What is Best Ball?

If you are reading this article, you are obviously a fantasy football fan. Even as a fan of the hobby, you must admit that aspects of it annoy most players. Mid-season injuries, constantly checking the waiver wire, and being knocked out of contention early, to name a few of the worst aspects. Many people will play DFS, which can quickly turn into a money pit, as you play against math wizards every week whose only goal is to collect amateurs' money.

What if I were to tell you about a type of fantasy that is season-long, reasonably priced, and cuts out many of the issues that people have with the "standard" form of fantasy. This extraordinary type of game is best ball leagues, and they are becoming increasingly popular as the years go on.

Best ball fantasy football is a game that deeply incentives the draft. You pick a team in mostly 12- or 10-team, PPR formats, and that's it. That is your team for the whole season. No trades, no waivers; once the draft is done, your team is set for the entire year.

You don't even have to worry about setting your lineup. Your highest scoring players at each position each week will be set as your starters, and their scores will be combined with each of the 17 weeks of the season to determine who wins the league. That's it. All you must do is check-in each week to see how your team is faring.

I must say that I am far from an expert in this type of league, but I have played best ball in each of the last three years, and I do research each season to try and gain an edge on the field. In this article, I will share some of my favorite strategies for the format, and I will share some of my initial thoughts when examining the early average draft position (ADP) of players on Underdog Fantasy.

Stacking

If you have played DFS before, you know stacking is a popular term used in the game. It means picking multiple players from the same team. This is done because there is a correlation between one player having a stellar game or season and his teammates doing the same.

Let's look at the Green Bay Packers from last year. As a team, the Pack led the NFL with 31.8 points per game, which would stand to reason that their offensive weapons all had stellar seasons. In half-point PPR last season, Devante Adams was the No. 1 wide receiver, Aaron Rodgers was the No. 2 quarterback, and Aaron Jones was the No. 5 running back. This strategy is not hard to employ. Find an offense that you like, and if you pick correctly, you will see the fantasy points roll in.

I am eying the Cleveland Browns as an offense to stack this season, with Baker Mayfield, Odell Beckham Jr., and Nick Chubb representing solid value. A year removed from being the 14th-ranked team in the NFL in points scored and 16th in total yards, even after some early-season struggles while the team got acclimated to Kevin Stefanski's offense. Over the last eight games of the season, Cleveland averaged 392.4 yards per game. That average over 16 games would have ranked the Browns fifth in the league in total offense. In addition to playing in one of the best offensive schemes in the league, Cleveland also boasts one of the NFL's best offensive lines.

Chubb's ADP is the late first round despite ranking ninth last season in fantasy points in just 12 games. Beckham Jr. is going 66th in early ADP after an injury-riddled season, much lower than his price in previous seasons. Mayfield is going off the board as the 147th overall player and the 20th quarterback behind guys like Trey Lance. If you miss out on any of the big three, dependable players like Jarvis Landry and Kareem Hunt are also there to scoop up. The Browns may not represent the most flashy stack, but they are all solid values at their positions and I think the offense could take off in the second year of Stefanski's system.

Drafting both players in a positional battle

The name of the game in best ball is upside as zero points and 20 points in a week are equal if the 20 points are not enough to crack your starting lineup. Therefore, I try to avoid "safe" players in the draft's middle rounds because their consistent middling scores won't help me win a league. There is no difference in these leagues if you finish fifth or finish dead last, so you have to swing for the fences.

With this strategy, I will draft both players that might be currently fighting for the same position, hoping the winner holds the job and dominates touches. Two perfect examples of this strategy last season were the backfield battle in Jacksonville. The Jaguars had both James Robinson and Devine Ozigbo, with the former going 194th in ADP and the latter 204th. With two no-name players vying for the starting spot, you could have picked up both very cheaply and cashed in when Robinson finished as the No. 7 running back overall.

Handcuffs

The same can be said for handcuffs. In best ball, once a player is hurt for a week or the rest of the season, you have one less roster spot. You do not have a chance to replace them. This is why I sometimes like to draft handcuffs for my top RB picks because if that player goes down, you are in real trouble. This strategy only works with well-established handcuffs that you know will take the lion's share of the work if the starter goes down.

Look at last season, Christian McCaffrey was the consensus No. 1 pick last season, but he ended up playing just three games. Mike Davis stepped in with his ginormous thighs and finished the season with 177 PPR points to rank as the No. 15 running back. Davis was drafted as the 92nd RB and the 295th player overall last season.

The strategy could also be turned on its head, as another high-upside play would be to take a handcuff of a player that you do not have. Imagine taking Davis last year without McCaffrey. Now you have a top-15 guy you paid nothing for, while the person with the No. 1 overall pick languishes at the bottom of the standings. I think both strategies can work depending on the handcuff and the makeup of your team.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, there are a million strategies that you can use in best ball. I picked these three strategies to write about because I believe that they are all easy to understand and easy to implement for first-time players. All three highlight the primary goal of best ball fantasy, maximizing upside while also finding values in the draft. I also like these strategies because they can be catered to each drafter depending on an offense they want or specific situations they feel are not being discussed.