Building a Champion Pt.2

Before I get into this week’s newsletter, I need to do two things:

First off, apologize for the late newsletter. Some things are more important than writing, and trying to fit in a newsletter at 11 pm on a work night when you’re having trouble putting two words together is not a good thing. Family also takes precedence, and that has been the main focus of the last few of my evenings and is why the newsletter is reaching you now than the usual time.

Secondly, I need to clarify something. Because most of the information and data I have is Underdog related, most of the information I will be giving you will be geared towards Underdog. However, that doesn’t mean it’s not applicable to DraftKings, where I actually play more best ball than Underdog.

DraftKings has 20-round drafts with PPR scoring (making WRs more valuable) while Underdog has 18 rounds and is half-PPR scoring (balancing things out a little between RB and WR). So, your team building will vary between sites. While Underdog it might be wiser to go with a 2 QB, 6 RB, 8 WR, 2 TE build, on DraftKings you could add more depth like a 3-6-8-3 build or a 2-7-9-2 build or what have you. It all depends on how you want to construct your roster. The additional two rounds may give you the opportunity to hammer running back earlier knowing you have two extra rounds to grab a WR or TE, that sort of thing.

Either way, the main principles taught here hold true regardless of the site, but the intricacies will vary slightly. Alright, now moving on to draft strategies. We covered how to approach the QB and TE last week, and now here’s how to approach the running backs and wide receivers.

Best Ball Draft Strategies

Heavy-RB

Heavy-RB is a popular strategy, especially among fantasy football veterans from the “days of old” before the rise of PPR-style play. It’s still a viable strategy for sure. Out of 441 teams, 90 selected at least two running backs in the first three rounds. 2️⃣ n 3️⃣

Grabbing two elite running backs gives you more flexibility later in the draft when looking at later-round players. Most sites play only two running backs at a time (three if they crack into the flex spot), and assuming your two stay healthy, your two running backs will be in those “starting” slots more often than not.

But, it’s still important to grab three to four depth options behind them because running backs are often injured. I’d caution against handcuffs, as they will do you next to no good unless you have an injury to your main guy. Instead, target other backfields and running backs with sleeper appeal. That way you could have 5-6 usable options in a given week vs 3-4. It helps out your roster a lot more than you think. That’s one or two more chances for someone to have a big week or have a breakaway touchdown and change your week for the better. 📈 

Zero-RB

This is by far the most talked about way to draft running backs for best ball. For the purposes of this article, I defined it as drafting your first running back in round 5 or later. Oddly enough, only 70 teams who made it to the final round were Zero-RB.

Zero-RB puts the focus of the draft on wide receivers and is especially useful on sites like DraftKings where you have PPR scoring that favors WRs. Typically, you’re picking in the middle or maybe toward the front of the first round, so you miss out on Christian McCaffrey, but it’s a little too early to draft guys like Bijan Robinson or Breece Hall. So you start WR, and then in round 2, you pick up a WR again. And at that point, you’re closing in on the “RB Dead Zone” (basically rounds 3-4, sometimes stretching into round 5) where running backs just don’t have as high of a hit rate as some of the other positions around them, so you keep drafting receivers. 🏈 

But at some point, you’re going to need a running back, and usually, by the time you grab your first running back in round 5 or so, you have several elite wideouts and potentially an elite quarterback or tight end, so you can hammer the running back position heavily in the middle rounds, then switch back to receiver (or QBs or TEs) when value opens back up in the later rounds and the running back pool largely dries up.

With Zero-RB, especially in best ball, while it’s good to get some guys who have a decent floor projection (say James Conner or Gus Edwards) it’s important to draft guys with upside should things break right (like Jaylen Wright, Kimani Vidal, or Rico Dowdle). You’re shooting for upside and leveraging uncertainty with this type of strategy. Many guys you draft may not have starting roles right off the bat, but you need to ask, “what if?”

Hero-RB

Sixty-four teams in the final round of Best Ball Mania IV went the route of Hero-RB in their draft. This strategy employs selecting a premiere (at worst “high end”) running back in one of the first two rounds of their drafts and then waiting until Round 5 or later to grab their RB2. Some may define Hero-RB slightly differently, say waiting until Round 6 or later to get their RB2, but either way, I’m sticking to my definition for the purposes of this article.

Hero-RB is a bit of a hybrid between Zero and Heavy RB. You’re still grabbing a stud running back, but you’re also waiting to grab your RB2 until after you’ve secured elite receiver talent, tight end, or quarterback. It gives you a sense of safety and secure production while giving you upside at other positions. This is my preferred way to draft, but please keep in mind I employ all three of these strategies.

With Hero-RB, you still want to grab at least four more running backs to fill out your starting slots and for insurance purposes (running backs get hurt all the time!), just like you would with the other strategies.

That will do it for this edition of the Ballfield Banter newsletter! Hoping to get a podcast out to you in the next couple of days but with some plans with family coming up hard and fast, my time may be limited! Either way, thanks for reading and I will see you next week!