason has flowed perfectly for Puka Nacua. With the news Matthew Stafford is returning to Los Angeles, Nacua should maintain his high ceiling. The Rams’ addition of Davante Adams is an upgrade on Cooper Kupp at this point in their careers, but it’s also a good thing the Rams didn’t pursue someone with an even higher ceiling who could have caused us to worry about Nacua.
While his WR4 ADP might feel like a bargain, Nacua needs to start scoring more touchdowns, as he has only managed nine through two seasons thus far.
Speaking of players who’ve had a great offseason, Brock Bowers has had an even better one than Nacua. Last year, Bowers fought through the combination of Aidan O’Connell and Gardner Minshew to be the PPR TE1 in total points — something that matters greatly in DraftKings’ full PPR format.
Bowers also led all tight ends in games of 90+ receiving yards with seven. Now he’ll have a far better quarterback throwing him the ball in Geno Smith.
Rounds 3-5
In the next three rounds, we add Josh Jacobs, Zay Flowers and James Conner. These running backs can be found in the traditional RB Dead Zone, but at this point in the offseason, their prices feel somewhat suppressed. Neither the Packers nor the Cardinals feel likely to add a running back high in this year’s draft with proven upside.
Adding a second wide receiver in this range does feel essential, though. Otherwise, we’ll have a single wideout through five rounds, which is historically a poor choice in best ball. Flowers might not have the highest upside due to the way the Ravens spread the ball around but he’s a WR1 on an offense that will score a lot of points, which is worth a lot in best ball.
Rounds 6-8
Chris Godwin, Mark Andrews and Jaylen Warren were the next three picks. This trip helps further bolster our depth across running back, wide receiver and tight end. Godwin was incredible before his injury, ranking second in receiving yards through Weeks 1-7. He also averaged 8.9 targets per game and a career-high 7.1 receptions per game. Godwin scored five touchdowns in seven games — as many as he had in the previous two years combined.
Andrews is no longer a name people want to draft highly after his playoff gaffe at the end of the Buffalo matchup, but it should be noted he scored 10 touchdowns — two more than any other tight end. Selecting him here allows us to be done with the position, having invested meaningful draft capital in Bowers and Andrews. Warren is a fun RB3, particularly with Najee Harris having moved on to the Chargers.
Rounds 9-12
At this stage in the draft, we’ve not invested a lot into the wide receiver position, with only three selections through eight rounds. It’s time to fix that. Our next three selections are all wide receivers: Michael Pittman, Keon Coleman and Rashid Shaheed. All three of these players have question marks around them. With Pittman and Shaheed, in particular, we’ve seen the ceiling outcomes they can deliver.
After establishing safe volume in Godwin, Flowers and Nacua, we can afford to shoot for a little more upside at this point, especially in best ball drafts. Lastly, in this batch of picks, with all but one team having a quarterback, we were able to wait a little and still get a dual-threat signal-caller in Kyler Murray He might not be the league-winner he once looked like, but he’s a good enough quarterback and we can build around any downside in this format.
Rounds 13-16
While the addition of Murray frees us up to go in whichever direction we want, Bo Nix fell in the draft, and there is no need to overthink things. Murray is a fine quarterback, but when you wait until round 12 to take your first quarterback, you’ll likely need three anyway, so it makes sense to double-dip.
The one area we haven’t hit so far is rookies. Drafting this early allows us to potentially get some great values on rookies who can make a difference late in the season as their roles expand. With that in mind, we add a pair of rookie running backs in Cam Skattebo and Devin Neal, as well as a second-year player in Jalen Coker, who could make the leap, as the Panthers continue to ascend.
Rounds 17-20
Continuing the rookie theme, we take another rookie running back in Ollie Gordon for our sixth and final running back before adding a third quarterback in Bryce Young. The Panthers quarterback makes for a nice stack with Coker. Rounding out the draft, we add more wide receiver depth in the form of Jalen Tolbert and Jalen Royals.
Draft Wizard Analysis
We finished this draft with three quarterbacks, six running backs, nine wide receivers and two tight ends, which is a nice build for DraftKings, where we need at least three starting wide receivers every week as well as a potential fourth for the Flex spot.
The blend of rookies and safe-floor/high-ceilings at wide receiver makes for a fun team, even if there are some question marks. Draft Wizard gave us a 93/100 grade.
