The 2023 NFL season is right around the corner and that means fantasy football draft season is upon us. If you’re here, you’re probably seeking out draft advice for your best ball league. Well, you’ve come to the right place!
As a quick refresher, best ball is really simple. You draft a roster of players and the highest-scoring players are assembled as your starting lineup for the week. That means there’s no strategizing about who to start and who to bench. Your best-performing players get counted toward your point total. It’s that simple! Because of its format, best ball also incentivizes you to take some risks in later rounds of the draft by selecting players who you think have tremendous upside. If they go off in certain weeks, that’s a huge benefit to your roster. If they don’t, then they’ll most likely just be slotted onto your bench. It’s a low-risk, high-reward proposition.
Below, we’ll go over some of the sleeper names at wide receiver you should be considering during your best ball drafts.
Darnell Mooney, Chicago Bears
After a breakout 2021 campaign where he crossed 1,000 yards, Mooney’s 2022 season was cut short by an ankle injury. Through 12 games, the young wideout managed to grab 40 targets for 493 yards on 12.3 yards per catch and two touchdowns before going onto IR.
Now healthy and putting on muscle during the offseason, Mooney figures to play a big role in a Bears offense that should improve this season. The team improved its wideout depth with the addition of DJ Moore and Mooney stands to benefit from playing opposite another young 1,000-yard receiver. If you want to bolster your best ball wideout depth, Mooney would be a good fourth option that could have some good weeks and sneak into your starting lineup.
Isaiah Hodgins, New York Giants
The Giants’ receiver room was in a state of flux for a good chunk of the 2022 campaign and Hodgins emerged as a late-season revelation for the team. Claimed off waivers in early November, he made a huge difference for the G-Men by grabbing a touchdown in four of their last five regular-season games. He then showed out in the NFC Wild Card round, cooking the Vikings for eight receptions, 105 yards, and a touchdown in an upset victory. And he impressively did so while playing with a foot fracture.
Hodgins now poses to be a fixture for the New York offense heading into this new season, starting opposite Darius Slayton. There’s tremendous value to be had with him in best ball and he’s a name you should keep in mind for later rounds.
George Pickens, Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh’s offense has a good chance of collectively taking a step forward in 2023 and a major peace at the center of that improvement should be second-year wideout George Pickens. The Georgia product had a productive rookie campaign right out the gate last year, hauling in 801 yards on 15.4 yards per reception and four touchdowns. He ended the year as the 40th-ranked fantasy wideout in PPR.
Pickens’ physicality and big-play abilities make him not just a best ball sleeper for the upcoming season, but an extremely fun player to watch as well. Want to watch someone bully opposing cornerbacks while racking up fantasy points? Take Pickens.
Zay Flowers, Baltimore Ravens
Flowers is a sleeper just by his status as a rookie, but people won’t be sleeping on him for long. The 5’9” speedster burned several defenses throughout his career at Boston College and that was enough for the Ravens to select him in the first round of this year’s draft.
The combination of his small size and elusive gives him the potential to be the next Tyreek Hill-esque speed demon playing out of the slot and he’ll have a former MVP in Lamar Jackson getting the ball to him. Flowers is the definition of low-risk, extremely high reward in best ball because there’s no ceiling to the type of fantasy points he’ll provide for you if he goes off.
Jordan Addison, Minnesota Vikings
Another rookie worth including in the sleeper category is Addison, who is hoping to produce for the Vikings almost immediately. The 2021 Biletnikoff Award winner drew comparisons to Tyler Lockett during the buildup to the draft in April and his initial burst is a good tool to have when trying to get the jump on opposing defenders.
Of course, Justin Jefferson is the top dog within the Vikings’ offense and the rookie will be fighting with KJ Osborn to fill Adam Thielen’s role as WR2. If he does eventually win out, you could see the Pitt/USC product put him strong best ball performances later on in the season.