Welcome to Awesemo’s Fantasy Football Best Ball Report 1.0. This will be a weekly feature leading up to the 2021 NFL season that will focus on all things related to best ball for the past seven days. It will check in on Underdog Fantasy ADPs (using 4for4 ADP Tool) and look at the top NFL fantasy football risers and fallers over the past week. We will sort the top player news stories on NBC Sports Edge, as this is the main source of news that seems to impact the rise or fall of players’ ADPs. This column will also examine any additional trends that might help fantasy players get ahead of the curve when it comes to players’ ADP value.
The more you play in best ball leagues the more you are going to become addicted to the format. The more teams you draft the more players you are going to have exposure to, and with that we want to search out when it is OK to buy a player and when to avoid a certain player. Best ball can be compared to being a day trader in the stock market, as the best ball season runs from February to September.
Underdog Best Ball Fantasy Football Draft ADPs & News
The great tool from 4for4.com shows the weekly ADP shifts on Underdog Fantasy to see how player values are moving. Drafting in best ball means always looking for values when drafting players. For high-volume best ball players, the goal is always to try to limit the number of times one overpays for a player, and the best way to help with this is tracking ADP movements.
Top 20 ADP Risers (July 11 – 18)
| Rank | Player | Pos | Pos Rank | Team | Current ADP | Change in ADP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 180 | Darrynton Evans | RB | 1 | TEN | 183.8 | -8.2 |
| 198 | Nico Collins | WR | 1 | HOU | 197.5 | -6.6 |
| 154 | Jakobi Meyers | WR | 2 | NE | 155.7 | -6.1 |
| 182 | Amari Rodgers | WR | 3 | GB | 184.5 | -6.0 |
| 177 | Marquez Valdes-Scantling | WR | 4 | GB | 177.2 | -5.5 |
| 201 | Damien Williams | RB | 2 | CHI | 199.1 | -4.8 |
| 169 | A.J. Green | WR | 5 | ARI | 170.9 | -4.3 |
| 202 | Allen Lazard | WR | 6 | GB | 201.8 | -3.5 |
| 137 | Parris Campbell | WR | 7 | IND | 135.8 | -3.3 |
| 120 | Rondale Moore | WR | 8 | ARI | 120.8 | -3.1 |
| 94 | Michael Pittman | WR | 9 | IND | 94.3 | -3.0 |
| 95 | Mecole Hardman | WR | 10 | KC | 96.5 | -3.0 |
| 166 | Tyrell Williams | WR | 11 | DET | 166.9 | -2.8 |
| 176 | James White | RB | 3 | NE | 177.2 | -2.7 |
| 131 | Nelson Agholor | WR | 12 | NE | 132.9 | -2.7 |
| 145 | Tre’Quan Smith | WR | 13 | NO | 145.3 | -2.6 |
| 196 | DeSean Jackson | WR | 14 | LAR | 195.5 | -2.5 |
| 132 | T.Y. Hilton | WR | 15 | IND | 133.4 | -2.4 |
| 212 | Samaje Perine | RB | 4 | CIN | 209.4 | -2.4 |
| 126 | Jalen Reagor | WR | 16 | PHI | 127.2 | -2.4 |
The interesting part from this week’s top-20 risers is that 16 are receivers and four are running backs; there are zero quarterbacks or tight ends in the mix. This makes sense in an 18-round format like Underdog, as those two positions are the two to load up on compared to the onesie positions like quarterback or tight end that have value at the end of drafts. The other standout is that there are three Packers receivers in the top eight risers. This is likely with the recent Aaron Rodgers speculation that he is coming back to the Packers, and people are wanting to get a cheap piece of the Packers offense before Rodgers’ return becomes official. The rise of Evans at the top might be based on a Twitter overreaction, as a few bigger names have been touting him recently. Collins, Meyers, Moore and Pittman are getting the wide receiver bump based on demand for the position, as the masses have recently been loading up on receivers and waiting on the running back position. There have also been some positive news items on both Collins and Meyers that tend to drive up the ADP in a slow month of July.
Top 20 ADP Fallers (July 11 – 18)
| Rank | Name | Pos | Pos Rank | Team | Current ADP | Change in ADP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 204 | Tarik Cohen | RB | 1 | CHI | 204.5 | 17.0 |
| 186 | Kadarius Toney | WR | 1 | NYG | 187.7 | 5.0 |
| 178 | Zach Wilson | QB | 1 | NYJ | 180.3 | 4.9 |
| 199 | Zach Ertz | TE | 1 | PHI | 197.7 | 4.8 |
| 188 | Sam Darnold | QB | 2 | CAR | 190.2 | 3.9 |
| 170 | Blake Jarwin | TE | 2 | DAL | 171.3 | 3.6 |
| 191 | Denzel Mims | WR | 2 | NYJ | 193.2 | 3.6 |
| 114 | Leonard Fournette | RB | 2 | TB | 113.9 | 3.4 |
| 87 | Jalen Hurts | QB | 3 | PHI | 86.8 | 3.4 |
| 112 | James Conner | RB | 3 | ARI | 110.6 | 3.3 |
| 157 | Baker Mayfield | QB | 4 | CLE | 158.4 | 3.2 |
| 171 | Daniel Jones | QB | 5 | NYG | 172.6 | 3.2 |
| 181 | Jameis Winston | QB | 6 | NO | 184.5 | 3.1 |
| 146 | Tua Tagovailoa | QB | 7 | MIA | 146.1 | 2.9 |
| 222 | Keelan Cole | WR | 3 | NYJ | 212.3 | 2.9 |
| 224 | Rhamondre Stevenson | RB | 4 | NE | 212.5 | 2.9 |
| 183 | Giovani Bernard | RB | 5 | TB | 185.4 | 2.8 |
| 162 | Jared Cook | TE | 3 | LAC | 162.8 | 2.6 |
| 195 | Darius Slayton | WR | 4 | NYG | 195.3 | 2.5 |
| 121 | Melvin Gordon | RB | 6 | DEN | 120.9 | 2.4 |
Thirteen of the top fallers are either quarterbacks or running backs. The running backs make sense with all the trends recently on Underdog with drafters obsesses with the running back dead zone (Rounds 3-6), which became a craze over the past week and forced running back ADPs to fall and wide receiver ADPs to rise. The big faller this week was Tarik Cohen, who dropped a whopping 17 spots as a big news story broke on him having setbacks with his ACL injury.
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Cole Beasley, WR, BUF — Beasley is being outspoken off the field, and there is speculation that a retirement or release should not be completely ruled out. Those who are more risk drafters might buy the dip on Beasley.
J.D. McKissic, RB, WAS — McKissic added weight this offseason to improve his chances at not just being a pass-catching running back.
Tom Brady, QB, TB — Brady played through a partially torn left MCL for the entirety of the 2020 season.
Chris Godwin, WR, TB — Godwin is not expected to reach a long-term deal with the Buccaneers and will likely sign the franchise tag.
Nico Collins, WR, HOU — Phrases like “should have a chance to see a lot of snaps early” and “make an impact” as a rookie are driving up the price.
Allen Robinson, WR, CHI — Robinson is currently signed to the franchise tag, worth $18 million.
Damien Harris, RB, NE — ESPN’s Mike Reiss sees Harris as the Patriots RB1, “and it’s pretty decisive.”
David Montgomery, RB, CHI — Bears head coach Matt Nagy said he wants 20 rushing attempts a game out of Montgomery. Based on recent reports of Cohen having setbacks, look for Montgomery to climb in ADP.
Best Ball Industry News
- Underdog Fantasy — The Puppy ($5 buy-in) Tournament filled in 10 days, and now the Puppy 2 is rumored to be coming back in August. On a bigger scale, Underdog’s $25 buy-in for the BBMII ($1 million to first) is 38.3% full with 59,600 of 155,500 entered.
- DraftKings — There are three tournament options this year with a $20 (150 max, $1 million top prize), $3 (20 max, $50,000 top prize), and $555 (59 max, $250,000 top prize).
- BestBall 10s — They have a $10 entry fee tournament with 3000 total teams up for grabs and a top prize of $5,000.
- Yahoo! — Yahoo has no best ball tournaments, but they do have $1, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $250 and $500 10-man league options. With the Yahoo best ball product, players are limited to 50 total drafts for the season.
- Drafters — Drafters is running a Best Ball Championship tournament, which has a twist to it, as it is the overall top scoring team wins and does not offer a playoff round style like DraftKings and Underdog. The entry fee is just $5.55, and the contest is nearly halfway full (4,550 of 10,008). Top prize is $10,000 with a $50,000 total prize pool.
- FFPC — Entry fees range from $35 to $1,250. The biggest difference in FFPC is that they have 28 roster spots but include kickers and defenses.
Check out all of our Fantasy Football content at the Awesemo Fantasy Football YouTube Channel, where you can find expert advice, rankings and strategy, as well as Underdog Best Ball Fantasy Football Mock Drafts with Dave Loughran and Matt Gajewski.
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