Building a Championship Team: Best Ball Strategies for Fantasy Football Success

Who am I?

Hello, Win Daily family my name is Joseph Iacoviello, and I will be providing NFL Best Ball strategies and content throughout the summer as we head towards opening day on September 7^th, 2023. This will be my second season participating in Best Ball and boy did I learn a lot from last season. A little bit about myself, I am from New York and am an avid Jets, Knicks, and Yankees fan. I am a proud (no such thing) season ticket holder for the Jets and have been regularly attending home games for as long as I can remember. To give you some perspective as to how crazy my Jets’ fandom is in 1996 the Jets went 1-15 with their lone win coming on the road.  I was at EVERY single home game.  I can say the same about my perfect attendance through the many other losing seasons that followed. Although painful it taught me some very early, valuable life lessons. Loyalty, you must stick with your teams (family) through good times and bad. Suffering. Life is full of suffering (Jets losses) but is up to you to learn how to manage and deal with it effectively. Lastly, emotional intelligence. If the Jets lose, am I going to curse out a player or an opposing team’s fan? Throw something at my television? In life and fantasy, you will have many wins and losses. But it is always best to keep a level head and not get too high or too low. Luck and skill will both play a factor in your fantasy and life success. Unfortunately, we are only able to control one. So, before your drafts do the most work you can to prepare yourself and improve your skill, and the rest is up to the fantasy gods.

My Fantasy Football History

I have been running a season long league among close friends for about the last 25-30 years. I turned 40 last year, so my teenage commissioner duties involved buying the New York Post (print edition obviously) every Monday morning, combing through each NFL box score, and manually adding up everyone’s team total. Managers had to send me their starting roster manually before kickoff on Sunday. This is my version of my dad’s story of “walking to school uphill both ways”. Obviously, I wouldn’t have performed all this work if I didn’t get enjoyment from it. So, it’s hard to consider it work. I am expecting to get the same level of enjoyment from writing about fantasy football for the Win Daily community. My early love of statistics and football analysis geared me towards the fantasy landscape. Nowadays I participate in about 6-8 season long leagues per year, and I plan on participating in about 100-150 best ball drafts. My strength in fantasy has always been snake drafting. Whether it is season long, best ball, or the 6 and 12-team weekly drafts on Underdog, it is where I have had the most experience and success. I have dabbled in DFS, but I have not dedicated the same amount of time, energy, and resources compared to snake draft related contests.

Why would you play Best Ball?

Welcome to the world of NFL Best Ball, where fantasy football meets strategic planning! Best Ball is a unique format that offers a refreshing twist on traditional fantasy football leagues. In this instructional article, we will explore the rules and strategies behind Best Ball to help you gain an edge and maximize your success. Best Ball allows you to enjoy the thrills of fantasy football without the stress of weekly management, making it an excellent choice for both casual and seasoned players. Whether you’re a seasoned fantasy football veteran or a newcomer to the game, read on to learn the ins and outs of Best Ball and how to dominate your league!

Best Ball leagues combine the excitement of drafting players with the thrill of seeing how they perform each week. The key difference between Best Ball and standard leagues is that there are no weekly lineup decisions, waiver wire pickups, or trades. Instead, your roster is automatically optimized based on the highest-scoring players at each position. For this reason, I believe best ball is very appealing to football fans without the weekly time available to manage a season-long league. Every year one of my leagues has turnover, and I am tasked with trying to find a replacement owner. When I ask people if they would like to join, the #1 reason I get declined is “I do not have the time.” Well for best ball, you do not have to find the time to manage. All the time you need is 1-2 hours to draft. Then your work is done. Just sit back, relax, and hopefully watch your account balance rise.

Best Ball Tournament Structures

Last season I did a slow draft (8 hours per pick) with my 12-team season long team members on Underdog.  It was an excellent way for all 12 league members to get initiated with Best Ball, as well as talk some smack and have some fun before our season long draft took place. Did I draft this team like I would a Best Ball Mania team? Absolutely not. Why? Because I am not trying to beat out hundreds of thousands of entries. I am just trying to beat out 11 other teams. Strategies that are vital in large field entry tournaments such as stacking, correlating, and looking at the Week 17 matchups played no part in this particular 12-team draft. For those with an online poker player background (as many DFS and Best Ball players are), think of a 12-team best ball draft as a sit and go tournament, where the top 3 get paid. Best Ball Mania on Underdog is more like a multi table tournament where there are a ton of entrants. This year there are 677,376 entrants and only the top 19% get paid, with a VERY top-heavy payout structure (1^st – 3 million, 2^nd – 1 million, 3^rd – 300K). For the DraftKings $10 Best Ball buy-in there is a little over one million entries, also with a top-heavy payout structure (1^st – 1 million, 2^nd – 526,120, 3^rd – 400K).

Foundational Best Ball Strategies

Drafting Your Team: The foundation of Best Ball success lies in the draft. Here are a few key strategies to keep in mind when selecting your players:

1. Understand Scoring Format: Familiarize yourself with the scoring rules of your Best Ball league. Some leagues award extra points for receptions (DraftKings), while others might have bonuses for reaching certain yardage thresholds (also DraftKings). Adjust your drafting strategy and player rankings accordingly to exploit scoring settings and gain an edge.
2. Target Upside: In Best Ball, you’re looking for players with the potential to deliver big performances. Aim for high-upside players who can explode for big games, even if they may be inconsistent (cough cough Gabe Davis). Take calculated risks on players who could outperform their average draft position (ADP) and provide significant value.
3. Balance Risk and Safety: While upside is important, it’s crucial to balance it with players who offer a reliable floor. You don’t want your entire roster to be boom-or-bust candidates. Mix in consistent performers who can provide a steady stream of points week after week. Generally, your first 3-4 picks should NOT be risky. They will form the foundation of your team. If you are unsure about an early round player, or there is some injury concern, then it is best to avoid. 
4. Focus on Depth: Injuries are an inevitable part of the NFL season, so it’s crucial to build a deep roster. Target players in the later rounds who have potential breakout opportunities or could step up in case of injuries. Having depth at each position will help mitigate any potential setbacks. It is important to know who the backup running back is for EVERY NFL team. Running backs get injured often, and when they do their backups become very valuable. Think of season long leagues, when a star RB goes down, if their backup is not on someone’s team, they are usually the top waiver add for that week. If Najee Harris gets hurt, who will replace him? Will his replacement be a three down back, or will it be more of a committee? It is important to know the answers to these questions.

More Advanced Drafting Strategies

Although it is good to go into your Best Ball drafts with some strategy, I believe adaptability is one of the most important skills. For example, you have already drafted DK, Lockett, and JSN and someone before your pick drafts a ‘naked’ Geno Smith. Do not panic. Adjust. What other WRs do you have?  Who are some of your late-round WR targets?  What would be some alternative QB-WR stacking options?  These are the questions you should be asking yourself. You will be wasting valuable time (fast drafts only 30 seconds per pick) and energy if instead you ask yourself, “How can this moron draft Geno!?!?!” 

Another important skill is draft capital. If you went RB-RB with your first two picks, plan to not go RB until the mid to late rounds. If you are the last team to draft a TE, it is probably best that by the end of the draft you wind up taking 3. But if you drafted Travis Kelce or George Kittle, it is fine only drafting two. In the first 6 rounds you drafted 5 WRs, this is not a team you would need 8 total WRs. Why? Because you have already invested significant draft capital in the WR position. Know that a well-constructed roster is well-balanced, allowing your roster the ability to score solid points every week at all 4 positions. The draft capital skill can also be applied for your season-long auction and snake leagues. 

And lastly, player takes. What players are you high on? What players do you not want any part of? Last season I was high on Christian Kirk. That was a smash. I was also high on D’Andre Swift. That was a whiff. My thoughts on Swift were that Detroit had a great offensive line, their offense should be better than what the market thinks, and he catches passes (great for DraftKings PPR scoring). So, I had three very good reason to be high on him. If you are taking the time and putting in the work of reading the scouting reports, listening to what coaches say during press conferences, and any other bits of information to give you clues as to how players will be utilized, then it is important to use this information to your advantage while drafting. A great example for this year’s early drafters is Dalvin Cook. If anyone has been paying attention to the recent news, in a Vikings team photo that featured Kirk Cousins and Justin Jefferson, Dalvin was replaced by Alexander Mattison. Vikings head coach, Kevin O’Connell also recently told the press, “We believe Mattison is a three down back.” Yet, with this information, I still see Dalvin Cook being drafted ahead of Mattison, AND I do not think that Mattison’s ADP is quite reflecting what his value will be when Cook ultimately gets traded/released. So why not take advantage now and move Mattison up your RB rankings before the market adjusts?

When is the best time to draft? There is no perfect answer to this question. Drafting in June versus drafting in August is very different. There is a lot more information available in August then there is now. However, everyone drafting now has the SAME information as everyone else. If you see some ADP inefficiency on certain players, or you believe there is some market inefficiencies, then draft in June. But I will say it is very important to not start drafting until you have done your homework. Have some idea to team’s depth charts, how new players, coaches, or coordinators will impact their respective teams, and finally what teams have advantageous Week 15, 16, and 17 matchups if you are playing in large field tournaments.

I will be posting some drafted teams and writing some analysis of Best Ball teams I have drafted throughout the summer. I will write about my thought process as I navigate through these 18 and 20 round drafts. Thank you all for reading, I look forward to engaging with everyone throughout the summer. Now let’s get drafting!

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