Best Ball Roster Construction Strategies (2022 Fantasy Football)

Best Ball as a game is still relatively new to the fantasy world, making it hard to proclaim any strategy truly the key to winning your leagues or large-field tournaments. Like any part of fantasy football, we’re relying on a repeat of previous data for a strategy to work. The one constant with Best Ball is that being mindful of your roster construction tends to pay off. While some years feature running back breakouts heavily, others may see many wide receivers outplay their ADP to a large extent. This article will focus on single quarterback rosters, as Superflex Best Ball formats are still relatively new, and the available data isn’t enough to make conclusions.

Quarterback

Deciding when to pull the trigger on a quarterback can sometimes be tricky. It is one of the most important decisions you can face when you’re feeling the timer tick away on your picks, and the last thing you want to do is end up with too many of them. In regular Best Ball, you’ll only be starting one quarterback per week, and finding the balance of a secure QB room versus spending too much on the position is a delicate balance. Most drafters will be looking for between two and four quarterbacks per roster, and the types of players you select should dictate the amount you take. We can break down quarterback into three main strategies.

• Early elite QB – 2-3 max
• Mid-tier-late tier – 3 max
• Late-round QB – No less than 3; 4 max

Early Elite QB – 2-3 Max

If you spend early draft capital on a QB, it’s best to avoid paying too high on your second and consider not taking a third. The reasoning behind this is pretty straightforward; we don’t want to overspend our draft capital on a position that only requires one starter. Taking Josh Allen (QB – BUF) in the second round and Kyler Murray (QB – ARI) in the fifth round might look great on paper. However, your team will often feature a QB producing well on your bench when you could have used that fifth-round selection on a skill position player who could help your starting lineup. If your elite-level quarterback fails to perform, it’s tough to overcome the wasted draft capital you’ve spent, and taking a third quarterback late is unlikely to change that. The points that Davis Mills (QB – HOU) or Jimmy Garoppolo (QB – SF) bring aren’t close to the value you needed from the likes of Allen or Murray.

Mid-Tier & Late Tier Combo

Finding gems in this area is a great way to complement your rosters after drafting plenty of skill position players. In 2021 mid-tier quarterbacks such as Aaron Rodgers (QB – GB), Tom Brady (QB – TB), and Matthew Stafford (QB – LAR) were amongst the best in advance rate for Best Ball tournaments. This tier contains players who tend not to have a dual-threat ability and tend to be more reliant on touchdowns for big spike week scores. As such, it makes sense to draft slightly more of them. We’re not laying out quite the same capital for these QBs as the elite ones, and we should have filled most of our skill position slots on the roster by this point. There are multiple ways to approach the QB position if you’ve waited till now, and one with an excellent success rate is to double down at the position between rounds 8-12, then supplement two solid starters with a third pick in the mid-late teens. An advantage of this tactic is that you can generally pick up a couple of correlated players from a team before the quarterbacks in this section. Taking Cooper Kupp (WR – LAR) and Allen Robinson (WR – LAR) makes it an easy choice to go after Matthew Stafford.

 
Late round QB

Times have changed somewhat since Late Round QB was the key to success, and now drafters tend to be more keyed in on any prospects who can offer league-winning potential. Instead, the Late Round QB tactic now relies on waiting out your draft room, hoping that others take their fill of quarterbacks and leave the likes of Ryan Tannehill (QB – TEN), Daniel Jones (QB – NYG), and Marcus Mariota (QB – ATL) to become your QB1. Taking this route can be risky as it forces your hand to stack up on QBs later on, and you’ll struggle to take advantage of other position groups that fall into your lap. While you may be able to back door your way into some cheap stacks, they tend not to have the ceiling of the earlier ones.

Suggested amount: 2-3 QBs

Running Backs

Drafters on Underdog have most commonly selected five running backs per team over the last two years, with 48.68% of drafters taking this approach. This methodology has resulted in the highest advance rate at the position with 0.25% – a number 0.09% greater than any other running back build. With Underdog expanding to 20 roster spots this year, it stands to reason that those two extra spots will include another running back in 2022. That would align with FFPC slim leagues, where users typically select six running backs. We can make arguments for various strategies for drafting running backs, but it is clear that our teams perform better when we draft between 5-6 of them. The more running backs took after this amount, the worse teams have faired. When drafting running backs, it’s a good idea to be mindful of their role. If you construct a hyper-fragile build with just four running backs, all four should have clearly defined roles and paths to success. The more backs you take, the more chances are for one or two to be potential late-season league winners who might not help you in the early periods of the season.

Suggested amount: 5-6 running backs

Wide Receivers

It’s always worth considering your Best Ball platform’s starting requirements for receivers. While other positions are pretty consistent, receivers can differ more often. FFPC only requires two WRs but has two flex spots that receivers can fill. Underdog and Draftkings typically have three slots dedicated to receivers and the flex spot. Over the last two years, teams with eight receivers have enjoyed the most success on Underdog (44% of available picks), the most common build with 32.96% of teams selecting this exact amount. The next most common builds are seven and nine receivers. Of the top twenty best players in Underdog’s advance rate, nine were wide receivers, including depth players such as Van Jefferson (WR – LAR), Kendrick Bourne (WR – NE), and Hunter Renfrow (WR – LV). It’s not hyperbole to suggest that the key to any good draft is selecting the right combination of receivers, with a balance of the high-end elite production, and then taking advantage of the depth at the position to bulk out your roster.

Suggested amount: 8-10 wide receivers

Tight Ends

Nothing is certain except death, taxes, and people convincing themselves that the tight end pool is deeper than it was the previous year. Typically, we’re only starting one tight end per week. However, in tight end premium leagues, it can be worthwhile aiming for a second tight end starting weekly in your flex position and taking more tight ends than would be advisable in other formats. Taking five tight ends in FFPC slim leagues led to a win rate of 14.2% – almost double the rate of three tight end builds. It is worth mentioning that five tight end builds aren’t used very often.

In non-TE premium formats, your TE2 rarely outscores a receiver. The table below shows how rare tight ends are to break the highest scoring levels against other positions. It’s best to approach the tight end position similar to the above quarterback strategies. If you select an elite tight end, you can stop at two if the build feels right and the second tight end has a secure role. If you’ve waited till deep in the teens to take your second, a third can become advisable, and with the nature of the position being so challenging to predict, taking a fourth isn’t out of consideration. Only 244 teams took five tight ends on Underdog in 2021, and none of them made the finals, so we want to balance taking shots while not spending too many of our picks on the position.

Suggested amount: 2-3 tight ends

Final Thoughts

The most crucial point is to be mindful of your total roster spots and the rules of the platform you’re drafting on. If you draft a position heavily in the first quarter of your draft, it becomes a good idea to lean towards the lower end of the recommended numbers below.

Ideal overall construction:

• Quarterbacks: 2-3
• Running Backs: 5-6
• Wide Receivers: 8-10
• Tight Ends: 2-3

Sticking roughly to these constructions will set users up for success, allowing for more micro-strategies, such as Zero RB, Anchor RB, and plenty more.

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