Drafting against hundreds of thousands of anonymous fantasy football obsessives is great and all, but sometimes it's nice to compete against people you know. With that in mind, we put together a RotoWire staff best ball draft held on Underdog this past week.
It was a who's who of RotoWire minds battling it out, and the competition was fierce.
Draft Order
- Kevin O'Brien: Golf Editor and Packers Maniac
- Lauren Jump: Brand Manager and Philly Phanatic
- Paul Mammino: Data Scientist and DataViz Wizard
- Jeff Erickson: The Face and Voice of RotoWire...and Bengals fan
- Steve Bulanda: Campaign Specialist and World-Renowned Bowler
- Ryan Pohle: DFS Product Specialist and Packers Diehard
- Nick Whalen: Senior Media Analyst and Mike Sims-Walker Respector
- D.J. Trainor: Tennis Editor, World Traveler, Ball Knower
- John McKechnie: Best Ball Guy and Ravens Fan
- Joe Bartel: Operations Specialist, XM Host, Tucker Kraft Enthusiast
- Chris Benzine: College Football Editor and Jared Abbrederis Aficionado
- Alan Seslowsky: Recovering Dynasty Sicko and Long-Suffering Jets Fan
It was a slow draft sit 'n go, so no tournament logic necessary. We were only competing to be the best team out of 12.
Here are the final results along with analysis from some of the participants
In Their Own Words
Kevin O'Brien, Team 1
It was nice having the first pick in my first best ball draft of the year, and I love the start with three blue-chip options. I'm putting a lot of eggs in the Giants ship that seems to be leaking before even leaving the dock, but that doesn't mean I'm not optimistic. The early tight end left me a little thin elsewhere, but if the anticipated breakouts from rookies and second-year players occur I'll be there at the end.
Strategy: BPA all day
Snipes: Three QBs in five picks before the 6/7 turn
Stacks: Mini-Giants Stack (Dart/Nabers)
Lauren Jump, Team 2
I loaded up at running back early, locking in Jahmyr Gibbs, Breece Hall and Bucky Irving through the first five rounds before the backfield options dropped off. While Bucky carries a question mark into the season, slotting him as my third back means I'm not leaning on him to produce right away. I still landed a strong enough receiver room, headlined by Nico Collins and a fourth-round Davante Adams. At tight end, I doubled up with Tyler Warren and Kyle Pitts, chasing weekly upside at a notoriously thin position. Drake Maye at pick 71 was a no-brainer in the sixth, especially after I stacked him with Romeo Doubs, albeit just before the A.J. Brown trade to New England. Even so, we know the Patriots can spread the ball around enough to feed both.
Strategy: Robust RB (three backs through five rounds)
Snipes: Makai Lemon (thanks KOB)
Stacks: Lions (Goff/TeSlaa), Patriots (Maye/Doubs)
Playoff Stacks: Patriots-Jets Week 16 (Maye/Doubs/Breece Hall); Texans-Eagles Week 16 (Collins/Marks/Bigsby); Patriots-Chiefs Week 15 (Maye/Doubs/Emmett Johnson)
Paul Mammino, Team 3
Overall, I am a fan of how this team turned out despite it being a deviation from how I'm wanting to build teams across my portfolio this season. The starting with no RBs through four rounds feels thinner than in seasons past but the overall strength of my QB and WR rooms make up for it. The roles that Rachaad White and Jordan Mason ultimately have will dictate how this one turns out.
Strategy: Modified Zero-RB
Snipes: None
Stacks: WAS (Daniels, Terry, White, Chig) KC (Mahomes, Worthy)
Playoff Stacks: Vikings-Jets (Mason/Cooper), CLE-PIT (Boston-Warren)
Steve Bulanda, Team 5
Ultimately, the success of this team will hinge on two main factors: Josh Jacobs avoiding significant disciplinary action related to his offseason incident, and my quarterbacks staying healthy and on the field.
Our draft started soon after news broke of Jacobs being arrested, and I decided that getting a late second-round talent at the 44th overall pick was worth the risk. I was also happy to wait on the QB position until the ninth round and still be able to grab a pair of 2025 top five fantasy quarterbacks, but generally if I wait that late, I like to grab a third passer as insurance for underperforming weeks or injury. If Fernando Mendoza would have fallen to me in the 16th, I would have drafted him.
Strategy: Wait on QB and build a balanced roster
Snipes: Brenton Strange at 148 (to pair with Lawrence)
Stacks: Los Angeles Rams (Stafford/Nacua)
Nick Whalen, Team 7
For the most part, I was satisfied with how the draft played out. Picking from the No. 7 spot, I landed my preferred target in Amon-Ra St. Brown and grabbed Derrick Henry in Round 2 before hammering three of my favorite upside-play WRs — Devonta Smith, Jameson Williams, Christian Watson — with my next three picks. While that left me without a high-level RB2, I took a volume approach with Tony Pollard, RJ Harvey, Rico Dowdle and Jonathan Brooks to help fill out my RB room. Later, I was able to land a couple of my favorite post-pick-100 targets in Mark Andrews and Kyler Murray, even if Murray was not my preferred QB in this specific draft.
Strategy: Wait on QB, wait on TE
Snipes: As much as I'm in on Kyler Murray, the plan was to steal Jared Goff in the 11th to complete the Lions stack with ARSB/Williams. That was a big miscalculation by me.
Totally fine with Henry at 2.6, but was hoping I could land Chase Brown (went 2.3)
Was hoping Brenton Strange would make it to me in the 13th round (settled for Jalen McMillan, then took Dulcich two rounds later)
Stacks: Nothing notable because of that Goff snipe
D.J. Trainor, Team 8
I've been grabbing elite running backs and multiple top-10 quarterbacks in most of my best-ball drafts this season, and this particular draft was no different as I began with Jonathan Taylor/Saquon Barkley and double-dipped QB with Joe Burrow (Round 6) and Jalen Hurts (Round 8). Skill players taken in Rounds 6-10 are all one big cluster, and so I can stomach the opportunity cost since QB is highest-scoring position in fantasy football, don't forget!
Though, to mitigate this just in case, I took a quartet of young wide receivers on the rise with Tetairoa McMillan, Rome Odunze, Marvin Harrison and Ricky Pearsall. My hope is that we'll be drafting all four of these guys a round or two earlier in 2027. Otherwise, this roster construction is admittedly too light at the WR spot.
Strategy: Robust RB, two Top 10 quarterbacks
Stacks: Carolina (Young/McMillan), Philadelphia (Hurts/Saquon)
John McKechnie, Team 9
I like a lot of the players I drafted in a vacuum, but I'm not entirely sure how much I like the end product of this roster build. I'm happy getting Josh Allen in this sit 'n go format because that should give me the single highest-scoring player in the league. The backfield gave me some concern leaving the draft, but the Tuten pick at 64 is already looking like a steal. I went for a lot of my usual suspects in the end game to round out the backfield, getting cheap volume with Allgeier (136), spike week potential with Keaton Mitchell (153), and hopefully a few usable weeks out of Sean Tucker (184). Adonai Mitchell in the 18th also seems like something that should age well, at least in terms of closing line value.
I had some inexcusable bye week management -- Week 7 (5 byes) and Week 10 (4) -- but I'm hoping with no playoffs, that won't bite me too badly.
Strategy: Elite QB & heavy on receiver early
Snipes: Kincaid -- I literally messaged D.J. on Slack at 10 PM to voice my displeasure over this. Also hoped to get Chase Brown at 2.4 but Joe had different ideas.
Stacks: Full Broncos Stack (Nix/Waddle/Sutton), Bills Mini Stack (Allen/Shakir)
Playoff stacks: Bills vs Broncos Week 16, Jets vs Vikings Week 17 (Jefferson, Jennings, Mitchell)
Joe Bartel, Team 10
I've done about 80 percent of my bestballs to date from the 9-12 hole (please UD, can we incorporate a bad luck feature soon?), so I knew more or less how I'd shape my roster. My ideal scenario is having one of Omarion Hampton or Ashton Jeanty wrap back to me, and while that usually happens, I figured my shrewd colleagues would snuff that possibility out.
There's enough meat on the bone regarding available upside WRs in the R4-9 range that I don't mind fortifying my depth in that range typically, but I opted to zag a bit and build a stable of RBs that can hold serve most weeks. I do think that decision will ultimately limit my potential of winning this league, however.
Strategy: 4 Deep at RB
Snipe: Whalen prevented me from 100 percent exposure of Christian Watson
Stacks: Dallas (Prescott/Lamb/Ferguson) + Tennessee (Ward/Tate)
Playoffs: Playoffs?!? Don't talk about playoffs! (Jim Mora face)
Chris Benzine, Team 11
I think I built a solid early stable of RBs with Cook and Jeanty in the first two picks and paired up Geno Smith late with both Garrett Wilson and Kenyon Sadiq for a relatively cheap triple stack. May have waited a bit too long for RB5 after getting Kyle Monangai and J.K. Dobbins as my RBs 3-4 with the same bye week (10), and had to settle for Charbonnet, which isn't the worst with three of my four running backs having a Week 10 bye or later.
Once Seslowsky took Tee Higgins, I opted to invest early at tight end. I like to get either an elite tight end or an elite QB early and then wait on the other position and add extras later. That's what I did with QB, waiting until the 10th round to grab a QB with Baker before adding Willis and Geno Smith. Decided on the triple stack with Sadiq, but I'm not super keen on rookie tight ends in general.
Strategy: Best player available early, get either an elite QB or TE and fill the other spot late (Baker, Willis, Geno)
Snipes: Tee Higgins at 3.12, led to decision to go TE with Loveland at 4.02
Stacks: Cheap Jets stack built off early Garrett Wilson pick (Geno, Kenyon Sadiq)
Projected Standings
Here's what the Underdog projections have to say about our draft. It seems Paul was right to feel good about his build, but D.J. and Chris Benzine will be tough competition if they hold serve.
