Best Ball Strategy: How To Stack in 2026
Stacking in best ball, which is a pairing of a team's quarterback along with 2-3 of their pass-catchers, is, to some degree, essential to building a successful team. It makes sense; having a correlation between your quarterback and pass-catchers can be a force multiplier for your lineup. Having Ja'Marr Chase go nuclear is great, but also having Joe Burrow makes it even better.
There's an art to stacking within the confines of other draft axioms. The ADP on Underdog is always extremely sharp, so it's inherently going to be difficult to have a full stack fall right into your lap. You're likely going to have to make some concessions to make it work, and that means reaching to some extent.
The point of this article is to find the most attainable stacks in Underdog drafts at the current best ball ADP. To do that, we'll examine the ADP and apply the 12 potential draft slots to see where you have the best chance to grab a stack without torpedoing your roster.
I identified the potential stacks and made sure there were no same-round conflicts at ADP to make sure the following stacks are possible.
Below, each stack is graded by attainability (how easy it is to pull off) and upside. I also circled the draft slots at which each stack is easiest to execute, including the ideal draft slot for each.
Without further ado, let's get stackin'.
Best Stacks in Fantasy Football Best Ball 2026
Denver Broncos 
Stack
- Feasible Draft Slot Range: 1-3
- Ideal Position: 2
- Stack Attainability: A-
- Stack Upside: B
I've got to check my feelings about the Broncos offense at the door because even if I'm a little skeptical of its ceiling, there's a very clear path to getting a primo Denver stack. You have to take what the draft gives you, and if you draw the second pick in your draft, it sets up really well for you to add a Broncos stack to your build.
Jaylen Waddle's ADP is rising, and now he goes at the end of Round 4. Courtland Sutton, meanwhile, has slipped about a half a round since the Waddle trade. So while we might not love the new going rate to draft Waddle, it gets balanced out a bit with Sutton's slide within the context of building a Broncos stack.
Once you've grabbed both of these pass-catchers, you can nab Nix in the ninth round to complete the stack without reaching for any of these three. The running backs -- RJ Harvey and J.K. Dobbins -- are tricky to acquire within this structure. For Harvey (ADP 62.6), he'd need to fall about a half round to get to you at 6.11. And maybe at that point, you're more concerned with making sure you get Sutton than adding a running back who's in a committee to the mix.
For attainability, this stack gets an A Grade from me, assuming you get a draft slot between 1-3. For overall quality, I give it a B. Again, I'm not all that excited about the Denver offense this year, but it's hard to deny that getting all of Waddle, Sutton and Nix without reaching is a nice trio in your roster build.
Chicago Bears 
Stack
- Feasible Draft Slot Range: 4-6
- Ideal Position: 6
- Stack Attainability: B+
- Stack Upside: B+
There are two ways we can get at a Bears stack with the current ADP. You can either target a Luther Burden/Rome Odunze/Caleb Williams stack or a Colston Loveland/Rome Odunze/Caleb Williams stack.
Getting Burden and Loveland is difficult to do without jumping ADP to a damaging degree. Therefore, you've got to make a choice. I personally prefer the one with Loveland at the top, but it's a little tougher to execute than the Burden one while staying in your lane when it comes to draft slot.
As you can see above, you have to deviate a little more from your draft slot to get Loveland and still get the next two pieces. Loveland generally seems to have a wider range of draft slots, even if his ADP is settled at the end of R4. In some drafts, you'll see him taken by the end of the third round. In others, he slips until the early fifth round. Burden has little draft-to-draft variance since the DJ Moore trade.
The market is a little sour on Odunze right now, even though he theoretically benefits from Moore's departure as well. He's routinely there in the middle of the fifth, and it's rare for the market to jump him way above ADP. He doesn't have superfans like that, at least right now.
Williams is the final piece here, and you'll likely have to get him no later than the sixth round. The rest of the draft room may be onto you once you've grabbed two Bears in the last two rounds. You should still be positioned to get Williams unless the other drafter who grabbed either Loveland or Burden in the fourth is eyeing that pairing as well. No other drafter would (should) really be interested in completely unstacked Williams when there are other comparable QBs on the board in that range, like Drake Maye or Jayden Daniels.
Baltimore Ravens 
Stack
- Feasible Draft Slot Range: 3-5, 8
- Ideal Position: 5
- Stack Attainability: B
- Stack Upside: A
Traditionally, a stack is going to be passing game-focused. You need to reframe that when it comes to Baltimore, which is one of the more run-heavy offenses in the league but also one of the highest-scoring. Baltimore ranked top 5 in PPG in 2023 and 2024, and even in a "down" year last year, they still ranked 10th in scoring.
With that in mind, getting Derrick Henry is crucial to a Baltimore stack. The way I see it, Baltimore should be able to put up a lot of points once again this year, and the production in this offense is narrowly channeled between Henry, Zay Flowers and Lamar Jackson.
If you get a draft slot between 1.3 and 1.5, the table sets up pretty well for you to be able to pull off this stack. And what's nice is you'll know early on how realistic it is. If Derrick Henry gets picked before you're up in R2, you can adjust your plan from there and scrap this stack.
Say you get Henry at 2.8 (Draft Slot 5, Pick 20), you might be sweating a bit to see if Flowers makes it back to you in Round 4, but it does happen. He'd only have to slip three picks past ADP to get back to you at 44, and then you'll have a real shot at Lamar Jackson at 5.5 (53 Ovr.)
Flowers is arguably the trickiest part of pulling this stack off. Taking him in the third round, especially 3.3-3.5, is a bit of a reach at ADP. But you risk not getting him in the fourth at that draft slot.
Let's see what would happen if we tried this with the No.8 draft slot. You'd take Derrick Henry 17th overall (~3 pick reach, not bad), Flowers at either 32nd overall (slight reach) or 41st (slight value), and then Jackson (56th).
The goal is getting a premium stack like Baltimore's top three weapons. It's not going to be easy. But it's doable if you draw a draft slot in the early/middle part of the order, or the 8th spot. Pulling this off would get you a near-monopoly on Baltimore's fantasy production, which projects to be very narrowly channeled but still potent.
Green Bay Packers 
Stack
- Feasible Draft Slot Range: 9-12
- Ideal Position: 10
- Stack Attainability: B+
- Stack Upside: B
I like this type of stack because I can let the board come to me in the early going and get who I view as the best players available, and then worry about tacking on some correlated pieces. My draft plan isn't totally ruined if I don't pull off this stack, but the team is better positioned if I do.
Christian Watson (5.10, 57.7 ADP) is the first piece you'd have to target, and he comes with a fifth round ADP. I was comfortable taking him with the first pick of round 5 in a recent best ball stream, in part because I start to get a little leery of some of the options available in this range. His ADP is actually closer to pick 58 overall, which means a draft slot of 10 would allow you to get Watson without any reaching.
Tucker Kraft (8.4, 88.4 ADP) is a little discounted coming off an ACL, but the upside is undeniable. If a Packers stack is going to pop, you need to believe that Kraft can pick up where he left off. Making that bet in the middle of the eighth round is reasonable. You can get some TE insurance later on in the draft.
Jordan Love (9.12, 108.1 ADP) should fall to you nicely to complete the stack, assuming you have that bottom-quadrant draft slot (9-12).
Below is an example of a Green Bay stack falling into my lap from the pick No.1 position. Slight reach on Watson followed by Reed (sniped on Kraft earlier in the 8th) and piggybacked with Jordan Love to start the ninth.
I would be up for trying this stack again from a different draft slot, ideally one on the other end. Taking Reed and Love and 96th and 97th, respectively, completed the stack but also made it costly. Do as I say, not as I do...
Cincinnati Bengals 
Stack
- Feasible Draft Slot Range: 3-6
- Ideal Position: 4
- Stack Attainability: B
- Stack Upside: A
Of all the stacks we've discussed thus far, this one makes you make the call the earliest because it revolves around drafting Ja'Marr Chase, who can sometimes go as high as first overall.
Let's outline the optimal scenario. Say you draw the No.4 pick, and Chase falls to you (pretty reasonable with his 3.7 ADP). From there, you grab whichever RB the board gives you at 2.9 before grabbing Tee Higgins with your third round pick (~five picks ahead of ADP). Then, you'll have to hold your breath and hope Burrow makes it back to you at the end of the 6th round.
Burrow's ADP sits at 6.4, but it can be fluid. In the draftboard screenshot above in the Packers section, Burrow fell all the way to 7.7. Obviously, when a Bengals stack isn't forming, Burrow will fall further in a given draft. But if you're pursuing it and have the dynamic duo at receiver, you'll have to be ready to pounce if he falls to you at 6.9.
The funny thing about pursuing a Bengals stack is that the room always seems to be able to sniff it out more so than other stacks. If you have Chase and Higgins, there's a decent chance the rest of the room knows you're going to try and nab Burrow when the time comes.
A different variation of this stack is possible from the second or third draft slot, taking Ja'Marr Chase and Chase Brown with two of your first three picks, then getting Burrow at the end of the sixth. It's not as optimal as the Chase/Higgins/Burrow stack, but it gives you a huge chunk of the passing and rushing production for one of the best projected offenses. Like a different version of the Henry/Flowers/Jackson stack from the Ravens.
