The NFL season is fast approaching, which means it’s peak NFL Best Ball draft season. Few fantasy football formats have exploded more in recent years than Best Ball, especially because it requires almost zero time commitment — your rosters are automatically set during the season and waivers are disabled, making Draft Day that much more important. Let’s discuss what NFL Best Ball is as we get into our beginner’s guide and dish out some expert advice.
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What is NFL Best Ball? Beginner’s Guide & Expert Advice
What is NFL Best Ball? | NFL Best Ball Beginner’s Guide & Expert Advice
Let’s start by discussing what NFL Best Ball actually is. The concept is simple: draft your team and let it ride. There are no trades, no waivers and no lineup management tasks to manage every weekend. The team you draft is the team you’re stuck with all season long. Essentially, NFL Best Ball is zero-commitment fantasy football on every level.
While the idea is simple, the execution is anything but easy. Because you aren’t wheeling and dealing throughout the season, looking to land trades and scoop the next James Robinson off the waiver wire, everything boils down to how you fare in the draft.
NFL Best Ball Beginner’s Guide & Expert Advice
Know the Rules
NFL Best Ball sites take your ideal lineup from each week and credit you with that score. If your lineup consists of 20 players, any of those players will count toward your score if they are top performers that week.
Popular formats take the highest scoring 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE and 1 FLEX, while others include a D/ST. The team with the top overall score at the end of the season wins.
For tournaments, the season usually goes for just 12 weeks before the playoffs start. Keep that in mind when drafting injured or suspended players.
Be Prepared
Injuries happen every week in the NFL, but you won’t have the luxury of replacing those players — or sending them to the IR — in NFL Best Ball leagues. There is a way to protect yourself from getting cut off at the knees, though: simply draft enough depth at each position and handcuff if necessary.
Drafting three quarterbacks is a perfectly reasonable strategy in some NFL Best Ball formats, especially if you aren’t targeting the position until later in the draft. Drafting quarterbacks early isn’t necessary in redraft leagues, and it shouldn’t be a priority in Best Ball, either.
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That said, backing up a third-tier quarterback with two signal-callers of similar talent allows for ample upside each week.
Similarly, handcuffing a top-tier running back with his backup will shield you from losing all of that production in the event of a significant injury. Because there are no add, drops or trades, failing to handcuff your first- or second-round running back could result in a total loss if he goes down for the season.
Get Deep
NFL Best Ball is all about giving yourself as many chances to win each week as possible, which means adding high-upside depth to your roster. If you’ve drafted a stud running back like Christian McCaffrey in the first round, you won’t have to worry as much about stacking the position with high-risk and high-upside running backs throughout the draft, but without players like him, you need to take some swings.
Your wide receiver position, however, would have less top-tier talent, which is why back-loading it with potential quality contributors makes sense. You aren’t necessarily looking for consistently productive weeks from all of those receivers, either. As long as they can have a few big weeks throughout the season, you’d have positioned yourself nicely to compete.
Give yourself the most opportunity to produce at as many different spots as possible. Find depth at your weakest positions.
Safety Isn’t Safe
Safe, consistent production is important for the early rounds of an NFL Best Ball draft. That philosophy is no different than in your typical redraft league.
However, when you get to the middle and late rounds, everything begins to change. In NFL Best Ball, the 10th-round wide receiver who offers a consistent eight fantasy points each week isn’t much use. Instead, a boom-or-bust receiver with a low floor and high ceiling is exactly what you’re looking for.
Adding enough of those high-upside players in the later rounds gives you a shot at winning it all.
Don’t Get Greedy
Stacking high-octane offenses is never a bad idea, but too many players from the same team can significantly cap your weekly ceiling. For instance, the Atlanta Falcons could average 25 points per week and have five or six mid-to-top-tier fantasy producers by season’s end, but all of them are not going to produce viable fantasy totals every week.
Instead, stacking a quarterback with two of his pass catchers and running back limits your ability to have huge weeks based solely on limited opportunity. There are only so many touches to go around on one team, no matter their level of talent.
