The NFL Draft is all wrapped up. It is now time to turn to the 2026-27 NFL season. It is time to start drafting in some DraftKings Best Ball fantasy football contests, which you can enter here.
For those who are new to best ball, the rules are as follows:
Participants will draft a lineup via a live snake draft, just like a normal fantasy football draft. The main difference? That is your team for the duration of the NFL regular season. There are no trades, no free agency or waivers, and no roster management. You draft your team, then your highest-scoring players that week will be the players that count towards your score. There is no need to set your lineup. That allows you to draft your team, then just sit back and root for those players all season.
Best Ball Strategy
This is a season-long fantasy team, but you are not allowed to add or drop players throughout the season. That requires a much different strategy than a standard season-long fantasy league or a daily fantasy lineup. A best ball lineup should contain a healthy mix of high-floor and high-ceiling players. Since you can’t add or drop players, you want a solid core of players that consistently perform year in and year out. Those are the players you can count on to contribute every week.
On the other hand, you want some sleepers that other teams won’t have. You are not just competing against one team in these best ball leagues. So, to get to the top of the leaderboard, you need a couple of players to have huge games who are not the highest-ranked players. This is the best list to consult for both hitting your top-tier running backs and adding a couple of players further down the draft board with big upside.
Below, I have ranked my top 25 running backs for DraftKings’ NFL Best Ball contests. Good luck with your drafts!
Top 25 Running Backs
RANK
PLAYER
POSITION
TEAM
1
Bijan Robinson
RB
ATL
2
Jahmyr Gibbs
RB
DET
3
Christian McCaffrey
RB
SF
4
James Cook III
RB
BUF
5
Jonathan Taylor
RB
IND
6
Chase Brown
RB
CIN
7
De’Von Achane
RB
MIA
8
Saquon Barkley
RB
PHI
9
Ashton Jeanty
RB
LV
10
Kenneth Walker III
RB
KC
11
Omarion Hampton
RB
LAC
12
Derrick Henry
RB
BAL
13
Josh Jacobs
RB
GB
14
Travis Etienne Jr.
RB
NO
15
Jeremiyah Love
RB
ARI
16
Breece Hall
RB
NYJ
17
Javonte Williams
RB
DAL
18
Kyren Williams
RB
LAR
19
Bucky Irving
RB
TB
20
Quinshon Judkins
RB
CLE
21
TreVeyon Henderson
RB
NE
22
Cam Skattebo
RB
NYG
23
David Montgomery
RB
HOU
24
D’Andre Swift
RB
CHI
25
Chuba Hubbard
RB
CAR
