Episode 10: Best Ball Draft Strategies Overview

Tyler Loechner of FTNFantasy.com runs through all of the primary draft strategies you need to know for best ball. What is "Zero RB"? What about "Hero RB" or the RB dead zone? Get up to speed on the different strategies you can deploy in your Underdog drafts. Read more about the strategies here:

• Best Ball Draft Strategies

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Episode Transcript

(00:05):
What's up, everybody, and welcometo Episode ten of the FTN Bestball Cast,
presented by the FTN Podcast Network.As always, I'm your host,
Tyler Lochner. You can find meon Twitter at Lochner NFL. And it's
it's an exciting day actually that we'rereleasing this podcast because FTN Fantasy is releasing

(00:29):
our twenty twenty three Bestball Guide.So this includes rankings, This includes draft
strategy. This includes some basic articleslike like different different strategies you can take
in the draft, different roster constructions, how to stack. It includes advanced
strategy, advanced stacking theory. Whenthe schedule comes out later this week,

(00:53):
we're going to have strength of schedule, correlation analysis, the whole shebang.
The Guide will be updated throughout summer, but it is just released, so
go check it out on ftan fantasydot com. Tons of great content,
some of it's free, a lotof it you do have to have an
FTN Fantasy subscription for. With thatbeing said, we're going to dive into

(01:15):
one of the topics that is discussedin the draft. We're going to talk
about it a little bit here.It's gonna be in the draft, got
I mean we're gonna talk about ita little bit on the podcast, though
more detail in the article. I'lllink to the article. But let's talk
about Bestball draft strategies, because theone thing that you have to do in
Best Ball, whether you're doing aslow draft or a fast draft, and

(01:37):
that means a thirty second pick clockor an eight hour pickclock. I mean,
I'm in some slow drafts that aregonna last for two weeks or more,
but that doesn't mean I don't havea strategy in those drafts. You
have to have a strategy in yourBestball drafts, more so than in a
traditional season long redraft league. Ifthis is your first year ever playing Best

(01:57):
Ball, I cannot enough how importantit is to actually have a strategy.
And that's because you cannot trade.You cannot drop and ad players like there's
no waivers, there's no one seasonmovement. It is just your team that
you draft that is your team untilthe season's over. So let's talk about
these different strategies. I'm gonna namethem, and then we're gonna go through

(02:19):
them one by one. The strategiesyou will hear most often are zero RB,
Hero RB, Robust RB, bully, quarterback bully tight end, and
you'll hear a lot of talk aboutquote unquote onesies and punting the onesie positions.
We're gonna talk about what that meansand what that strategy looks like.

(02:42):
And then we're also going to talkabout the quote unquote RB dead zone.
You hear about this primarily when talkingabout best ball. The concept does exist
for a redraft as well. Butwhat does the dead zone mean? Which
running backs are going in the deadzone this year? Do you actually want
to avoid it? It's got ascary name. We're gonna talk about that
on this cast. So let's startwith zero RB. I know many of

(03:05):
you who have probably heard this,so I'm not going to spend a ton
of time on zero RB. Butthis means you draft, you do not
draft your first running back for thefirst several rounds. Whatever that cut off
is. I usually consider zero RBthat you go, you don't draft run
until the fourth or fifth round,okay, until you draft your first running
back. And this strategy is predicatedon two facts. Number one is that

(03:28):
running backs are injured more often thanother positions, and number two is that
running back is the most replaceable realposition in the NFL. So what that
means is you're going to find comparableproduction, comparable fantasy output from a backup,
then you will the starter of ateam. And of course the backup
is completely cheap, if not free, in fantasy drafts. So a prime

(03:51):
example from previous seasons is Alexander Madisonstepping in and basically producing just like Dlvin
Cook. Now, Madison has notpanned out as a the best example.
Maybe I need a better new example, but the best example of going back
like five years was D'Angelo Williams withthe Pittsburgh Steelers. Levion Bell ended up

(04:15):
sitting out the whole year. D'AngeloWilliams, who was an inferior running back
at that stage of their career.Levion Bell was in his prime, more
talented. But because it's the sameoffense, the same scheme, D'angela Williams
is no slouch. He posted thetop three fantasy season for running backs and
he cost essentially nothing in fantasy draftsthat year. So that's the gist of

(04:36):
zero RB. You load up onwide receivers early in the draft, you
could even go quarterbacks. Quarterbacks aregoing a lot earlier this year. You
could get one of the early tightends and then new draft running backs.
All right, hero RB. Youwill also hear this referred to as modified
zero RB, which I hate thatphrase, but I'm saying it because you

(04:56):
will hear it said that way.Here. RB is basically like zero RB,
but it's I call it. It'szero RB for the less hardcore.
So it means you're still you're draftingone running back early, usually in the
first round, maybe the second round. Not a lot of running backs are
going in the first round this year. You've got Christian McCaffrey going in the

(05:17):
first round, you have B JohnRobinson going in the first round, and
you have I mean some rounds that'sit. Sometimes it's just Christian McCaffrey and
B John Robinson, but you alsomight see Austin Eckler or Jonathan Taylor go.
So a hero RB this year canalso include running backs in the second
round. Maybe you take Sequon Barkleyand Nick Chubb, Tony Pollard, maybe

(05:40):
you take Derek Henry. Henry's pushingit. So I think one of those
first six running backs, five orsix running backs, and then you don't
draft another running back for maybe untilyou're in round seven or something like that,
So what you end up with isone really really good running back,

(06:00):
and then the rest of your runningbacks are following that zero RB strategy,
which is running backs get hurt,running backs are very replaceable, So you've
got an anchor player at the position, and then the rest of your players
you're kind of looking to hit homeruns on. This strategy is actually really
easy to pull off this year because, like I said earlier, not a
lot of running backs are going inthe first two rounds. And I really

(06:24):
don't think you can call it ahero RB strategy if, like I said,
like Derrek Henry, if he's thefirst running back you take, but
you don't take him until the thirdround, I really don't think you went
hero RB. So I really thinkyou have to if you're gonna if you're
gonna do this quote unquote hero RBstrategy, you gotta get Christian McCaffrey.
You gotta get Austin Eckler, yougotta get b John Robinson, maybe sequel

(06:46):
all the way down to Saquon Barkley. So that's it. This is a
very popular strategy, but this yearin particular, anybody can do it.
You don't. It doesn't matter wherewhat's slot you're drafting from. In the
past, some of these draft strategieshave required you to kind of be in
a certain draft slot just based onADP. Like, Okay, you're really

(07:08):
probably not going to do hero RBin previous years if you were drafting at
the end of the first round.But this year, Austin Eckler's off in
there at the end of the firstround, So this is still a viable
strategy regardless of where you're drafting from. Okay. The next draft strategy again
focuses around running backs, and inBest Ball that is called the robust RB

(07:30):
strategy or heavy RB strategy, orI don't know, I think it's commonly
called robust RB. So that's whatwe're going to call it here. And
this is when you load up onrunning backs. Shocking because the name gives
it away. You load up onrunning backs early in the draft, so
I kind of define this as takinga running back with each of your first

(07:50):
three picks. That might sound likea lot, but if you do this
strategy, you probably do not haveto draft a running back again until the
very end of the draft. Andthere are some draft draft roster constructions out
there where you might only draft fiverunning backs. Maybe you go you go
like pretty intense, you only draftfour running backs. Five is often the

(08:13):
minimum that people take. If youtake RBRBRB to start your draft, or
even if you do RBRB you knowwide receiver RB, or you take three
running backs in your first four rounds. Let's say that's the kind of draft
where you probably don't want to draftmore than five running backs, and that's
because you invested all that draft capitalin those early draft picks. You are

(08:37):
very likely wasting picks later in thedraft. Of course, injuries can happen,
so there's there's that variance. SoI say you're wasting the picks.
Obviously you're not wasting the picks ifone of your early guys gets hurt and
the guy in the later round becomesamazing. But if things go the way
that they're supposed to go, you'reprobably wasting those later picks by taking more

(09:00):
than five running backs because the oddsof those later round running backs outscoring your
premium picks, right, the oddsof them outscoring Saquon Barkley and Christian McCaffrey
on any given week are pretty low. So if you go RB heavy,
if you go robust RB. Justkeep that in mind. You don't want
to draft too many running backs becauseyou've already invested such incredible capital into the

(09:20):
position. All Right, The nextdraft strategy is one I actually really like.
I love its name, I likedeploying it. I think it's fun.
I think it's unique. The bullystrategy and the two positions that you
can be a bully on our quarterbackand tight end. And that's because you
only start one player at those positions, and I say you start them in

(09:46):
Best Ball. Go check out FtMFantasy dot Com again the Best Ball Guide.
We've got the basics of best Ball. I give this podcast assuming that
people know about best Ball already howit works. This episode is a little
bit different, where I'm talking aboutsome more of the basic strategies and kind
of things to think about with thosestrategies. In twenty twenty three, because

(10:07):
I think this is the time ofyear, Underdog just released their brand new
Best Ball Mania four or three milliondollars prize pool. I think we're going
to see a lot of new playersenter best Ball this year. So I
do want to cover the topics thatpeople who have played before might know.
A little bit about but quarterbacks andtight ends, you only start quote unquote

(10:28):
start because you automatically start whoever scoresthe best. You only have one quarterback
and one tight end score points foryou on a given week. You can
have two tight ends score points foryou because there's a flex position that,
of course tight ends can score on. But being a bully at quarterback or
being a bully at tight end meanstaking two really top end players at a

(10:50):
given position. It's not as commonat the quarterback position because, like I
said, the tight end technically thatsecond tight end can score in the flex.
So this means you might take TravisKelsey. Let's say you have the
fifth overall pick, sixth overall pick. Maybe you take Travis Kelsey and then
a few rounds later, maybe youtake George Kittle. Or maybe this year

(11:13):
you take t J. Hockinson,or maybe you go really bully and you
take Mark Andrews. Now your teamhas George. Now your team has Travis
Kelsey and Mark Andrews. Of courseyou've sacrificed at other positions, but you're
being a bully at that onesie position. So now you have the top two
tight ends on your team. Nobodyelse in your league does. Both those
players are probably going to score foryou every week. Doing the bully tight

(11:37):
end strategy doesn't mean you have totake Kelsey and Andrews. I think you
can go as far down as KylePitts, maybe Dallas Goddard, where you
take two tight ends before maybe Goddardcomes off the boarder before Pitts comes off
the board, and that typically happensin the sixth round of this year.
It does not mean drafting two tightends in the top twelve, and that's

(11:58):
because after kind of that six,seven, eight range, the tight ends
are not very good. So itreally pretty much means you're drafting two of
the top three, maybe two ofthe top five tight ends. At quarterback,
technically you can do the same thinglike you could draft Josh Allen and
Patrick Mahomes. It's not as advisablebecause you're guaranteed only have one of them

(12:24):
score for your team. But it'sa strategy that some people do. I
will say this, if you dobully quarterback or you do bully tight end,
you probably don't have to draft anotherone, so you could just get
away with just those two quarterbacks onyour team. Well, you definitely should
get away with just those two quarterbacksenter team. Like, if you're drafting
Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, donot draft another quarterback. Do not do

(12:48):
it. If you're drafting Travis Kelceand Mark Andrews, do not draft another
tight end. It's not the endof the world if you draft another tight
end, but you really should notdo it if you're going with the bully
strategy. Now, the opposite ofthe bully strategy, this one doesn't really
have a name. I call it. I call it the punt Onesie draft
strategy, but it means not draftinga quarterback or not drafting a tight end

(13:13):
until much later in the draft.So the appeal of this strategy is that
you're taking more shots at running back, you're taking more shots at wide receiver,
because more of those positions will scorein a given week. You can
have six running backs or wide receiverscombined score in a given week. So
the more shots you take it thosepositions, the more prone you are to

(13:33):
have some spike weeks, particularly atthe wide receiver position. Now, obviously
the quarterback and tight end position there'sjust one of them, So if you
screw up on that one pick youif you punt on the position and you
end up Last year, here's anexample. This is a very high risk,
higher reward strategy. Last year,you could have waited and you could

(13:56):
have drafted Justin Fields, so thatwould have been punting on a quarterback.
Late round quarterback or that's probably theappropriate name for this is late round quarterback
or late round tight end. Inbasketball, you'll hero the term onesie used
a lot, though. Again it'stalking about quarterbacks and tight ends. Last
year, you could have waited,you could have done late round quarterback,
and you could have taken justin Fields, and that, of course would have

(14:18):
been incredible for your fantasy football team. Now you could have also waited and
drafted Ryan Tannehill, which would havebeen incredibly bad for your fantasy football team.
So it's like I said, it'sa high risk, high reward thing.
The tight ends are a little bitmore difficult to punt on. You

(14:39):
there's a pretty good bet that somelate round quarterback, maybe one or two
of them, will become very verygood for fantasy football. It's not as
easy to predict for tight ends.Okay, we know who the top five,
We certainly know who the top fivetight ends are going to be for
fantasy football this year. It's extremelyunlikely that some tight end you draft at

(15:05):
like tight end fifteen, is goingto break into that group. It's,
of course not impossible, but it'sextremely unlikely. It's more likely at the
quarterback position because there are quarterbacks whocan rush. There are quarterbacks who have
breakout years a couple of years intotheir career. So it's a high risk,
high reward strategy. I think it'sa little bit more viable with quarterbacks.
If you do punt at quarterback ortight end, you should aim to

(15:26):
have at least three of them onyour position, not just two. So
if you if you wait a whileto draft, let's say Kirk Cousins is
the first quarterback you take, youshould then take two more quarterbacks after him.
Okay, So, and the reasonis because you don't have a strong
anchor player at that position, youneed to take more shots so that your
individual week scores do not suffer.Okay, the last concept I wanted to

(15:50):
touch on briefly, and this reallyisn't a draft strategy, but it's something
you're gonna have to think about andas you read or listen to best ball
content. You're going to hear thephrase RB dead zone come up all the
time, like just it's gonna comeup so much, and you're gonna go,
what is that? Why I don'twant to draft a running back in
the RB dead zone. You don'thave to be scared of doing it.

(16:11):
So I'm just going to preface itby saying that the concept was born a
couple of years ago. I actuallydon't think it really applies very much in
twenty twenty three, but I'm goingto explain it a little bit. The
concept was, you're now in therange. After the top tier of fantasy
running backs comes off the board,there's then a second tier of fantasy running

(16:33):
backs who are talented players. Theirpositions are secure, but they are they
haven't They either haven't broken out yetor their breakout potential is maybe capped because
maybe they're like in a committee.So an example of a player in this
second the first tier is of courselike Christian McCaffrey, writer, Jonathan Taylor,
Ross Nckler. The second tier isJamor Gibbs, Travis Etn, maybe

(17:00):
j Harris, maybe Kenneth Walker,okay, and then after that, after
that second tier is when you enterwhat's called the RB dead zone. And
this is this is typically when likeFantasy RB two's and some Fantasy RB threes
are being drafted. So this year, that's Miles Sanders, It's j It's

(17:21):
JK. Dobbins, It's Dalvin Cook, it's Damian Pierce, It's DeAndre Swift,
it's Cam Akers, it's Isaiah Pacheco, It's it's Rashad White, it's
James Connor. It's running backs whohave a role. They're entering the year
as the starter for their team,but there are question marks about them.
Maybe they're getting older like Dalvin Cook, Maybe their role isntsecure like Cam Akers.

(17:44):
Maybe you're unsure about their health likeJK. Dobbins. Maybe their team
isn't going to be as good thisyear like Aaron Jones. These are all
the running backs but you just arenot sure about and this is people often
like to avoid drafting running backs inthis round. It's a reason why a

(18:06):
lot of these players ADP is lowerthan you might expect them to be.
With that being said, yes there'srisk, but of course there's reward.
So if these players do end upbeing secure in their roles, they're going
to outperform their ADP, so it'snot a bad spot to draft running backs.
But that is I just wanted toexplain that is what people mean when

(18:26):
they say the RB dead zone.All Right, I think that's going to
do it for this episode of theFtM Bestball Cast, and again, be
sure to check out ftn fantasy dotcom for the just released twenty twenty three
Bestball Guide from ft and Fantasy.Again, I'm Tyler Lockner, your host.
You can find me on Twitter atLochner NFL. Until next time,

(18:49):
I'm signing out Amber Fattlers safferent peoplewho found Tattlers, Fall Battles, Famous Tattlers fas