Winning. That’s why we play fantasy football. And Underdog Fantasy handsomely rewards the biggest of winners in their largest tournament– Best Ball Mania. 2023 marked the fourth year of this Best Ball tournament. Again, Underdog awards a sizeable prize – $500,000– for the highest scoring regular season team.
NOHALFSTEPPIN emerged victorious this year, scoring 2,091.34 fantasy points throughout the season. And, for a second year in a row, the average weekly score for this highest scoring team was approximately 150 points per week in half-PPR scoring.
Let’s dive a little deeper into NOHALFSTEPPIN’s team to determine the pathways for our own future success in this flagship tournament.
1. Early WR-QB stack
Stefon Diggs and Josh Allen were drafted in consecutive rounds to begin the draft. Allen finished as the QB1 overall.
While Diggs had his fair share of high-scoring contests at the start of the season, he sputtered near the end– illustrating that the first round pick didn’t need to hit the absolute ceiling. Diggs finished as the WR17 in Best Ball Value rating.
2. Classic Zero-RB build
James Cook was drafted as NOHALFSTEPPIN’s first running back off the board in the sixth round. Cook finished as RB16 in Best Ball value rating. After Round 5, four of the next five selections were running backs– most of whom hit. Rachaad White finished as the RB11 in Best Ball value, while Raheem Mostert finished as the RB3. Leaning into the RB “dead zone” proved valuable.
3. Nailing Late-Round Picks
There isn’t a nastier finish to any Best Ball draft in 2023 than finishing with Brock Purdy–Tank Dell–Gus Edwards–Zack Moss–Kyren Williams. No pick was a “throw away”– and given that the draft finished on September 3rd, there was enough information stemming from the preseason to indicate that especially Edwards, Moss, and Williams were the clear handcuffs to draft for their respective teams. Edwards finished as RB24 in Best Ball value, Moss finished as RB20, and Kyren Williams was the RB2.
4. Injury Variance
T.J. Hockenson, Christian Watson, Nico Collins, Tank Dell, and Keenan Allen suffered injuries throughout the season, but did so after putting up massive spike weeks. The injury variance also fell the other way, as Gus Edwards catapulted into relevance with the early J.K. Dobbins injury.
Jeff Wilson‘s preseason injury all but shored up Raheem Mostert‘s role in the Miami backfield, making Mostert a prime selection. Mostert also benefitted from Achane’s absences. Injuries happen– but when they don’t, do the players you select have a chance to “hit” the highest ceilings?
5. Taking Zero’s
This team took four “zeros” out of eighteen selections– Christian Watson in Round 4, AJ Dillon in Round 9, Van Jefferson in Round 12, and Gerald Everett in Round 13. These players drew dead most weeks, and averaged fewer than four points contributed per week each. It’s nearly inevitable that teams will take zeros, but the pathway to success is minimizing the zeros taken.
6. Structure
2 Quarterbacks. 7 Running Backs. 7 Wide Receivers. 2 Tight Ends. Perfect Symmetry. The QB and TE selections were also close to symmetrical, with an early Josh Allen and Hockenson paired with a late Gerald Everett and Brock Purdy. The balance of early wide receivers was met with late-round running backs.
7. Wide Receiver Ambiguity
Nico Collins and Tank Dell were selected in the back-half of the draft. C.J. Stroud went undrafted in this draft room. There was fear that the Texans would be bad, Stroud would struggle, and there was uncertainty of which wide receiver from Collins or Dell would be stuck in wide receiver purgatory. Instead, they alternated spike weeks catching passes from an Offensive Rookie of the Year Candidate. Dell finished as WR16 in Best Ball value while Collins finished as WR12. Consider leaning into ambiguous pass-catching situations where there is a new coach and perhaps a new QB (ahem, New England, Atlanta, etc.) for 2024.
Any win of this nature requires the highest of variance outcomes, threading the needle through bye weeks, injuries, and depth chart changes. These takeaways should help frame better strategy for future drafts as 2024 Best Ball season is right around the corner.
