The best ball season started earlier than ever in 2024 with contests opening before the Super Bowl, and we’ve been following it closely at Fantasy Life ever since.

Ian kicked us off with some early strategy thoughts in January and I weighed in with my favorite tactics when I started drafting in March. And more recently, I’ve covered the ADP (average draft position) movements after the NFL Combine and Free Agency.

With the contest set to lock on April 25th (the night of the NFL Draft)–and $200,000 up for grabs–I wanted to put together the ultimate early drafting cheat sheet.

To do so, I asked the top drafters on Underdog for their tips and tricks for drafting in The Big Board (and any contest that takes place so far out from the start of the season).

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Underdog Big Board Draft Strategies

Here are the 10 Tips they shared with me…

TIP 1: Adjust to the New QB Landscape

Because the Late-Round QB strategy smashed in 2023, QB prices are cheaper than ever and there are lots of ways to take advantage:

The elite ceiling QB tier comes with some very palatable price tags right now and it’s funneling me to a lot of 3-QB builds that are “anchor ceiling QB” + “dusty veteran” + “rookie ceiling chaser” and I’m a huge fan of it. Something like “Josh Allen + Russell Wilson + Bo Nix.” — Jon Warner, Badge Bros

Even as a self-professed elite QB lover most seasons in the past, the value at QB feels incredible in Rounds 6+ with guys like Justin Herbert, Trevor Lawrence, Kyler Murray, Jayden Daniels, and Tua Tagovailoa all coming to mind. — Liam Murphy, BBM2 Champ

My take: Be patient at QB. There are so many values throughout the draft, especially rookies like the aforementioned Daniels (ADP: 130.6) and Drake Maye (ADP: 150).

TIP 2: Attack Team-Level Correlation

This early in the offseason, we need to lean into the few things we know for certain when drafting:

One of my favorite strategies is placing an emphasis on team-level bets. That is, trying to identify entire offenses that may be mispriced and stacking 3-5 players from those teams to be able to capture a big win while only having to be correct on one stance. Without the NFL schedule, correlating for the playoff weeks is more challenging if we're trying to predict which opponents might face each other. But we can still get strong correlation simply by stacking a team. — Sackreligious, Legendary Upside

Houston Texans wide receiver Nico Collins (12) celebrates with Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud (7) after a touchdown Sunday, Sept. 17, 2023, during a game against the Indianapolis Colts at NRG Stadium in Houston

My take: Loading up on an undervalued offense allows us to reduce the number of things we need to get right. It makes me think of this seventh-place team from Best Ball Mania II that had ELEVEN players from just two teams.

TIP 3: Zero RB is Still King

The NFL Draft is going to shake up NFL backfields, and there’s one obvious way to benefit from this reality in drafts:

The Big Board is the perfect contest for Zero RB. This won't be an original thought but it should be obvious that a contest that locks so far from the beginning of the season will benefit most from an antifragile strategy (which is the entire thesis of drafting Zero RB teams). You likely do create more dead teams with a true Zero RB construction drafting before the NFL draft, but you also elevate the potential ceiling of any combination of 6-7 RB rosters. — Davis Mattek, SportsGrid

My take: The RBs in Rounds 3-6 are dicey bets right now and there is a ton of value at RB in the mid-rounds. There’s just no reason to take on the risk of a back like Isiah Pacheco or Rachaad White getting added competition for touches via the draft right now.

TIP 4: Grab WRs Both Early & Late

While Zero RB is a dominant strategy, you need to approach it with nuance:

To me, the WR market in the Big Board this year is parabolic in nature: the strongest bets are largely contained to the first six rounds as the market has continued prioritizing the position more each season. But with such a deep rookie class, viable speculative bets are available through the end of drafts. I'm attacking the position early, but leaving myself roster space for 2-3 late WR darts, meaning plenty of RBs and 2+ QBs in the middle rounds. — Jakob Sanderson, Thinking About Thinking

Oct 8, 2023; Inglewood, California, USA; Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua (17) celebrates after scoring a touchdown in the first half against the Philadelphia Eagles at SoFi Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

My take: I love taking “detours” away from WR in Rounds 4 and 5, specifically for the Elite TE (I’ve taken Trey McBride or Mark Andrews on over 56% of my drafts), so I can keep arrows in my quiver for the rookie WRs later.

TIP 5: Take Advantage of the Deep WR Class

This is one of the deepest rookie WR classes we’ve ever seen, and we need to adjust our strategies accordingly:

Rookie WRs are arguably the most reliable way to inject late-round production into your Week 15-17 lineups. And this rookie WR class is among the deepest ever, with many of the WRs going outside the top 150 in the Big Board looking likely for Day 2 draft capital. Mix up your bets, but make sure you're well stocked with rookie WR darts. — Pat Kerrane, BBM3 Champ

My take: If anyone knows about the benefit of random rookie WRs in your best ball lineups, it’s the guy who used Tyquan Thornton’s Week 17 score to win $2,000,000 in Best Ball Mania III. The operative words here are mixing up your bets. Don’t get too anchored on player takes pre-draft because the NFL is going to surprise us. Instead, mix and match the guys who are projected for decent draft capital and trust that there will be hits within that portfolio.

TIP 6: Don't Forget About the Rookie RBs, Either

While the rookie WRs are getting all of the love, we should be targeting rookies at RB too:

The Big Board is the perfect tournament for being aggressive on rookie picks. We've now got way more information to work with than we did when this contest opened, the closer we get to it filling, the more aggressive I'd be on the rookies. And while these rookie RBs aren't universally adored, several NFL backfields are in dire need of new talent. Now is the moment to leverage our knowledge and boldly draft these rookies. — Tom Strachan, The FF Sanctuary

Florida State Seminoles running back Trey Benson (3) runs the ball in for a touchdown. The Florida State Seminoles defeated the Virginia Tech Hokies 39-17 at Doak Campbell Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023.

My take: I know everyone isn't as enthused about this rookie RB class–especially after Free Agency chewed up a ton of the best landing spots — but a perceived “weak” crop of RBs is making their prices extremely palatable. You can basically have whatever rookie RB you want in Rounds 10-14, which is the historical sweet spot for Zero RB targets. My top-four drafted RBs right now are all rookies going after pick 100.

TIP 7: Uset the News to Your Advantage

ADPs are slow to adjust. We can take advantage by staying more engaged than our opponents:

Stay informed to anticipate news. Much of the offseason's developments can be foreseen by those closely following the NFL. Yet we see massive ADP moves when the change happens anyway, because many detached drafters are caught off guard. — Neil Orfield

Avoid bored drafting — limit drafting during information lull periods. Take advantage of unsettled ADPs when news drops. And then when that news drops, estimate the new ADP range that the player will rise or fall to. — Pat, Fantasy Dog Pound

My take: Drafters can’t help themselves and often get too anchored to ADP (and this includes players who should rise and fall quicker than they actually do). You don’t necessarily have to be in the first draft after new breaks. You can take advantage of the slowly adjusting ADPs in days, and sometimes even weeks, after the news breaks.

TIP 8: Your Info Edge vs. the Early Drafters

There is an advantage to drafting later in a contest (like right now in The Big Board vs. when it opened in January):

Use new information to create more accurately correlated teams. Players such as Mike Gesicki and Jonnu Smith were rarely being drafted at contest open and now you can stack them with their QB at low ownership. — The Fantasy Dog Pound

My take: This is a perfect example of how to think about the “Scrolling Down” strategy. You have two edges of early drafters 1) You know who to stack them with now that they have a new team and 2) They will be on way fewer teams than other TEs going in their same range. This results in both a correlation and an ownership advantage over early drafters.

TIP 9: Capitalize on Market Overconfidence

ADP is efficient, but it's not perfect:

When it comes to ADP, you have to be more fluid with when to reach and when to scoop up value. The recency bias within drafts has NEVER been higher. Discounts on players who ended the year poorly, huge price jumps just because a guy got a slightly improved runout in free agency (which might change anyway in weeks). In the quest to find an edge, people are more prisoners of the moment than ever — particularly for buzzy players and teams. — Chris Spags, Splash Play

The NFL offseason and pre-draft anarchy creates a ton of uncertainty, but the market still gets very confident in most situations. We can exploit many of these for huge gains by finding the situations where drafters are too confident in one direction or the other, like how a backfield will shake out or general player opportunity/role. — Erik Beimfohr, Spike Week

My take: Don’t be afraid to go away from the herd, especially the later you get in the draft.

TIP 10: Gal-Braining Stacks

Ok, let’s land the plane with some galaxy braining…

We don’t know the NFL schedule yet so we can’t fully optimize for Week 17, but we can still try to land on some stacks. We can do this via divisional stacking because we know two things for certain:

1. Teams play each other within their division twice
2. The second meeting often occurs in one of the final weeks of the season

You can even take it one stop further and round robin your divisional stacks because we know which divisions play each other this year.

This stuff should only be used as a tiebreaker, but what’s the point of drafting best ball teams in the cold of winter if we aren’t trying to unearth every possible micro edge?

Conclusion

There are lots of things we can do to get an edge on our opponents in early drafts. And getting reps now will also position you to draft circles around the competition when the really big contests open up 

For more evergreen best ball strategy, bookmark this page on Fantasy Life and check out my Deposit Kingdom YouTube channel.