At this time of writing this, we sit just 10 days from the 2025 NFL Draft, but there is still plenty of time to capitalize on DraftKings pre-draft NFL Best Ball contests.
If you are unfamiliar, Best Ball is a form of fantasy football that gives players a chance to draft a team that requires no active in-season management. Each week during the NFL season, your eight highest scoring players (1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 FLEX) will hit your lineup and be counted towards your season-long points total. After the fantasy regular season ends (Week 14), the top-two teams in each league will advance to the playoffs. Click here to see a full overview of the rules and scoring format for DraftKings NFL Best Ball contests.
DraftKings NFL Best Ball is live! Click here to start drafting your team
With $200K to first place in the $1M Training Camp contest, let’s dig in on some potential strategies that can be employed to help you take it down.
Using anti-fragility to your advantage
Once the NFL Draft takes place, we essentially know how each team’s roster will look for the most part. Using this remaining pre-draft period of uncertainty to draft best ball teams can provide prognosticators with a serious edge. The biggest example of this is by reading the tea leaves of who NFL teams will select, especially in the first few rounds.
In this situation, there are multiple ways to gain an edge, but QB/WR stacking is at the forefront. You think that the Saints will select Shedeur Sanders at pick nine? Then you should be drafting him on rosters where you take Chris Olave, Rashid Shaheed, Juwan Johnson and Alvin Kamara etc.
The same thing goes for wide receivers. If mock drafts are correct and the Cowboys select either Tetairoa McMillan or Matthew Golden at pick 12, then you should be adding them to your Dak Prescott teams, where applicable.
This strategy can also be used in an inverse way as well, especially in regard to running backs. Sometimes NFL teams that you think are set with their RB rooms surprise us and use significant capital on the position. Let’s use the Jaguars for example. Right now both Travis Etienne and Tank Bigsby have ADPs in the in 10th-11th round range, but if Jacksonville decides, for whatever reason, to add a Dylan Sampson or Cam Skattebo in the middle rounds, or dare I say shock everyone and take Ashton Jeanty at five overall, it would obliterate both Etienne and Bigsby’s value.
Obviously there is no one-size-fits-all strategy for winning at NFL Best Ball, but simply grinding small edges like this can really help.
ADPs are fluid
The ADP landscape as we sit here in mid-April is absolutely going to change by the end of the summer, when both training camp and preseason games are in full swing. The good news about this is that all of the contests you’re drafting in now will be filled way before then, so you won’t have to worry about the market shifting in a way that would negatively affect your portfolio.
The way to capitalize on this now is to be taking shots on either rookies or other late-round players who could find themselves shooting up depth charts as we get closer to the camp. An example of this could be the wide receiver room in Carolina. There is a strong chance it adds a wide out in the draft, but if not, being overweight the field on a round-11 Adam Thielen or round-15 Jalen Coker could pay off huge dividends later on.
Player takes
Now that we got some of the more macro-strategy stuff out of the way, let’s dig in to a few guys who I really like to outperform their ADP this season
Drake London, WR, Atlanta Falcons (ADP 18.1)
Michael Penix Jr. took over as the Falcons starting quarterback in Week 16 vs. the Giants last year. From that point on London’s target share absolutely skyrocketed. He saw targets totals of eight, 13 and 18 over the final three weeks of the season, including a massive 10/187/2 line against the Panthers in Week 18. It’s clear that London is going to be the unquestioned alpha in this passing attack in 2025, and he could easily vault into first-round value if this target spike holds.
Rashee Rice, WR, Kansas City Chiefs (ADP 42.5)
We did not get a chance to see the Chiefs’ full compliment of weapons on the field at the same time last year, as Hollywood Brown missed the first 16 weeks of the season due to a shoulder injury. However, we did get a glimpse of what Rice could do in this offense, as he started the season like a man possessed, posting two 100+ yard games over his first three before a knee injury ended his year in Week 4. Rice was on a 1,600 yard, 11-touchdown pace before he got hurt, and by all accounts should be good to for training camp in July. With Travis Kelce all but washed up and Xaiver Worthy still a bit unproven, look for Rice to regain his role as lead dog on what should be a much improved KC passing attack in 2025.
Breece Hall, RB, New York Jets (ADP 38.5)
Hall did not live up to his first round ADP last season, finishing with just 876 rushing yards and eight total touchdowns in his 16 games. To be fair, he was a bit banged up late, and the Jets ultimately had nothing to play for after starting the season 3-8. With Aaron Rodgers gone and Justin Fields the new starting QB, I expect to Jets to be a run-first team under new head coach Aaron Glenn. Hall will be 24 years old in May and is just two years removed from posting 76 catches and 1,585 yards from scrimmage. If the Jets’ offense is improved, Hall will crush this ADP.
Cooper Kupp, WR, Seattle Seahawks (ADP 73.5)
The Kupp hate might have gone too far at this point. I fully understand that he was both injured and inefficient for more than half the season in 2024, but let’s not forget he opened the year posting 20+ FPTS five times over his first nine games. With both DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett gone from Seattle, and new QB Sam Darnold in tow, Kupp could easily be the 1B to Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s 1A in 2025, which would easily pay off this seventh-round ADP.
Mark Andrews, TE, Baltimore Ravens (ADP 93.1)
Much like Kupp, it looks like the Andrews hate has gone too far as well. He was miserable to open the season for the Ravens last year, posting just 10 catches over the team’s first five games. However, something clicked after that, because from Week 6 on Andrews scored 11 touchdowns and was the overall TE5 for the season. Baltimore added WR DeAndre Hopkins in free-agency, but that should not affect Andrews’ 2025 outlook whatsoever, as he still is the unquestioned TE1 on this team and Lamar Jackson’s favorite red-zone target. He was going in the fourth round of drafts last year, and can now be had in the eighth.
