LineStar's 2024 NFL Best Ball Preview & Strategy Guide 📝

Penned By: @Ryan_Humphries on Twitter and LineStar Chat.

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Welcome back LineStar football fans!

While the time for NFL DFS and most season-long fantasy football drafts is still weeks away, with training camps getting underway, we are officially entering prime NFL Best Ball season!

As such, we at LineStar thought it’d be worthwhile to throw out a strategy guide of sorts to help some folks who were looking to test the waters in some 2024 Best Ball drafts. Or perhaps you’re familiar with the format but could use some fine-tuning or just a look at a different perspective from another guy’s approach.

Nothing that I implement in my approach to Best Ball drafts is overly revolutionary or unique. But I believe many people go about these sorts of drafts in the wrong way so, hopefully, something I discuss here will come in handy if you’ve had trouble finding success in past Best Ball leagues. In this guide, I’ll be covering the key differences between the best ball and season-long managed leagues, going over contest/scoring details, some basic and more advanced strategies for best ball drafts, and what I look for when drafting for each position (QB/RB/WR/TE). The two sites that I’ll be focusing on for best ball drafts this season, and in this article, are DraftKings and Underdog Fantasy. Both of those sites will have a massive featured tournament (and many others) running throughout the upcoming NFL season. The marquee DraftKings tournament will be the “NFL Best Ball $15M Millionaire [$1.5M to 1st]” with a $20 entry fee (150 max entries). UnderDog will have a similar contest -- “Best Ball Mania V [$1.5M to 1st]” at $25 per entry (150 max entries).

Ultimately, when it comes to best ball leagues, managed season-long leagues, or DFS, there is certainly a luck factor that plays into everything. Also, there is no single strategy that guarantees success. But there are ways to increase your chances of coming away victorious, so let’s try to hone in on those aspects as it pertains to 2024 NFL Best Ball leagues!

Between myself and Tyler Wiemann & Shannon Sommerville, we’ll be coming out with some additional Best Ball content in the coming days and weeks via newsletters and the LineStar YouTube page. Be sure to subscribe! There are a few Best Ball YouTube videos that have dropped in recent weeks! LineStar will also be rolling out and fine-tuning its new Best Ball feature, coming soon!

Some additional content I’m looking to put together includes:

- NFL Best Ball Draft Review -- A comprehensive review of one of my DraftKings and UnderDog Best Ball drafts. In this future article, I’ll look into what I feel I did right, what I did wrong, and where I could’ve improved in the overall draft.

- Underrated Stacks -- I’ll get into more detail about Best Ball stacking below but, essentially, every remotely aware fantasy football/NFL DFS player knows that QB Jalen Hurts + WR AJ Brown or QB Patrick Mahomes + TE Travis Kelce has the potential to be an elite QB/pass catcher stack. But there are plenty of under-the-radar stacks that you can construct in the middle/later rounds that could go a long way in producing an elite overall Best Ball squad.

- Late-Round Fliers -- If you play season-long fantasy football, you’re always looking for some late-round, high-upside value. Of course, the big difference between taking a late-round flier in season-long versus best ball is you’re going to be stuck all season with whoever you draft in the latter and you don’t have the luxury of dropping them after it seems apparent that they won’t be a productive player in their team’s offense. So, in this article, I will be searching for players who have a realistic chance of making a meaningful impact that you can get for cheap with your final few picks.

If you have any more ideas for Best Ball articles, feel free to let me know in LineStar chat or on Twitter (@Ryan_Humphries)!

Alright, let’s get into the general Best Ball Preview & Strategy Guide! Note that this will be a lengthy read!

Best Ball vs. Managed Leagues

I’m sure that about everyone reading this is currently in, or has formerly been in, some sort of season-long managed league with friends, family, or co-workers at some point. The differences between those leagues and best-ball leagues are fairly straightforward.

In best-ball leagues, after your draft, it is entirely hands-off from that point on. No waiver wire or free agent pick-ups, no trades, and no frustrating Sunday morning start/sit decisions. You simply draft your team and then fate decides the rest. You’re typically going to draft between 18 and 20 players in best-ball leagues via snake draft format. Each week, your most optimal lineup will be automatically played and counted toward your team’s fantasy point total. In many cases, your late-round picks could easily outscore your first or second-round selections in any given week but you won’t be kicking yourself for not “starting” them in your lineup, since they’ll automatically qualify in your final optimal lineup for the week.

On DraftKings and Underdog Fantasy, that means your top-scoring QB, top two RBs, top three WRs, top TE, and your next best top RB/WR/TE (flex) on your roster will end up as your final lineup for that week. Everyone else rides the bench until it’s their time to shine. This does mean that your approach should change a bit when drafting a best ball team as opposed to a managed team. I’ll hit on more of that below.

Scoring & Roster Information

DraftKings Best Ball Scoring & Roster Information

Underdog Fantasy Best Ball Scoring & Roster Information

As you can tell, there are some notable differences between DraftKings and Underdog Best Ball formats. DraftKings is full PPR (point per reception), while Underdog is half PPR.

A full PPR scoring system will add extra value to high-volume wide receivers, tight ends, and pass-catching running backs. DraftKings also has two additional bench spots (20 roster spots in total vs. 18 for Underdog). So, DK Best Ball drafts will last 20 rounds, UD drafts will last 18 rounds.

Finally, DraftKings awards a three-point performance bonuses for 100+ yard receiving and/or rushing games as well as a three-point bonus for 300+ yard passing games.

Best Ball Contest Formats

Tournaments

On both DraftKings and Underdog, the main Best Ball tournaments will follow a very similar format. Underdog has some more unique Best Ball contests to choose from, but we’ll stick to the most popular format. Instead of repeating what is explained on the each website, I will just attach screenshots explaining the tournament structure and rules below.

DraftKings Tournament Outline

Underdog Best Ball Mania V Tournament Outline

Sit & Go’s

“Sit & Go” contests will range in size from three to twelve teams. Instead of multiple rounds where the top team advances, like in tournaments, this format will keep you within the same ‘league’ for the entire season, all the way up to week 17. By the end of week 17, the team with the most cumulative points will be declared the winner. In some Sit & Go leagues, the top two or three teams will be paid out.

Fast Draft vs. Slow Draft

Both DraftKings and UnderDog offer two draft speed options. A “Fast Draft” will be a live draft in which each person will have 30 seconds to make their draft selection. A “Slow Draft” operates with an 8-hour pick clock. In slow drafts that are started closer to the beginning of the season, the pick clock will adjust to shorter times accordingly as the NFL season draws nearer. Fast drafts are much more popular, but if you’re someone who wants to take a much more methodical or less-rushed approach to drafting your team, slow drafts may be the way for you to go!

General & Advanced Best Ball Draft Strategy

Be Prepared for the Draft!

To begin, make sure you at least run through some amount of news and research before immediately jumping into best ball drafts. It never hurts to be aware of notable fantasy football players who have changed teams in the off-season and/or are expected to take on a larger/smaller role. Also, whether you prefer to run your drafts on your phone, laptop, tablet, or desktop PC, have whatever resources you think you’ll need handy! You don’t necessarily have to have a dozen different tabs open with spreadsheets and draft rankings, but it does help to have a general idea of things like up-to-date projected depth charts as well as access to the latest injury news coming out of training camp. Before hopping into a draft, be on the up-and-up on any late-breaking news. There is no shortage of NFL news sources out there!

Stacking QBs & Their Receivers

Stacking a QB with one (or multiple) of their top WRs/TEs (and occasionally their pass-catching RB) is a super popular DFS strategy. It is also somewhat popular in managed leagues. It’s also extremely viable in best ball drafts, and I try to do it within every draft when possible. I’m oftentimes trying to draft two QB + receiver stacks in the same draft… sometimes three. The premise is simple – if Tyreek Hill goes off for 10 catches, 165 yards, and two touchdowns, then Tua Tagovailoa probably had himself a big day too. In this example, in all likelihood, based on the current ADP, you’re spending your first-round pick on Tyreek Hill, but you can get his QB, Tagovailoa, much later in the draft to complete the stack. This does add some risk because, say, you have both Tyreek and Tua. If the Dolphins struggle and only put up 10 points and ~270 yards of offense in any given week, neither guy is likely to land in your optimal lineup, and in that example, that is your first-round pick and your first or second-highest drafted QB. Also, you’re losing both guys on the same bye week, and if one were to get injured, the other one’s stat lines would likely suffer as a result. Despite the moderate risks, it’s a worthwhile strategy, and the historical data backs it up. Your chances of making a deep run in Best Ball tournaments are significantly higher if you’re drafting stacks.

Target Upside & Don’t Settle For Mediocrity

Every pick counts in best ball drafts and there’s no getting rid of your players once you click the “draft” button, so don’t fall asleep at the wheel during the mid/later rounds and take a player just because he’s a safe/serviceable “known quantity.” If you were in a season-long managed league last year, when you get a moment, I recommend going back and looking at your initial draft results. Then, compare your draft to your final end-of-season roster. Chances are, if you’re even a somewhat active manager, you may not have retained even half of the players you initially drafted. That’s not necessarily a bad thing nor does it mean you had a bad draft. Half of the battle to winning a managed league is staying active on the waiver wire/free agency and through the trade process. And you’re also not going to hang onto massive underperformers or guys who suffer long-term or season-ending injuries who would just eat up a valuable roster spot.

In best ball drafts, it’s usually more optimal to avoid those high-mileage veteran RBs/WRs/TEs, who may see the field plenty, but likely won’t produce ceiling games like they used to. I’m also completely out on players who are expected to miss extended time to start the season due to injury UNLESS they fall to me and provide incredible ADP (average draft position) value -- even then, I may be reluctant to draft them to my team. It’s generally just not worth the risk of getting guaranteed zeros from a player for multiple weeks when other perfectly healthy players can be drafted in their place. There is also the possibility that those injuries will hinder a player for an entire season so, even when they are activated off of the IR (injured reserve), they may not go on to make a single appearance in your optimal lineup in any given week.

Instead, target younger guys who have flashed upside over the last 1-2 seasons or rookies who are entering into a good situation and could break out early on in the year with a high-volume featured role. Now, at some point, nearly every player is ‘draftable’ if they fall to a certain round, far below their ADP. But generally, at their standard ADPs, I’m not going to pay the ‘market price’ for a QB who will only get me around 15 FP most weeks, a WR who is usually only good for four catches for 45 yards with the occasional touchdown, or an aging RB whose ceiling will be capped by being part of an RBBC (running back by committee). To state the obvious, those players simply aren’t league winners. Let them become someone else’s burden to carry.

For receivers specifically, this also makes players who are considered exclusively “deep threats” much more draftable in the later rounds of Best Ball leagues. Think of guys who had high aDOTs (average depth of target) in previous seasons, such as Gabriel Davis, Jalin Hyatt, or Jameson Williams. Even someone like the seldom-targeted Justin Watson could still have some late-round best ball value simply because, when they do see targets, it’s going to almost always be deep down the field. Note: This isn’t an outright endorsement for drafting Justin Watson, but he was 6th in the NFL last season with a 17.51-yard aDOT among receivers with at least 30 targets. These sort of guys can earn their way into your optimal lineup off of one or two big plays and can be had for super cheap. I wouldn’t load up on players like this, but taking one or two home run threats at the tail end of a draft is perfectly viable.

Be Flexible, Attentive, and Let the Draft Come to You!

One of the biggest mistakes I see people make in both managed leagues and best ball leagues is not being flexible during the draft and/or having a cemented plan in place that they are too stubborn to stray away from. For instance, a person may be dead set on taking two RBs in the first three rounds. Or they’ll be certain the guy they want is going to be available at their next pick. Then, when most/all of the top RBs that they wanted are gone in the first three rounds or that player they were targeting is inevitably snatched up one or two picks ahead of them, they enter full-on panic mode and end up overpaying for someone or making a suboptimal selection that doesn’t work well with their current roster construction.

Always have multiple players in mind that you’re content with taking at your next pick. Adding several players into your queue just to have some names ‘set aside’ in front of you definitely helps me, at least. I fully recommend utilizing the queue feature. Also, say there is a sudden run on QBs or TEs – don’t feel pressured to be a part of the avalanche. Instead, if there is an RB or WR available who should’ve been taken 15 picks ago, as long as you like the player and their fantasy potential, grab ‘em (especially if they work in a stack you’re trying to put together) and simply adapt your plan of attack afterward.

Also, do at least pay some level of attention to bye weeks when drafting – primarily when it comes to QBs and TEs. When drafting RBs and WRs, you can usually just take whoever you please without worrying very much about half of your roster getting hit with a bye week from hell. But if you’re only taking two QBs or two TEs, those players need to have different byes, especially QBs.

Handcuffing

Most people who have played in managed leagues are very familiar with the term “handcuffing” – and, for the most part, it primarily applies only to RBs, but there are some exceptions with WRs and, occasionally, QBs. While it isn’t an absolute necessity, it will definitely give you some peace of mind after the draft if you can pair your valuable first-round selection of Bijan Robinson with his clear-cut ‘handcuff’ in Tyler Allgeier, for example.

Of course, not every RB has an obvious handcuff to draft, so don’t waste a late-round pick on speculation with someone who may or may not take on a lead role if the top RB on the team goes down to injury. I’m also not against drafting a handcuff RB even if I didn’t draft their RB1 teammate. If it seems like the right move in the later rounds, I’ll take an Elijah Mitchell (handcuff to CMC) or a MarShawn Lloyd (handcuff to Josh Jacobs) in case one of those lead backs goes down. Many of these backup RBs end up having some standalone value even without an injury coming into play, and their “spike weeks” can result in positive impacts on your final optimal lineup for the week.

To speak briefly on “QB handcuffing,” there are some teams that are much more likely to end up with multiple starting QBs at some point throughout the season (not necessarily related to injury). For example, the Minnesota Vikings drafted rookie QB J.J. McCarthy in the 2024 NFL Draft. They also signed free agent QB Sam Darnold in the offseason. Sam Darnold beginning the season as the team’s QB1 while J.J. McCarthy takes over later in the season is a realistic possibility. You wouldn’t want to rely on either guy as your top QB in a Best Ball draft but, until there is further clarity, it would make sense to “handcuff” the position by drafting both QBs so you can guarantee that you’ll have the Vikings starting QB one way or the other.

Week 17 Game Stacking

This is much more of a niche/advanced strategy, but it has gained some popularity among the diehard Best Ball players in recent years. In traditional Best Ball tournaments, like the ones on DraftKings and UnderDog that will pay out $1.5 million to the winner, week 17 is championship week -- the final round of the tournament. “Game stacking” is a fairly popular strategy in NFL DFS, and it can work out in your favor in Best Ball as well. Essentially, it would be having exposure to skill position players on both sides of the same game in the hopes that a high-scoring shootout develops. Oftentimes, it would be a standard “QB + pass catcher” stack with a “bring back” player on the other team -- typically an opposing WR, RB, or TE. So, with this strategy in Best Ball, you’ll be looking WAY ahead to week 17 of the regular season and attempting to stitch together a game stack.

As an example, we’ll see that the Cardinals and Rams play each other in week 17 and that game is pretty likely to possess one of the highest totals of the week. So, if you could get a QB/WR stack together from that game, e.g. QB Kyler Murray and WR Marvin Harrison Jr. as a Cardinals stack, and draft a high-end bring-back option from the Rams, like WR Puka Nacua, then you have yourself a full-on week 17 game stack that may pay off if your team battles its way to championship contention. Of course, with how ADP works, you’re not going to always be able to build Week 17 game stacks linearly. In the week 17 game stack example given with Kyler Murray, Marvin Harrison Jr., and Puka Nacua, based on current ADP, you’ll have to initially draft Nacua at the end of the first round, Marvin Harrison Jr.’s current ADP on DraftKings is 13.6, so he’d be your very next pick in the second round (if he makes it there), then, without taking a massive reach on Kyler Murray, you won’t “complete” the stack until roughly the 7th round, where Murray is currently being drafted (81.3 ADP). Conversely, if Kyler Murray gets taken before you can snag him, as long as you still get Nacua and Harrison Jr., you can get Rams QB Matthew Stafford at a later round to complete a week 17 game stack. Stafford’s current ADP (on DK) is 134.4, so he’s typically going around the 12th round.

Again, this is what I’d consider a very advanced Best Ball strategy, and it takes some added preparation and in-draft brainpower to pull off. It’s not the easiest thing to implement, especially in quick drafts where things move very fast. But it could be another approach to mix into some drafts that could pay off massively in the end… if all of the dominoes fall the right way come week 17.

When to Draft?

At the time of this writing, NFL training camps are only just beginning to get underway. Just like in season-long fantasy football, there are positives and negatives in Best Ball to drafting early or drafting right before the season starts.

Drafting Early:

Pros: If you’re highly tuned into incoming rookies, players on new teams, and head coaching/coordinator changes that could either improve or negatively affect a team’s offensive output or playstyle, then you can get some steals in all areas of the draft (early/mid/late rounds) on certain players and/or passing on guys whose ADPs may be overly inflated. There are inevitably players who catch a lot of media buzz once training camp and preseason games begin, and that can lead to certain players’ ADPs skyrocketing. For example, that rookie running back who was initially thought to be third on the depth chart is outperforming the guys ahead of him in training camp -- he could go from being valued as a late-round flier (that you were in on and drafting regularly) to a mid-round pick within a week.

Cons: The biggest problem with drafting early is the simple fact that injuries happen in the weeks leading up to the season. In early drafts, you’re going to take on the inherent risk of picking a guy who goes on to get hurt in training camp/preseason. A good example from 2023 would be Cooper Kupp, who suffered a grade 2 hamstring strain on August 1st, 2023. He went on to miss multiple weeks at the start of the season before suffering a setback upon his return, and he certainly didn’t return the sort of value you needed based on where you drafted him pre-injury.

Another downside to drafting early would be, as sharp and in-tune with everything NFL as you may be, your sources, predictions, or preconceptions may end up being proven wrong in a hurry once the players put the pads on and team identities begin to take shape for the upcoming season. That player you had much higher hopes for than 99% of Best Ball drafters and were reaching a round or two above their ADP to get may just end up being nothing more than a “just a guy” who mostly rides the bench or plays special teams in 2024.

Finally, in early drafts, you’re going to generally be in the same draft room as “sharper” drafters -- guys who live and breathe football and are so ready to get their “fix” that they’re hopping in Best Ball drafts in June and July. There are still going to be plenty of football newbies drafting early, but not nearly as many as in later drafts.  

Drafting Later/Just Before the Season:

Pros: Largely the inverse of the pros/cons of drafting early. If you’re drafting right before the season, you’ll pretty much know who all is healthy and who will be starting the season hampered with an injury -- perhaps missing a couple of weeks, on the IR/PUP until several weeks into the season, or guys who may miss the entire season due to a more serious injury. This will only increase your chances of having a fully healthy, or mostly healthy, roster of players by the end of the season, which is a sizable advantage.

Knowledge is power, and it doesn’t hurt to know who is catching non-fabricated buzz leading up to the season and which positional battles are clearing up.

More casual football fans tend to draft closer to the season simply because that’s when football starts to enter their minds.

Cons: By the time training camp is over with and preseason games are winding down, mainstream sports media is in full-on football mode 24/7, reporting the latest news/rumors. An endless amount of fantasy football podcasts are also out there dishing out hot takes, well-researched info, and more. Anyone who cares to put in some effort will know most/all of the information that may have been more under wraps in June/July/early-to-mid August that you were more aware of or had a “hunch” about. So, if you’re a sharp drafter who is very connected to NFL news, some of your edge may be lost.

There are always two sides to the coin. With all of the constant NFL news, rumors, and buzz created by the media, podcasters, beat writers, and fantasy football “experts”, certain players inevitably get overhyped which may lead you to draft guys with higher bust potential or reach for guys earlier in the draft than they should go.

Quarterback Strategy

How many QBs to draft?

You should be drafting two QBs at MINIMUM while often coming away with three QBs. The reasoning for drafting two is simple. Bye weeks exist. If you only take one QB, you’re guaranteed to draw zero points at the position during the bye week. The reason for drafting three QBs is also probably pretty apparent: injuries happen and occasionally getting benched happens as well if a QB performs poorly across multiple weeks (or if their team is massively ahead/behind in a game). Also, three QBs will just give you more options to work with and build potential stacks. Most NFL-level QBs are capable of popping off with a massive week. I just believe that having three QBs gives you much more consistent upside and flexibility at the position week-to-week. Also, if you take a bonafide stud QB Jalen Hurts, Josh Allen, or Lamar Jackson, then don’t feel pressured to draft your backup QB(s) until the later rounds. I will say, I’m much more content with sticking to two QBs drafted if I get one of those studs earlier in the draft.

Which QBs to Target and Where to Draft Them?

Whether you’ve played DFS or any season-long fantasy football in the past few years, one thing has become apparent: quarterbacks who are both quality passers and can add value by rushing the ball are a top priority. They simply carry more 30+ fantasy point upside while also offering a safer floor at a much higher clip than prototypical pocket passers – one caveat being that they are more likely to get injured running the ball, but that still shouldn’t deter you from grabbing mobile QBs.

That isn’t to say you should nix more prototypical pocket passers like Joe Burrow or Jared Goff out of draft consideration. If they fall to you when you need a QB and represent decent value in that round of the draft, then you don’t need to actively avoid them -- especially if it’s going to complete a stack (I’ve probably said this same line multiple times already, but it really is an important aspect of Best Ball draft strategy). But I personally will try to come away with at least one mobile QB on my roster more often than not.

I will tend to wait on drafting a QB and instead load up on WRs and RBs in the early rounds. For that reason, I probably won’t come away with guys like Josh Allen, Hurts, or Jackson in 70+% of my drafts. I’m just not willing to pay for those guys at their ADP when one of my two or three QBs could post up a similar fantasy performance many weeks.

Now, depending on how the early rounds of my drafts go, I will often take someone like CJ Stroud, Anthony Richardson, or Kyler Murray in the middle rounds if they slide down the board a bit or if I already drafted one of their receivers and can complete a stack. Otherwise, I’m finding myself drafting QBs like Joe Burrow, Jordan Love, or Brock Purdy near the 8th through 10th rounds and then perhaps attempting to pair them with a mobile QB like Jayden Daniels who could provide some spike weeks before finally taking a “boring” QB3, such as Kirk Cousins, Aaron Rodgers, or Derek Carr with one of my later picks.

Wide Receiver Strategy

How many WRs to Draft?

Since three starting positions are devoted specifically to WRs every week (and you will often end up starting as many as four due to the flex position), I would recommend drafting six WRs, at the minimum. Usually, I’ll try to come away with seven or, more often, eight in full PPR scoring formats. In half PPR formats, I’d say six can be adequate enough most of the time, depending on if you’ve spent early-round draft capital on more elite WRs or not.

Which WRs to Target and Where to Draft Them?

Going in on WRs early and often is much more of the “meta” in Best Ball drafts these days. If I don’t grab a WR in the first three rounds, I generally hate how my team ends up coming out. In both full PPR and half PPR scoring, I really try to grab at least one elite WR who is expected to see 140+ targets and around 10 targets per game. Every draft won’t work out to where you can get one of those top-tier WRs, which is fine. But given the pass-happy nature of the NFL, there are usually going to be around 8-12 of those elite receivers each season who see that sort of target share. If I don’t land the top overall pick (where the consensus #1 pick is Christian McCaffrey), I’ve started drafts off by going WR/WR much more often than not and getting two fantasy football studs like Justin Jefferson and Davante Adams. At the same time, WR is the deepest position of the draft and you can find guys with top 20 or even top 10 potential well into the middle rounds. Receivers who may not have made major splashes in recent seasons but have signed with new teams and are expected to step into significant workloads as their team’s potential WR1 (someone like Hollywood Brown, now in Kansas City, comes to mind) will land on my radar as well. Volume trumps all in fantasy football, and even WRs with bad/unproven QBs will be worth drafting if they’re going to push for 10+ targets per game most weeks.

I somewhat hit on this already, but I love going after the WRs in the later rounds who offer the big play upside and can come away scoring 20+ fantasy points on two or three catches. Those sorts of players are of course going to be volatile and won’t make your optimal lineup most weeks, but even if I get three or four games out of someone like Jalin Hyatt, hey… I’ll take that all day if I was able to snag him in the 19th round. As far as rookie receivers go, I am more hesitant to draft them before the later rounds simply because they are often overvalued and unproven at the NFL level, and you rarely see crazy rookie WR breakouts like what we saw with Puka Nacua accomplish last season. There are also select NFL teams that have an abundance of receiving talent which may put a cap on individual upside – e.g. the Texans is one team that comes to mind that has a lot of mouths to feed (Nico Collins, Stefon Diggs, Tank Dell, Dalton Schultz). I am less willing to pay the ADP prices on many of those guys. No matter how much talent I believe they have, certain guys on loaded receiving corps just don’t often land on my best ball teams unless they drop down the board significantly. But, again, exceptions can always be made (particularly, yet again, when it comes to building stacks).

Running Back Strategy

How Many RBs to Draft?

It should be no surprise that RBs and WRs are the main focus of any fantasy football draft. They are the positions that most heavily impact your ability to win in any given fantasy league or tournament. Though RBs have taken a back seat to the early draft “WR meta” in recent seasons, I believe you still need to come away with an absolute minimum of five, and preferably six up to as many as eight RBs in Best Ball drafts. Running backs are the most dispensable and injury-prone skill position in the actual real-life sport of football. True workhorse RBs who see high volume and also catch passes are also arguably the single most valuable asset in fantasy football, due to scarcity and high floors/ceilings. If you’re able to get one, two, or three of those guys in the early rounds, do so by all means. But, again, don’t go into a draft with the unwavering notion that you MUST only go for RBs early.

Which RBs to Target and When to Draft Them?

Since you’re randomly assigned your draft position in these DraftKings and Underdog best ball leagues, it almost feels like a cheat code when you land the first overall pick. You can lock up CMC from the get-go. Congrats. Bijan Robinson and Breece Hall are the only two other RBs with a current first-round ADP inside the top 12 (on DraftKings). Due to the aforementioned “WR meta,” fewer RBs are being drafted in the first round these days. If you don’t go for one of those top three guys, there are clearly still plenty of other backs with top-20 upside available in the following rounds. Be sure to get your research in and know where the RBs you want to target will typically get taken and make informed live adjustments during the draft as well.

Also, as I mentioned above, I’m not opposed to taking rookie RBs with upside in the mid/later rounds (e.g. Trey Benson, Blake Corum, MarShawn Lloyd) or ‘handcuff’ RBs toward the end of drafts (e.g. Tyler Allgeier, Elijah Mitchell, Khalil Herbert). On DraftKings, given the full PPR format, RBs who are more often utilized as pass-catching/change-of-pace backs (e.g. Antonio Gibson, Samaje Perine, or Jerick McKinnon) have notable value as well late in the draft.

A couple of things to keep in mind, but not base too much of your draft strategy on – while volume is the single most important quality a fantasy running back can possess, it also helps if they have either one or both of the following around them: a good offensive line and/or a good defense. Having a strong O-line in front of any specific RB is pretty self-explanatory. Having a strong defense on the other side of the ball means that their team should often have a lead during games and thus should help provide a run-first game script more often.

Ideally, I want to come away with three  RBs within my first eight picks with two guys being in the mold of an expected or potential top 20 fantasy back. In the later rounds, simply fine-tune your remaining roster plan based on the sort of team you’ve built up. If you go down the “hero RB” strategy where you only take one high-quality RB in your first five-to-eight picks and go super WR-heavy early on while also perhaps taking one of the top TEs, then it’s time to load up on a few lotto ticket/rookie RBs and perhaps a handcuff or two toward the very end!

Tight End Strategy

How many TEs to draft?

Treat this position similar to QBs. You want two at minimum and I’ll often look to draft three the much of the time, particularly if I don’t snag one of the top TEs on the board.

Which TEs to Target and Where to Draft Them?

We’re past the age where Travis Kelce is a near-consensus first-round/early second-round draft pick as the first tight end off the board. His current DraftKings ADP is 28.6 (as of 7/18), which puts him as more of a mid-3rd-round pick. Kelce is still the top-ranked fantasy tight end, followed by Sam LaPorta (32.1 ADP), Trey McBride (49.1 ADP), Dalton Kincaid (50.7 ADP), and Mark Andrews (52.9 ADP) rounding out the top five. There are still a few other quality TEs going off the board soon after those top-five players -- e.g. Kyle Pitts, George Kittle, and Evan Engram. But the quality and fantasy relevancy rapidly drops off in a hurry at the TE position. Like QBs, only one TE is making it into your optimal lineup each week (outside of the occasional FLEX appearance from a second TE). Unlike QBs, there are far fewer TEs that can consistently put up a solid fantasy score most weeks.

While it is nice to get a stud at TE due to positional scarcity, if I’m unable to get one of those top five TEs, I’m usually waiting until closer to rounds 8-12 to get my first one or two TEs, then using one of my last couples picks to land either a flier at the position or a guy I know will probably have a handful of weeks where he scores a touchdown and racks up around 40-60 yards receiving – 12-to-15 FP is a very serviceable week at tight end 90% of the time. You’re not going to feel great about the position if you have to wait on TE, but it is simultaneously the least valuable and most volatile position in Best Ball leagues. Ultimately, you’ll be able to pair a couple of TEs in those 8-12 rounds (or beyond) that should complement each other and work out well most weeks.

And, as always, I’m more willing to draft a TE, even if I’m not “high” on him, if it’s going to set up or complete a stack with one of my QBs.

That’s going to wrap up this Best Ball Preview & Strategy Guide! We didn’t do any deep dives on specific players/stacks or any draft reviews in this article but, as mentioned in the intro, more of that sort of LineStar Best Ball content is going to go out in the coming days/weeks. Feel free to give any input or requests on content you’d like to see! BEST of luck in your BEST Ball ventures!