NFL Best Ball: DraftKings Early Bird Late-Round Steals
DraftKings NFL Best Ball season is in full swing and its Early Bird NFL tournaments are quickly filling up as the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft approaches Thursday.
While time is short before the post-NFL Draft phase of the best ball offseason, there are still great late-round values to be had. This article identifies 10 players going late in the DraftKings NFL Best Ball ADP -- including five rookies -- who give you cheap upside to give your rosters the extra juice to climb the standings and take down cashing finishes.
The players are listed from earliest ADP to latest, with none earlier than 160.0 in the DraftKings NFL Best Ball ADP.
Keep in mind you can see RotoWire's constantly updated best ball cheat sheets and fantasy football rankings for every fantasy football format, including the DraftKings Best Ball cheat sheet. Also, make sure to read John McKechnie's DraftKings Best Ball Strategy breakdown from earlier to get a full-picture look at how to navigate a best ball draft.
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Brandon Aiyuk, WR, SF (161 DraftKings ADP)
The last two seasons have been a nightmare for Aiyuk, and by all accounts his time in San Francisco is over. Doesn't matter. Aiyuk's talent was never in any doubt – there is sooner reason to suspect he is still one of the very most talented NFL receivers at this second – yet at his current ADP you would think that Aiyuk was toast, or even that his availability was in some amount of question.
As much as there's no doubt the 49ers are spiteful and are doing their best to harm Aiyuk's interests by holding him hostage, this is still a hostage the 49ers can't take with them. The bridge is burned, and now the 49ers can face the reality of getting something for something or nothing at all.
At his current ADP, Aiyuk is basically zero-risk, and with substantial upside, regardless of where he ends up playing. The Washington Commanders are a fine candidate to make that eventual trade, mind you, and if Aiyuk ends up there you can bet his ADP will jump upwards of five rounds. Aiyuk might be an equal to Terry McLaurin when healthy, and Jayden Daniels worked well with Aiyuk when they were at Arizona State.
Emanuel Wilson, RB, SEA (162)
It's perfectly clear that Zach Charbonnet (knee) is the RB1 in Seattle now that Kenneth Walker is off to Kansas City, yet Charbonnet's late-season ACL tear leaves him in a plainly difficult situation for the 2026 season.
That's particularly true for the early part of the 2026 season, yet the Seahawks are a run-heavy team and they don't have the privilege of deferring any amount of rushing production. They have two choices: produce on the ground at all times, or lose.
Wilson is the all too obvious bridge that will hold over Seattle until Charbonnet is ready to return, and even at that point Wilson is a strong candidate to play a 1B role not completely unlike how Charbonnet himself was used alongside Walker.
As much as the Seahawks made only a minimal investment in Wilson – a one-year, $1.595 million deal – Seattle still has a clear interest in making Wilson a productive player in 2026. Wilson will be a free agent next offseason, and if he produces notably for the Seahawks this year then Seattle could get themselves a fourth- or fifth-round compensatory draft pick, basically paying themselves to rent Wilson for one year, and potentially getting notable rushing production in the process.
Wilson has obvious limitations and doesn't project as a long-term NFL starter – the passing-down aspect of the game held him back in Green Bay – yet it would be foolish to doubt his pure running ability. The Seahawks have George Holani, Kenny McIntosh and eventually Charbonnet to handle the passing situations, but no matter the game script the Seahawks will need to run with volume and there's reason to believe Wilson is a better pure runner than Holani or McIntosh.
The Seattle defense should remain dominant in 2026, and if they want to leverage that defense they'll need a backfield option who can provide power rushing, including at volume. Holani and McIntosh simply can't provide that.
Jerry Jeudy, WR CLE (167)
As long as the price is right, and as long as a given player draws enough usage to accumulate volume, then fantasy football value can be found in even the ugliest of offenses.
That's fortunate for Jerry Jeudy investors, who should probably just check the box scores instead of the harrowing footage of the actual Cleveland offense. More specifically, Jeudy's investors should just skip to the PPR point totals, because even if he's dreadfully inefficient Jeudy will likely draw a volume of targets high enough to pad double-digit PPR point totals.
Even if Harold Fannin emerges as the new lead target for the Browns, there will still be slack for Jeudy left over afterward. Cedric Tillman can only do so much and Isaiah Bond can do less.
More importantly yet, Jeudy has always drawn targets at a high rate, even while playing with bad quarterbacks his entire NFL career. It would be nice if Deshaun Watson provided Cleveland with an upgrade at quarterback, but even if it's Shedeur Sanders or whoever else, Jerry's target rate dictates a high floor in PPR scoring. The touchdowns and yardage admittedly might be sparse, but the empty-calorie catches are all but assured at the least.
Jalen Nailor, WR, LV (172)
Nailor held serve against Jayden Reed when the two were teammates at Michigan State, with the distinction in their respective draft positions largely just due to Nailor struggling with injuries in college. Some players fall to Day 3 of the NFL Draft because the league doubts their talent, but Nailor is not one such player.
The Raiders certainly agree, which is why they quickly targeted Nailor with a generous offer in free agency, reeling in Nailor from Minnesota with a three-year, $35.03 million contract. Now free from Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison, Nailor's snap count and target count are poised to rapidly increase relative to his prior NFL seasons.
Even if the Raiders add a substantial wideout prospect in the NFL Draft, Nailor is clearly locked in for a three-down role, presumably mostly at the flanker and to a lesser extent the slot reps. You might see a base Las Vegas offense where it's 2TE but with Brock Bowers often or usually taking the slot, doubling as a wideout when in the slot.
Bowers will almost certainly be the leading Vegas receiver, but any rookie added would likely be of the 'X' variety, which are often reps with the least-viable targets. If someone is going to eat the most challenging press coverage or/and the high safety shell on a given play it's usually the 'X,' and particularly if that player is a rookie their per-snap target rate might leave some lack on the rest of the passing game.
There's reason to believe Nailor can capitalize on any such slack, to the extent that he's a strong bet to be Vegas' second-leading pass catcher in 2026. The current ADP doesn't seem to take that possibility seriously.
Emmett Johnson, RB, Nebraska (178)
That Johnson posted poor athletic metrics at the Combine is somewhat disappointing perhaps, but it's not a red flag given Johnson's production and tape otherwise. Johnson was uniquely productive at Nebraska, yet his methods of piling up yardage almost never involved outrunning anyone.
Rather, Johnson piles up yardage the same way Bucky Irving does: high-level, almost instant spatial processing leveraged by a red-hot motor. Like Johnson, Irving had a disastrous Combine showing yet it obviously hasn't held him back.
It makes perfectly good sense that Johnson can continue piling up yardage in the NFL, even as one of the worst objective athletes at the running back position. The ground Johnson concedes due to any lack of speed or quickness is offset by his exemption to processing lag – all running backs require some amount of processing time before acting, and for guys like Johnson and Irving the number is right around zero. Even if Running Back X is slower than Running Back Y, the first place can get to Point B faster if the speed distinction is matched or exceeded by the processing difference.
Whatever else the case, it's crucial to note that Johnson is an adept pass catcher. Even as an off-the-bench guy, Johnson might chip in some flex-viable starts in the right offense, and if he ever stumbles into a starting opportunity then there's reason to believe he has fantasy-starter upside.
Nicholas Singleton, RB, Penn State (194)
This one can be framed simply: Singleton is a better version of fellow rookie running back Mike Washington, whose DraftKings ADP is currently 145.0.
As much it's true that Opportunity is King in Fantasy Football and as much as Washington's opportunity projection exceeds Singleton due to higher projected draft capital, there isn't any serious discussion to be had about which player is actually more talented. The NFL is wrong all the time. If the NFL takes Washington over Singleton then this will just have to be the latest, completely obvious outcome that everyone pretends they knew all along after the fact.
Just as in the case of Emmett Johnson, it's crucial to note for DraftKings' PPR scoring that Singleton projects uniquely well as a receiver. Singleton is a much bigger, much faster player with worse processing than Johnson, but both of their pass-catching variables grade uncommonly well and gets them that much closer to cashing viability in PPR scoring.
(Not to bash the guy, but it's worth quickly mentioning that Washington has one of the worst pass-catching projections of any recent running back prospect to sniff the NFL. Anyone telling you he will catch passes in the NFL is quite simply making things up.)
Jordan James, RB, SF (202)
James matched the rushing production of Bucky Irving when the two shared the Oregon backfield, so we know James offers some notable level of raw rushing ability. We also know that James is currently the RB2 on the San Francisco depth chart behind Christian McCaffrey.
The 49ers unambiguously declared James the RB2 ahead of Isaac Guerendo. That they allowed 2025 RB2 Brian Robinson to walk for cheap in free agency shows that they're serious when they say James is the next guy up.
Even if McCaffrey stays perfectly healthy with another monstrous workload from scrimmage, there will be enough slack for a player like James to pitch in meaningful contributions in what will always be a run-heavy offense.
Elijah Sarratt, WR, Indiana (217)
Sarratt sure looks like a Keenan Allen Starter Kit and he easily outproduced Indiana teammate Omar Cooper in college, yet Sarratt is all the way down at 217 while Cooper's ADP is 139. Even if we're being generous, this simply makes no sense.
Sarratt was an automatic technician in college to the point that he apparently bored those who prefer Cooper's more entertaining, less productive profile. There was a valid concern for some time that Sarratt might be too slow for his game to translate to the next level, yet a 4.55-second pro day 40 at 6-foot-3, 207 pounds is plenty sufficient for Sarratt's NFL projection to check out.
Sarratt is a possession wideout at the next level who won't run far downfield, but he can probably line up at any receiver spot for underneath and intermediate purposes. I think Sarratt gets cooking and much faster than the ADP expects.
Germie Bernard, WR, Alabama (219)
Though Bernard is probably more like a Glue Guy than the classic candidate for league-leading production, the floor is so high and his abilities are so varied that it's easy to imagine most or all NFL teams giving him early playing time.
Some guys are specialists who can only function in particular conditions, placing downward pressure on their snap count as a result, and that fear will never apply to Bernard. Even if he isn't penciled in as a starter or even a top-three wideout on a given NFL team, his name will always pop up whenever some wideout task is assigned. Getting your foot in the door is key, and Bernard has more means of doing that than the majority of hyped receiver prospects in this class.
One wideout much more hyped than Bernard is Denzel Boston, whose DraftKings ADP is currently 153.0. It's curious that their ADPs diverge so much -- Bernard and Boston both played for Washington in 2023, and Bernard was far ahead of Boston on the depth chart.
If Bernard was better than Boston in 2023 when they were on the same team then how could Bernard possibly be 60 picks worse? There's basically no scenario where Boston is good and Bernard is not, but there are plenty of theoretical ways Bernard could be better than Boston, namely because he already did it once.
Greg Dulcich, TE, MIA (232)
Durability has been a major problem, with hamstring injuries specifically still casting a black cloud over Dulcich's NFL future. If that one cloud would just relent this one time, though, then Dulcich is poised to be one of the top best ball values across the board in 2026, let alone among the tight ends specifically.
Particularly with Jaylen Waddle shipped to Denver, there's an actual, no-joke possibility that Dulcich leads the Dolphins in receiving production in 2026.
Any wide receiver prospects the Dolphins add in the draft will combine to take far less slack than that claimed by Waddle, and especially early on it's Dulcich who offers the Dolphins the most reliability in the receiving game.
Ted Hurst, WR, Georgia State (243)
The classic pitfall for otherwise productive small-school prospects is that they usually don't have the raw athleticism -- the size, the speed, the hops -- for their abilities to translate at the next level. You can be the most technically flawless route runner on earth, but if you're too slow to stress NFL athletes then skills and technique become meaningless.
Luckily for us, Hurst demonstrated skills and technique with his collegiate production, and he proved he has the raw materials necessary for those skills to materalize at the NFL level, even after the defenders become bigger and faster.
Hurst is a Nico Collins starter kit at 6-foot-4, 206 pounds with a 4.42-second Combine 40. Collins ran a 4.45-second pro day 40 at 6-foot-4, 215 pounds, which is almost identical size-adjusted speed.
Hurst drew downfield targets at a blistering pace for Georgia State, indicating an uncommon ability to press vertically from boundary alignments. The 4.42 speed corroborated the fact that Hurst has the raw speed to keep getting open the same way in the NFL.
Hurst's rookie-year floor is low but not meaningfully so at a price this cheap in the ADP. Hurst very much has unique upside, on the other hand, and especially for the price.
