Introduction to Best Ball

With the draft behind us and training camp and draft season a ways ahead of us, I thought it would be a great time to dive into any fantasy football degenerate’s favorite subject this time of year: best ball.

For those who don’t know, best ball is a format where you draft a team of players and that is it. No waivers, no start sit, nothing. It automatically starts the best lineup each week and you can play in weekly or year-long contests. In this newsletter, I’ll briefly go over the format and then dive into my plans for the next few weeks as we take a deeper look into best ball.

What Is Best Ball?

Sites that I have used to play best ball include Underdog, DraftKings, FanDuel, and Yahoo. FanDuel and Yahoo, to my knowledge, have yet to incorporate large tournament-style contests, instead opting more for the 12-man league type for their standard contest. Underdog and DraftKings, meanwhile, not only offer that option but also contests where your team gets to compete against thousands of other teams for millions of dollars. 💵💵

Most drafts are 18-20 rounds depending on the site, with Underdog being 18 and DraftKings 20—those extra spots factor in a lot when looking at roster construction. But that will be discussed in another newsletter.

Since there are no waivers or trades, you are highly dependent on your roster staying healthy and that’s far from a guarantee. But you have to draft as if everyone stays healthy. 🏥 You have to draft as if you are right, as in “this guy is going to have a big year” and you don’t add insurance in case he doesn’t. Crucially, that means no handcuffing running backs. You’re more than likely loading up at wide receiver and fading tight ends save for the elite guys. Don’t settle for guys who could do “ok”, shoot for the moon, the “nth” percentile.

With that in mind, it’s wise to draft several teams when possible, especially in the large tournaments on Underdog and DraftKings. It gives you several shots to get it right, and hopefully hit a home run. I didn’t count, but I drafted somewhere around 30 total teams for best ball last year in total and maxed out a DraftKings 20 max-entry contest. Only one of the 20 made it to the third round of the contest, and I don’t believe it made it into the final round. Even so, out of 300,00 teams, I was in the top 1,000.

Round 1 is usually from the start of the season until Week 14, much like the fantasy football regular season. Each consecutive week teams are whittled down dramatically week by week. Finally, the culmination of best ball coincides with redraft championships: Week 17. 🏆

Best ball is an incredibly fun format to play, but it’s also challenging and, frankly, easy to mess up or be confused by. That’s why I’m taking the time during this period of the offseason, the slow period post NFL draft but before training camps, to talk about this. 📝

Future Plans

We will be diving into best ball for the next month and a half, talking about into roster construction, draft strategies, stacking, targets and fades, and late-round fliers. Should everything line up, I will also be starting my podcast back up giving at least one episode of 15 minutes or less covering this subject, giving you an alternative way to consume content for those who love podcasts (like myself). I have been on podcasts recently, but it’s been a while since I’ve done a solo podcast and hosted, so forgive me if I’m a little rusty! I’m looking forward to it!