This article is part of our Best Ball Strategy series.
As they do each year, Underdog Fantasy is running a variety of NFL Playoffs Best Ball tournament contests – a game where you draft 10 players while playing against five opponents, and where you need to score enough points each week of the playoffs to advance to the next. To advance to the Divisional Round, in other words, you'll need to produce a top-two point total for the Wildcard Round in your league. The final winner of the tournament is the one who both advances to the Super Bowl round and scores the highest point total among the Super Bowl-advancing teams.
Balancing early-week points with potential Super Bowl points is easier said than done, and realistically requires multiple drafts so that you can commit fully to a variety event timelines, each of which has their own chain of consequent premises that can't be covered with a breadth approach. In other words, if you draft Josh Allen then that roster is dependent on a scenario where the Bills succeed to succeed itself, meaning if Allen succeeds then to fully capitalize on that windfall you'd also want a horde of other Bills players on the roster. You therefore probably wouldn't want much or any exposure to a team like Kansas City, whose Super Bowl chances would obviously need to come at the expense of the Bills. You might therefore pursue a secondary stack of players from an NFC team, perhaps the Eagles, so that if the Bills and Eagles make the Super
As they do each year, Underdog Fantasy is running a variety of NFL Playoffs Best Ball tournament contests – a game where you draft 10 players while playing against five opponents, and where you need to score enough points each week of the playoffs to advance to the next. To advance to the Divisional Round, in other words, you'll need to produce a top-two point total for the Wildcard Round in your league. The final winner of the tournament is the one who both advances to the Super Bowl round and scores the highest point total among the Super Bowl-advancing teams.
Balancing early-week points with potential Super Bowl points is easier said than done, and realistically requires multiple drafts so that you can commit fully to a variety event timelines, each of which has their own chain of consequent premises that can't be covered with a breadth approach. In other words, if you draft Josh Allen then that roster is dependent on a scenario where the Bills succeed to succeed itself, meaning if Allen succeeds then to fully capitalize on that windfall you'd also want a horde of other Bills players on the roster. You therefore probably wouldn't want much or any exposure to a team like Kansas City, whose Super Bowl chances would obviously need to come at the expense of the Bills. You might therefore pursue a secondary stack of players from an NFC team, perhaps the Eagles, so that if the Bills and Eagles make the Super Bowl you have yourself a loaded roster. If you try to pursue balance rather than going close to all-in on two or three teams, you might advance a week or two but would necessarily get eliminated after that point due to your lack of active players by then.
The following rankings are therefore highly subjective and are basically not applicable after you commit to your two or three targeted teams for that particular draft. Rather than taking the collection of available players with the highest projection, you'd want to account for each week of the playoff schedule with a suitable group of active players from that week, whose interests are not at odds with each other. Keep in mind, if you draft a player with a first-round bye – let's say Amon-Ra St. Brown as a present example – you'll need to shore up your Wildcard Round scoring with other players since St. Brown wouldn't activate until the Divisional Round, at which point he'd do nothing for you if you're not in the top two teams from your six-team division after the Wildcard Round.
QUARTERBACK
- Josh Allen, BUF
- Lamar Jackson, BAL
- Jalen Hurts, PHI
- Patrick Mahomes, KC
- Jared Goff, DET
- Sam Darnold, MIN
- Justin Herbert, LAC
- Jayden Daniels, WAS
- Matthew Stafford, LAR
- Jordan Love, GB
- Russell Wilson, PIT
- Bo Nix, DEN
- C.J. Stroud, HOU
- Michael Penix, ATL
RUNNING BACK
- Saquon Barkley, PHI
- Jahmyr Gibbs, DET
- Derrick Henry, BAL
- James Cook, BUF
- Isiah Pacheco, KC
- Josh Jacobs, GB
- Kyren Williams, LAR
- Aaron Jones, MIN
- Bijan Robinson, ATL
- J.K. Dobbins, LAC
- Joe Mixon, HOU
- Kareem Hunt, KC
- Brian Robinson, WAS
- Gus Edwards, BAL
- Jaylen Warren, PIT
- Najee Harris, PIT
- Ray Davis, BUF
- Ty Johnson, BUF
- Samaje Perine, KC
- Justice Hill, BAL
WIDE RECEIVER
- A.J. Brown, PHI
- Amon-Ra St. Brown, DET
- Justin Jefferson, MIN
- Khalil Shakir, BUF
- Puka Nacua, LAR
- Zay Flowers, BAL
- Jordan Addison, MIN
- DeVonta Smith, PHI
- Jameson Williams, DET
- Cooper Kupp, LAR
- DeAndre Hopkins, KC
- Marquise Brown, KC
- Xavier Worthy, KC
- Ladd McConkey, LAC
- Amari Cooper, BUF
- Keon Coleman, BUF
- Jayden Reed, GB
- Rashod Bateman, BAL
- Nico Collins, HOU
- George Pickens, PIT
- Terry McLaurin, WAS
- Drake London, ATL
- Darnell Mooney, ATL
- Tim Patrick, DET
- Romeo Doubs, GB
- Christian Watson, GB
- Mack Hollins, BUF
- Joshua Palmer, LAC
- Quentin Johnston, LAC
- Nelson Agholor, BAL
TIGHT END
- Mark Andrews, BAL
- Sam LaPorta, DET
- Travis Kelce, KC
- Noah Gray, KC
- Dallas Goedert, PHI
- Dalton Kincaid, BUF
- T.J. Hockenson, MIN
- Tucker Kraft, GB
- Pat Freiermuth, PIT
- Will Dissly, LAC
- Isaiah Likely, BAL
- Dawson Knox, BUF
- Kyle Pitts, ATL
- Zach Ertz, WAS
- Dalton Schultz, HOU
