Fantasy Football Rankings: Awesemo’s High-Upside Best Ball Picks to Win Tournaments

DraftKings best ball leagues are all about upside. Because your highest-scoring players are automatically inserted into your starting lineup each week, you want guys on your roster that can single-handedly win you a matchup. So after you assemble your starting lineup, the rest of your draft is about compiling as much upside as possible. Let’s take a look at some players that need to be high on your fantasy football rankings list as you prepare for your best ball drafts.


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Awesemo’s Fantasy Football Rankings: Top DraftKings Best Ball Picks

Quarterbacks for DraftKings Best Ball

Daniel Jones, New York Giants

The second-year signal-caller is gaining steam as a popular sleeper pick in redraft formats but he is also someone that is worth a look in best ball leagues. Yes, it wasn’t pretty for Jones as a rookie, as he tossed 12 interceptions, while fumbling an additional 12 times. However, the surrounding situation was less than ideal, as Jones was under pressure on 41.7% of his dropbacks in 2019, the second-highest rate among viable quarterbacks. Meanwhile, his main four weapons in Saquon Barkley, Sterling Shepard, Evan Engram and Golden Tate missed a combined 22 games due to injury or suspension. Those guys should be healthy in 2020, while the Giants addressed the offensive line by drafting Andrew Thomas. Jones has some upside, ranking seventh among all quarterbacks in rushing yards (279), averaging 3.5 carries per game. He finished as a top-10 fantasy option in two weeks last year, despite a brutal situation around him. Again, New York’s top-four skill players didn’t play a single game together all year long, yet Jones still averaged a respectable 16.2 fantasy points per contest.

Gardner Minshew, Jacksonville Jaguars

You want rushing potential from your fantasy quarterbacks and Minshew, who is locked in as Jacksonville’s starter, provides it. During the first nine weeks of the season, Minshew was a legitimate fantasy option, ranking 10th among quarterbacks in fantasy points and 11th in fantasy points per dropback (0.49). Rushing is a big part of his game, as Minshew finished fifth among all signal-callers with 344 rushing yards, averaging 4.8 carries per game, also fifth-most at the position. With Nick Foles in Chicago, Minshew now has the keys to the Jaguars offense, one that could be more pass-happy this season. Jacksonville keeps losing key pieces to their defense, which could force them to throw more, while the arrival of offensive coordinator Jay Gruden could also lead to more passing volume.

Running Backs for DraftKings Best Ball

Kareem Hunt, Cleveland Browns

I personally wouldn’t advise deploying a zero-running back strategy this year, but if that is the route you take, Hunt is the perfect candidate. For starters, he has plenty of standalone value, as Hunt was the RB17 after he returned from suspension in Week 10. During that span, he averaged 5.4 carries and nearly six targets per game, operating as the clear pass-catching back in Cleveland. Hunt may have been away from the game for a bit but was still a very good back when he was on the field, averaging 5.8 yards per touch and sporting a 27.5% juke rate. With Kevin Stefanski now calling the shots in Cleveland, we could see this offense turn more run-heavy. Meanwhile, PFF points out that the Vikings in 2019 led the league in running back receiving yards off screens, so Stefanski could have fun with Hunt in the passing game. And of course, if something were to happen to Nick Chubb, Hunt would immediately become an every-week top-10 fantasy running back.

Matt Breida, Miami Dolphins

After flirting with fantasy brilliance for a few years in San Francisco, Breida is now with the Dolphins in Miami. Back in 2018, Breida was seventh among all running backs in both yards per touch (6.0) and breakaway runs (13). He’s always been an insanely efficient runner, but injuries have held him back, as nine of his 123 carries from 2019 went for at least 15 yards. Breida is a big play waiting to happen and will join Jordan Howard in this backfield. Howard should get the early-down work, but Breida will be the clear pass-catching back, which are higher-upside touches in fantasy. If the Dolphins are still a below-average football team, Breida will benefit most, and if he can get to 150-160 touches, he could pay dividends.


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Wide Receivers for DraftKings Best Ball

Diontae Johnson, Pittsburgh Steelers

Despite awful quarterback play, Johnson was quietly very impressive as a rookie last season, hauling in 59 balls for 680 yards and five touchdowns. Now he will get Ben Roethlisberger back, who has sustained two fantasy viable wide receivers in the past. Johnson finished as at least a WR2 in five of 16 games last year, showing he has that upside. And now he’ll see higher-quality targets while possibly reaching that 100-target mark. Johnson is a straight-up play maker when the ball is in his hands, ranking second among all wideouts in broken tackles (9) and averaging over three yards after the catch per reception. He just knows how to get open. Per NFL Next Gen Stats, Johnson led all viable wide receivers in average yards of separation (3.6). In this system, Johnson has massive sophomore breakout potential, which is the year many Pittsburgh receivers broke out in the past.

Marvin Jones, Detroit Lions

This is a best ball league where highest scorers are plugged into your lineup. Jones, a high-upside player who rarely sees massive targets, is the ideal wideout for this format. The targets he sees are of the highest upside in all of fantasy. For instance, in 2019, Jones saw nine end zone targets and 18 looks 20 yards or more down the field, which means around 31% of his targets came either in the end zone or deep down the field. Touchdowns are hard to predict, but Jones gets them, finding the end zone nine times in two of his last three seasons (he missed seven games in 2018). And before getting hurt and missing the final three weeks of the 2019 campaign, teammate Kenny Golladay, who is being drafted nearly six rounds higher, had just two more targets than Jones. He has some random huge games every year. In fact, he is one of just four receivers in NFL history to post multiple four-touchdown games. And those big games are perfect for best ball since you won’t have to guess when they’ll occur.

Marquise Brown, Baltimore Ravens 

Hollywood’s NFL career got off to a blazing start, as he torched the Dolphins for 147 yards and two scores in Week 1. He limped the rest of the way, missing a few games and finishing as the WR45 in fantasy. Playing in the run-heaviest offense in football, Brown’s targets are going to be maddening, as he saw seven targets or more in just four games last year. The touchdown rate is going to drop, as he was among the league leaders in that department (10.1%). However, he will flirt with 100 targets, and as we saw in his rookie year, Brown has week-winning upside.

Tight End for DraftKings Best Ball

Hayden Hurst, Atlanta Falcons

I truly believe that the Falcons have big plans for new tight end Hayden Hurst. After losing Austin Hooper to the Browns, Atlanta immediately traded a second- and a fifth-round pick for Hurst, which tells me that he was their contingency plan all along. Hurst, a former first-round pick, hauled in 30-of-40 targets last year and has plenty of potential. It was a smaller sample size but Hurst, at 6-foot-5, 250 pounds, finished sixth among all tight ends in yards per pass route (2.44) and seventh in yards per target (8.7).


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