Best Ball: Values for 2022

  • In the last article, the basics of Best Ball were explained which included the top-3 stacks to target during drafts. The most powerful stacks is important to a best ball team, but getting incredible value on stacks is easily as important. All of the value stacks featured below are teams with lower projected win totals, but that just means their offenses will pass the ball more and score more garbage-time fantasy points. Also included below are five last-round players to target in your best ball drafts that have the potential to return massive value in comparison to their ADP.

     

    Top-3 Value Stacks

     

    Houston Texans:

    I previously touched on why Davis Mills is an incredible sleeper candidate to target this season in redraft formats. He is the same in best ball drafts as well, since you can get him in Round 12 with an ADP of 186 and QB28.  You are drafting him as a bottom-4 Quarterback when, in fact, he was a top-10 QB in the fantasy playoffs last season.  Brandin Cooks (52 ADP, WR23) is likely the most underrated player in the history of fantasy football and is consistently a lock to finish top-15 at the position and yet, like Mills, there is a discount on his draft price. He will lead the Houston Texans in yards, targets and catches and likely the same can be said for touchdowns.  Nico Collins (166 ADP, WR68) has finally been balling out and has had a great camp thus far.  If he is able to continue that momentum into the season, it would not be surprising to see him finish as a top-36 WR this season, if he happens to find the endzone a few times.  Lastly, Brevin Jordan (194 ADP, TE25) is another great option to target if stacking the Houston Texans. Jordan can be grabbed, alongside Mills, in the 12-to-14 round range and would make a great TE2 or TE3 on a best ball squad.  The Texans square off with the Chiefs, Titans and then Jags in the best ball playoffs, which is a rather favorable trio of matchups. The draft capital to execute a Texans stack is very minimal and a great option if the top stacking options don’t work out.

     

    Jacksonville Jaguars

    Gone are the days of an absolutely horrific team and offense led by Urban Meyer.  This Jags team should flourish with sophomore Trevor Lawrence (129 ADP, QB18) looking great so far in preseason and in camp.  There are a number of very strong options in this offense that got huge paydays in free agency, not to mention a now-healthy Travis Etienne (36 ADP, RB18). Etienne will add a new dimension to this offense with his pass-catching work and ability to be a workhorse back.  Lawrence has a group of wide receivers that can all have monster games. Christian Kirk (90 ADP, WR41)  just got a fat contract from the Jags and should be featured as their top WR this season.  Marvin Jones (184 ADP, WR76) seems to have been left for dead in best ball drafts, but he is more than capable of being a top-25 WR in years past.  The Jags also signed Zay Jones (200 ADP, WR87), who has shown the ability to be a good player in camp this season and played well with the Raiders last year. Now the unknown of the offense is their TE Evan Engram (169 ADP, TE22).  The unknown is that fantasy GMs, and the Jags themselves, do not know if Engram will actually be able to hold onto the ball.  He has a gross history of dropping very catchable balls and there have been multiple reports in camp that he is still having issues. Unlike the Texans, you do not need to spend a pick higher than Round 8 to get a start on this build, unless you are wanting to include Etienne.  The Jags have a very juicy playoff schedule with matchups against the Cowboys, Jets and Texans.  Not the sexiest of stacking options, but the value and upside can reap rewards if you are able to execute this stack correctly.

     

    Atlanta Falcons

    The Falcons are a build that I found myself hitting frequently in early best ball drafts.  Kyle Pitts (31 ADP, TE3) is coming off the board very early, usually in the third round, maybe fourth if lucky.  Otherwise the draft capital to get the remaining players is very low.  Drake London (82 ADP, WR37) is coming off the board around Round 8, but he currently has a questionable tag and has been slipping a bit in ADP as of late.  London sustained a minor and “not concerning” knee injury in the Falcons first preseason game.  Take advantage of the ADP dip.  Lastly Bryan Edwards (250 ADP, WR100)  is a player that can be taken in the last round of best ball drafts and could have been featured in the other section of this article.  He has shown the ability to break huge touchdowns and that explosive type of player is what should be targeted in best ball drafts.  Of course the Falcons need someone slinging the ball and that’s Marcus Mariota (199 ADP, QB30).  He has played well in camp and is believed to be the starter for the majority of the season, but obviously there are concerns that rookie QB Desmond Ridder (250 ADP, QB36) is coming for the starting job. The Falcons are a great stack to target if you were able to grab a top-end QB early in the drafts like Josh Allen or Justin Herbert because of the QB uncertainty in Atlanta.  Ending the season against the Saints, Ravens and Cardinals, the Falcons will have some high-scoring matchups that could be exploited while stacking their skill players with such low draft capital.

     

     

    Last-round Dart Throws

     

    Tyler Badie (258 ADP)

    Gus Edwards just hit the PUP and will miss the first four games of the regular season.  J.K. Dobbins’ Week 1 outlook is still up in the air and if he suffers any sort of setback, Badie could be in line to start or at least see a handful of touches early in the season.

     

    Josh Kelley (235 ADP)

    Kelley is a player that I have targeted a bunch in best ball drafts the last couple of weeks. The camp reports are very clear that he has won the RB2 spot on the Chargers depth chart and Isaiah Spiller (ankle) is week-to-week.  He will be the spell RB for a top-3 offense and could vulture some touchdowns throughout the year. If Ekeler was to get injured, Kelley would be a must-add off the waiver wire.

     

    James Proche II (279 ADP)

    Another player on the Ravens that could break out this year is James Proche.  Early in camp, Proche was getting reps with the first-team offense over Devin Duvernay. He will, at worst, be on the field for three-WR sets and could grab some deep shots from Lamar Jackson on a run-and-gun offense.

     

    Velus Jones Jr. (234 ADP)

    Jones likely won’t have much impact to start the season due to injury, but best ball is a season-long contest and he should gain some traction, much like all rookie WRs, as the weeks go by.  With Justin Fields projected to elevate his game to the next level, Jones could become a huge piece of this offense by the end of the season, in time for best ball playoffs.  He has been knocked for being an “old” rookie WR, but the last Round 3 WR drafted over the age of 23 was Cooper Kupp, the reigning Triple-Crown WR1.

     

    Donald Parham Jr. (273 ADP)

    After being knocked unconscious in the endzone, Parham had his 2021 season abruptly end. He is a great candidate to bounce-back this season on a high-powered offense. Reports throughout camp have been in favor of Parham and how well he is playing. Gerald Everett is in town now, but Parham has the rapport with Justin Herbert. Don’t be surprised if he sneaks his way into the endzone a couple times this year. He can easily pay off his bare-minimum draft cost, especially in stacks with Herbert.

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