Best Ball Draft Recap and Strategies

The July 4th holiday came and went, and among all the traditions celebrated that weekend my friends and I have one I hope continues for many years to come.  It’s the “Easy League”, and we call it that for a pretty good reason.  This best-ball format is free, and merely for bragging rights.

Understand this is a collection of guys I’ve played softball with for years, but unfortunately, age caught up with what was once a dominant team on the field.  SOS (aptly named for the Sultans of Swat) won consecutive league championships from 2006 through 2010.  But I digress, back to fantasy football.

See now, participating in fantasy football helps keep a lot of us in touch whereas our separate paths away from playing softball may have taken us apart over the past decade.  We do a dynasty league as well with a team fee and prize money that’s far more serious to all of us, but the Easy League is just one more thing to do during the holiday break.  Run a six-hour clock per pick, and snake draft from the beach or backyard, or wherever we’re spending the time while off from work.

Being that it’s a best-ball format we won’t have to set our lineups each week, and with no trades, waivers or add/drops throughout the year we don’t even need to check back once the draft is complete.  Annual winners have put the victory year in their team names as a feather in the cap of sorts for a reminder to everyone else of their success.  With another best ball draft on the horizon, I figured looking back on how this year’s Easy League unfolded could give me a little more insight for preparation in how to proceed.

The structure is simple.  28 rosters spots for 14 starters – two QB, three RB, five WR, two TE and two DEF.  A simple double up at each position is a loose guideline, but I also place a slight emphasis on QB and RB due to injuries and similarly don’t believe four-team defenses are necessary.

Examining the seven teams based on draft position, here’s how it played out.  The team drafting at 1.01 went with Christian McCaffrey to start things off as expected.  He followed it up with Kenyan Drake and DeAndre Hopkins on the 14-15 turn, and in review looks to have a well-balanced roster according to the loose guidelines above.  Aside from taking Frank Gore as his 7th RB despite not having Le’Veon Bell, nothing surprising stands out strategy-wise here.  I point this out because Chase Edmonds went undrafted and would’ve made much more sense for this squad in my opinion.

Chalk held form as Saquon Barkley was selected at 1.02.  Eerily similar to the previous team, Derrick Henry and Tyreek Hill rounded out his next two rounds with roster balance across the board as well.  This squad could find some trouble at WR down the road with nine rostered, but two of them being Antonio Brown and Alshon Jeffery.  My over-under on games played this season between those two combined is hovering around 5.5.  I don’t believe Brown will find his way back into the league and Jeffery could very well be damaged goods.

The first surprise of the Easy League draft was Michael Thomas breaking the RB train at 1.03.  More surprising was the overall strategy this two-time league champion (2015 and 2018) employed at the WR spot.  Thomas, Julio Jones and Chris Godwin were his top three picks before he grabbed Nick Chubb and Clyde Edwards-Helaire.  My thoughts are he left himself a little thin at the other positions to own a strength by stacking up WR.  His top two QBs are Matt Ryan and Carson Wentz, and his TE room is very weak with just Mike Gesicki, Jonny Smith and Gerald Everett.

Pick 1.04 brought us back to the running backs with Zeke Elliott, and then it was my turn to pick at 1.05.  My internal debate here was for either Patrick Mahomes or Lamar Jackson.  My thought process was they were far and above the next tier of quarterbacks in total points based on this league’s scoring system over the course of 2019.  I’ll go more in-depth on the strategies I employed and reasons why in a bit.  But there were two more teams to examine.

Seeing the odd man out from my QB decision go at 1.06 was confirmation I made a solid first-round choice over the other positions available.  But then seeing this team finish his roster with a TE room comprised of just Zach Ertz, Rob Gronkowski and Blake Jarwin also made me wonder if this guy will still be without a year in his team name come 2021.

The final pick and turn from first round to second round swing in the snake draft was interesting and bold.  Travis Kelce and George Kittle went 1.07 and 1.08 taking the two top tight ends off the board.  Strategy wise it’s a good play because the gap from these two to the next tier is a big drop in scoring differential.  Conversely, it’s unlikely he’ll get many games to count from his third TE, so I was immediately curious to see what he’d do at this position the rest of the way.  Dallas Goedert and OJ Howard in the 14th and 24th rounds made perfect sense.  Quality depth in case of injury without sacrificing a premium pick costing a starter elsewhere.

In building my roster I was seeking balance and depth while trying to get an edge at QB and RB, the positions which seem to thin the quickest.  Figuring there are more than 70 receivers worth rostering, I went heavy on the backfield positions early.  After selecting Mahomes over Jackson, four of my next six picks were bell-cow running backs:

2.03 (10) – Dalvin Cook

3.05 (19) – Joe Mixon

4.03 (24) – Josh Jacobs

5.05 (33) – Russell Wilson

6.03 (38) – D.J. Moore

7.05 (47) – David Johnson

This was a two-pronged strategy.  Even though only three of them will start each week, I’ll get the three best of the four games.  Also aside from Jacobs, the others are on NFL teams with a clear cut second string back I could nab in the later rounds:

15.05 (103) – Alexander Mattison

19.05 (131) – Duke Johnson

27.05 (187) – Giovani Bernard

All three of these backs will play prominent roles should the starter ahead of them miss time due to injury.  Nor should I need their games to count otherwise. Likewise, should Jacobs go down, Las Vegas looks likely to be going with a three-headed committee.

In addition to Mahomes and Wilson, I added three other starting quarterbacks who have zero competition on their respective NFL teams in Matt Stafford (12.03), Joe Burrow (13.05) and Drew Lock (14.03).  While I should have a total of five QB games each week to produce the two highest scores for competition, the two other best ball rosters with Ryan Fitzpatrick and Tua Tagovailoa combined are going to have at least one dead roster spot each week of the season.  The same goes for Tyrod Taylor and Justin Herbert.

And while placing a priority on QB and RB, I still came away satisfied with my WR and TE rooms.  In addition to Moore, here’s where I’m pulling those seven games from on a weekly basis:

8.03 (52) – A.J. Brown

9.05 (61) – Darren Waller

27.05 (66) – DK Metcalf

10.03 (75) – Evan Engram

11.05 (108) – Noah Fant

16.03 (117) – Will Fuller

18.03 (122) – Jarvis Landry

20.03 (136) – John Brown

21.05 (145) – Ian Thomas

24.03 (164) – Anthony Miller

26.03 (178) – CeeDee Lamb

28.03 (192) – Corey Davis

One last thought on how to approach the team defenses.  I wavered between carrying just two and eating the bye weeks, or adding a third.  In the end, I decided to grab the third defense because again, the two best games get used regardless of which two defenses score them.  The idea being defensive TDs can lead to big games.  Since they are inconsistent by nature, may as well try to capitalize on the randomness of the occasional big game impacting the weekly score.  Here’s hoping we see a lot of them from New England (22.03), Buffalo (23.05) and Denver (25.05).

Defenses traditionally are inconsistent when it comes to scoring throughout the season, and typically go late in just about all formats of fantasy drafts.  No need to burn your early picks trying to get the best ones.  The team who took Kelce and Kittle in the first round swing grabbed Baltimore and San Francisco at 17.07 and 18.01.  The next defense to come off the board was New England in round 22, with only one other when Pittsburgh was selected two spots later.  We then saw ten defenses selected between the 23rd and 25th rounds, followed by six more in the last three rounds.  All but one of our seven teams opted to carry three defenses.

Fantasy drafts are fun and the best ball format eliminates the headache of being fully invested week to week during the season.  Good luck and hopefully you came away from this with a little more insight for your best ball league this season.

ATTN Dynasty Commissioners: Do you want to do something cool for your league? How about a 1-hour live show dedicated to YOUR league? Team-by-team breakdowns, rankings, and more. For details and to book a show, visit: GoingFor2.com/plp.