The 2023 NFL Draft is in the books and with the end of the draft comes the beginning of the best ball fantasy football draft season. Underdog Fantasy has already launched Best Ball Mania 4 and the staff here at Fantasy Alarm and Bettor Sports Network is already diving in head first to get you ready to dominate your best ball fantasy football drafts. In the coming days we will have not just best ball fantasy football ADP for Underdog Fantasy but best ball fantasy football strategy articles, fantasy football player rankings and fantasy football mock drafts for you to use while preparing for your own best ball fantasy football drafts. Those of you who have subscribed to Fantasy Alarm will also get the opportunity to draft with us when you join our premium discord best ball draft channel. With that said,  let's take a look at our most recent staff fantasy football best ball draft and break down some of the trends and get reactions from the participants on how they felt their drafts went.

 

Underdog Fantasy Best Ball Fantasy Football Draft Board

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Teams: 

  • 12

Scoring:

  • Reception: 0.5
  • Receiving TD: 6.0
  • Receiving Yard: 0.1
  • Rushing TD: 6.0
  • Rushing Yard: 0.1
  • Passing Yard: 0.04
  • Passing TD: 4.0
  • Interception: -1.0
  • 2-PT Conversion: 2.0
  • Fumble Lost: -2.0

Roster Size:

  • 1 Quarterback
  • 2 Running Back
  • 3 Wide Receivers
  • 1 Tight End
  • 1 Flex
  • 10 Bench
 

Wide Receivers Going Off the Board Early

Coming into the 2023 best ball fantasy football season we see the first round ADP lean heavily towards the wide receiver position with current Underdog Fantasy Football ADP having five wide receivers being drafted among the first seven picks.

Justin Jefferson is the consensus first overall pick in best ball fantasy football this season which makes sense as the Minnesota Vikings wide receiver led the NFL in receptions and yards last season, totaling 128 receptions on 184 targets for 1,809 yards. Over his first three seasons in the league Jefferson is averaging 108 catches for 1,608 yards and eight touchdowns.

Coming off the board right after Jefferson is his old college teammate Ja'Marr Chase who was on pace for nearly 1500 yards, 120 catches and 10+ touchdowns last season had he not been limited to 12 games due to injury.

We also saw the likes of Tyreek Hill, A.J. Brown Stefon Diggs and Cooper Kupp all go in the first round of this draft and if you look at the current consensus ADP for Underdog we also see Davante Adams coming in as a first round pick which would mean that this season we have seven of the first 12 picks off the board at the wide receiver position.

Long gone are the days where the running back position dominated the early round draft boards it so seems..

Notable Running Back Best Ball Fantasy Football ADP's

The running back position has long dominated fantasy football but with injuries and the shift to more split backfields around the NFL we've seen more recently that running back depth has been the key to winning your fantasy football leagues instead of going that “Hero-RB strategy”.  With that said, in this draft we still saw five running backs go in the first round and 10 running backs in total being taken within the first two rounds. Here are some notable running back draft selections from this draft.

 

Best Ball Fantasy Football Quarterbacks

The run on QB's started later in this draft than the current consensus ADP's which have  Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts all with second round ADP's whereas in the staff draft above Allen wasn't drafted until pick 34. Once Allen was drafted however the QB floodgates opened with six QB's being taken with in the next 17 picks. 

Off the board after Josh Allen was Jalen Hurts which really shouldn't surprise many but the QB3 in this draft may and he also may end up being that “league winner” as Justin Fields was taken ahead of Patrick Mahomes. With Fields we know he has that elite rushing upside that allowed for him to put up multiple 40+ fantasy point weeks last season and this offseason the team has made moves to surround him with some additional talent when they traded the first overall pick for a package that included wide receiver DJ Moore and then in the draft they used the 10th overall pick on offensive tackle Darnell Wright to help get Fields some protection.

The other interesting QB selection here was pick of Anthony Richardson in the sixth round. Richardson currently has an ADP of 108.6 so maybe pick 69 was a bit early, it's also worth noting that manager who drafted Richardson here may have run down on his clock BUT there is some very appealing upside with Richardson given his running ability. The Colts have a decent offensive line and having Jonathan Taylor and Michael Pittman will certainly help the rookie QB. During Justin Fields rookie season we saw him take over some games with his legs and I can see Richardson doing the same.

2023 NFL Rookie Class

We touched upon Anthony Richardson above but what about the rest of the 2023 NFL rookie class? Well, Falcons rookie running back Bijan Robinson went fifth overall by Andrew Cooper and that isn't too far ahead of his current ADP where Robinson still has a first round draft position of 8.8. The Falcons were one of the heavier run first teams in the NFL last season under Arthur Smith and now that he has his bell cow back it would seem unlikely that trend ends this upcoming season.

As for some other notable rookies, here is where they went in this draft:

 

Draft Reactions From the Staff

Colby Conway - Pick 1

I know this won't be the case, but if things stay like this, I expect to have ALL of the Dameon Pierce shares this season. I was surprised to get Breece Hall at 2.12, and outside of these two young running backs, some of my favorite picks were Rashod Bateman (8.12), Brandon Aiyuk (9.1) and Van Jefferson (17.1). This team has a nice base, but there's enough upside to make this an attractive best ball team as well.

Dan Servodidio - Pick 3

With the third overall pick, I took a chance on Travis Kelce in the first round to lock in guaranteed weekly production at the tight end spot. That allowed me to load up on some proven running backs and wide receivers who slipped down the board, like Derrick Henry, Aaron Jones, DeVonta Smith, and Tyler Lockett. As a college football guy, I wanted to get 2-3 rookie RBs while banking on one of them hitting. Zach Charbonnet didn’t have the best landing spot in the NFL Draft, but he has the talent to potentially overtake Kenneth Walker as the Seattle Seahawks’ lead back. 

Justin Vreeland - Pick 4

I don't overly love how this draft went, but that's why we do these! I took Mark Andrews in the 2nd hoping to stack with Lamar Jackson, but he didn't make it to me. I then wanted to stack Michael Pittman and Anthony Richardson, but that blew up in my face when I got sniped on Pittman and then timed out and got Richardson 2 picks earlier than I wanted to. We'll see how it goes, but there's really not much that I like about this team, and I don't come out of many drafts feeling that way.

Andrew Cooper - Pick 5

This is why you have to be careful drafting with friends. Matt Deutsch knows I love Chigoziem Okonkwo so he reached for him a full two rounds above ADP. It's funny how I can love my core players at QB (Dak Prescott, Geno Smith), RB (Bijan Robinson, Rhamondre Stevenson, Miles Sanders), and WR (Jaylen Waddle, Keenan Allen, Michael Pittman, Marquise Brown) but missing out on one of my favorite targets made me want to just throw the TE position away. 

Jonathan Impemba - Pick 6

Being in the middle of the draft order and drafting next to the likes of Andrew Cooper and Howard Bender who know the guys you like to draft is not always the easiest. While last season I wasn't the biggest believer in Tyreek Hill due to the QB situation I was clearly proven wrong and had little issues snagging him with my first pick in this draft. I would say my selection of Calvin Ridley could be a boom or bust play in the third round. I didn't exactly reach for Ridley given his ADP but after missing an entire year there are certainly some questions. That said, he claims to be 100% in shape and ready to work and we loved what we saw from Trevor Lawrence and the Jags offense last season. With QB I took two guys who are capable of scoring points with their legs in Lamar Jackson and Daniel Jones. Last season Jones rushed for over 700 yards and I am looking for him to take a nice step forward in his second full season under Brian Daboll. With Lamar Jackson we see him go back to Baltimore where they have a new offensive coordinator that wants to throw the football and the team signed Odell Beckham and drafted Zay Flowers to bulk up their receiver room.

Howard Bender - Pick 7

Early fantasy football best ball drafts are more of an education for me than anything else. I like to sit back and see where everyone else is taking the top rookies because, more often than not, they are being over-drafted which leaves plenty of proven talent on the board for me to draft. The teams I draft at this time of the year are not sexy, as evidenced by my lack of rookies, but they are still strong enough to win. I did grab two of the kids this time around as both fell far enough for me to feel comfortable with taking them. Rashee Rice isn't on everyone's radar right now but has the potential to be the No. 1 wide receiver and second on the targets list for Patrick Mahomes and Israel Abanikanda was just a depth play in case Breece Hall isn't quite back to 100-percent in training camp. But once the best ball ADP starts to get more drafts under its belt, then I'll start formulating a plan to grab more of the rookies like Jordan Addison. For now, slow, steady and boring works for me!

Matt Deutsch - Pick 8

My strategy was to capitalize on bias against injury-prone or injured players and take as many upside players as possible.  Pairing Saquon Barkley and Travis Etienne in the backfield would be too risky for some, and adding Deebo Samuel makes it even more scary, but it's so early and a lot can happen between now and Week 1, including "healthy" players getting hurt in the preseason.  The high upside players I rostered include Kendre Miller, Rashid Shaheed, Khalik Shakir, Mecole Hardman and Chigoziem Okonkwo, all selected late in the draft.  Plus, my super dark horse of the year Taylor Heinecke, who I think will will the Falcons QB job surrounded by strong weapons.

Kevin Tompkins - Pick 9

With this draft, I wanted to see how long I could push running back, but when Joe Mixon stayed out there, I wanted to at least grab him as my RB1. Other than that, I got everybody I wanted other than Jordan Addison, who James Grande (spitefully, I’m sure) selected before I could stack him with Kirk Cousins and T.J. Hockenson.

James Grande - Pick 11

This was my first draft of the 2023 season and it ended fairly well. When I took DJ Moore in round 3, my plan began to stack the Bears as we've seen QB development in recent years when team's go out and get their young, up-and-coming quarterbacks, and elite wide receiver talent. I love my wide receiver group, have a few solid handcuffs at running back, and my tight-end position is a carousel that should have big weeks to get me by in best ball. My favorite pick was taking Courtland Sutton at pick 86. If we believe in the Sean Payton and Russell Wilson marriage, things could be looking up for Denver's offense.

Jared Moore - Pick 12

I actually screwed up and the timer ran out on me. I meant to take Pollard at 2.01 instead of Davante, so I felt like I was chasing the rest of the draft afterwards from that point on. Pleased with Hurts at the end of Round 3 and I liked pairing Montgomery w Gibbs just in case the Lions galaxy brain things going forward. Now that he's back in KC, Jerick McKinnon late is a steal.