DraftKings NFL Best Ball Draft Recap (Fantasy Football)
The Summer of Best Ball is here! I hopped in DraftKings’ $15M Flagship best ball tournament with the help of our Best Ball channel inside Discord. For this draft, I put up a poll with 3-4 player selections every time I was on the clock in this slow draft (8 hour timer), and the winner of each vote was the pick. These draft recap articles can often be helpful to understand the “why” behind every selection.
Below are the tournament details:
- $20 buy-in
- 882, 144 max entrants (150 max per user)
- $2,000,000 to first place
- Weeks 1-14: Qualifiers (Top 2/12 advance)
- Week 15: Quarterfinals (Top 1/12 advances)
- Week 16: Semifinals (Top 1/12 advances)
- Week 17: Championship (1,021 finalists)
- 20 roster spots, Start 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, 1 Flex
- Full PPR scoring
Below is pick by pick analysis of each of our 20 selections in our co-managed team from the 8 spot. Looking for more information on best ball? Be sure to check out our Best Ball Rankings and our Best Ball Primer in the 2025 Ultimate Draft Kit+. In addition, you can check out the DFS & Betting Podcast every Friday as Kyle and I will be discussing best ball strategy and rankings all summer long!
Round 1, Pick 8 – Puka Nacua
It’s always appealing to grab one of the top RBs in the first round of fantasy drafts, but on DraftKings’ full PPR format, I’m generally looking to break ties with an elite WR in the first round. After Puka came back last year, he led the NFL in yards per route run and was second behind only Ja’Marr Chase in targets, catches and yards.
Also considered: Amon-Ra St. Brown, Malik Nabers, Ashton Jeanty
Round 2, Pick 5 – Brian Thomas Jr.
After the the drafters at the 10th and 12th spots opted to draft Achane and Jonathan Taylor ahead of ADP, it was an easy decision to scoop up the falling BTJ in Round 2. Thomas Jr.’s ADP on DK is 13.8, giving us access to a nice ADP value early on while also getting a potentially low owned WR-WR start of Puka and Thomas.
Also considered: Ladd McConkey, Drake London, Brock Bowers
Round 3, Pick 8 – Rashee Rice
It would have been very enticing to grab a sliding Josh Allen had he made it to our pick, but with Allen and Marv off the board, we opted for Rashee Rice as our WR3 as his ADP is only getting more expensive throughout the summer with positive health reports. In addition, it looks like his legal case could get pushed another year, so assuming his recovery continues to go as planned, Rice is likely to settle in as a 2/3 turn pick once we get to August. A career 25.3% TPRR player with a 5.0-yard aDOT, Rice’s game is built for DraftKings’ full PPR format.
Also considered: Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Davante Adams
Round 4, Pick 5 – George Kittle
After going WRx3 to start the draft, we decided to take the last elite TE available in Kittle. With Brandon Aiyuk recovering from a torn ACL, Ricky Pearsall a complete unknown entering Year 2 and Deebo Samuel now in Washington, there’s many paths to Kittle being a difference making TE in 2025. The 49ers have the NFL’s easiest strength of schedule and could struggle defensively based on their current depth chart. If that comes to fruition, we could see plenty of high scoring contests in SF this year.
Also considered: Mike Evans, Xavier Worthy, Omarion Hampton, Tetairoa McMillan
Round 5, Pick 8 – Kenneth Walker
With four WRs and an elite TE, we did consider adding another WR, but this is where knowing your room/knowing what generally happens on DK is important. Drafters on DK tend to heavily draft running backs despite the full PPR format. If we passed on Walker or Kamara, we were worried we may be left without some RB firepower in this draft as the talent pool dries up pretty quickly after Round 6. As a result, we decided to snag Ken Walker, who correlates in Week 16 with Puka Nacua. This is a new OC and scheme, but it is worth noting that Walker is coming off career highs in targets, catches and yards, which obviously helps in full PPR.
Also considered: Alvin Kamara, Jaylen Waddle, Zay Flowers
Round 6, Pick 5 – Jauan Jennings
After snagging Walker as our RB1 in the previous round, we were ready to run the card in for Kamara had he fallen past ADP. Unfortunately, he went a couple of picks ahead of us, so we were left with a few options that made sense for our build when it comes to correlation. We thought about snagging Mahomes to stack with Rice, but in the early 6th round ahead of ADP in a lotto style contest like this, we didn’t feel it was worth reaching a bit. Montgomery certainly could have fit as our RB2, but the ability to pair Jennings with Kittle made too much sense as we’re now betting on San Francisco’s offense with this roster. Hopefully, we can land Purdy later in our draft. Jennings was great last year, averaging 2.26 yards per route run. With Aiyuk recovering from a multi-ligament ACL injury and Deebo now in Washington, Jennings is likely to be a big factor again this season, especially early in the year.
Also considered: David Montgomery, Patrick Mahomes, Rome Odunze
Round 7, Pick 8 – D’Andre Swift
With this current build featuring two San Francisco WRs, adding a Bear at some point in the draft was a priority for us so that we could stack up SF-CHI in Week 17. Had Odunze fallen, he would have easily been the pick. I’m not the biggest Swift supporter in the world, but after Nick Chubb signed in Houston, there aren’t many other options left out there in free agency that could shake up this CHI backfield. As we inch closer to camp, I’ll start to feel better and better about Swift’s role in the Chicago offense. I do think he’s likely to lose some early down/goal line work just like he did back in Detroit with Ben Johnson, but he plays well in the pass game, and on DraftKings, I’m always thinking about that facet of a player’s game given the full PPR scoring format. Given that this build also needed to add to the RB room, Swift just made too much sense.
Also considered: Tony Pollard, Matthew Golden, Stefon Diggs
Round 8, Pick 5 – Josh Downs
Downs fits so many correlations for our team. Indy takes on SEA in Week 15 (Ken Walker), SF in Week 16 (Kittle, Jennings), and JAX in Week 17 (BTJ). As a result of those playoff correlations, we opted to select Downs here, but we certainly considered adding antoher 49er in Brandon Aiyuk while Jaylen Warren as an RB3 would have also made plenty of sense. By selecting Downs, we can also setup a back door stack with one of Daniel Jones or Anthony Richardson as well.
Also considered: Cooper Kupp, Brandon Aiyuk, Jaylen Warren, Bo Nix
Round 9, Pick 8 – Justin Herbert
After setting up a 49ers stack, we were hoping Brock Purdy would fall to us here, but we got sniped. With 12 QBs already off the board before our pick, we felt that it might be risky to pass on QB here, even though we didn’t have any stacking partners available. Knowing the ADP landscape, we opted to take Herbert knowing that we could target guys like Tre Harris, Quentin Johnston and potentially Will Dissly later on.
Also considered: Najee Harris, Drake Maye, Jayden Higgins, Jordan Mason
Round 10, Pick 5 – Tre Harris
After selecting Herbert in the previous round, Harris was our target here in Round 10 in order to complete the LAC stack. We’ll queue up Quentin Johnston for later in our draft and consider a Chargers TE in the later rounds in an effort to complete a Herbert double stack.
Also considered: Zach Charbonnet, Travis Etienne
Round 11, Pick 8 – Trevor Lawrence
After completing the Chargers stack the previous two rounds, we did consider snagging Christian Kirk to complete our Week 17 LAC/HOU stack, but this was a situation where we sort of had to read our room. The drafters in this room were very QB-hungry, often taking unstacked QBs, so we didn’t want to get behind at QB if we passed on Lawrence. After taking Brian Thomas Jr. in the second round, taking T Law here made sense for our second team stack.
Also considered: Bhayshul Tuten, Christian Kirk
Round 12, Pick 5 – J.K. Dobbins
We considered Kirk in the 11th round to complete a Week 17 game stack, so when he fell to the 12th round, it was a tough decision for us. On one hand, we know those Week 17 stacks are super important, but on DK, RBs tend to fly off the board somewhat quickly. In this ‘RB2 window’ we feared if we based on Spears, Davis or Dobbins, we may not get a serviceable depth RB. With the state of our team being a modified zero RB build, we felt it was more important to grab a back here as our RB3. With Rashee Rice already on the squad, we opted for Dobbins given their Week 17 matchup.
Also considered: Christian Kirk, Tyjae Spears, Ray Davis
Round 13, Pick 8 – Austin Ekeler
Continuing with our zero RB squad, we’re now searching for pass catching RBs who can score well on DK’s full PPR format. Enter Austin Ekeler, who caught three balls per game last season for an average of 30 yards per game. Among RBs with 100+ touches, he led all of them in yards per touch (6.5) as a sneaky good role player within the Washington offense, which is obviously projected to be one of the highest scoring units in the league. We did consider taking Quentin Johnson a bit ahead of ADP to complete our Justin Herbert double stack, but given the need to fill our our RB room, we opted for Ekeler and are hoping QJ falls to us in Round 14…spoiler: He did not!
Also considered: Trey Benson, Bryce Young, Quentin Johnston
Round 14, Pick 5 – Brenton Strange
Our friend at the 12 spot decided to take Quej, so we were forced to re-evaluate with the fifth pick in the 14th round. At this point, we only had one TE after taking Kittle early, so it made sense to snag Strange to complete our Lawrence double and complete our JAX-IND Week 17 game stack. We did consider Bryce Young with this selection considering he fell about a round after his ADP and could use a third QB, but given that TMac, Chuba, Legette and Thielen were already off the board, we decided a potential Young-Coker-Sanders stack probably doesn’t have the firepower to compete in a large field lotto like this. Therefore, we passed on QB and are now hoping to snag one of the Indy QBs later on to stack with Josh Downs.
Also considered: Bryce Young
Round 15, Pick 8 – Daniel Jones
With QBs flying off the board in this draft somewhat quickly, we felt a bit boxed out of QB3. Knowing that the drafter in the 10th spot already had Pitty City and Jonathan Taylor on his squad, we were fearful that he might take Jones with his next pick. As a result, rather than pushing him through the turn, we decided to add him now, slightly ahead of his ADP. Generally, we try not to reach for stacks in best ball, but anything around a round to a round a half has proven to be acceptable in previous research studies looking at advance rate. With three stacked QBs, our team is setup well in terms of correlation.
Also considered: Roschon Johnson, Pat Bryant, Braelon Allen
Round 16, Pick 5 – Braelon Allen
Given the nature of our modified zero RB team, we ended up taking the falling Allen, who slipped all the way to 185 overall (ADP 176.3). We obviously think Breece Hall is going to be the team’s lead back by a mile, but with how run heavy this offense projects under the new regime, Allen could have some standalone weeks even if Hall stays healthy for all 17 games. Of course, if Breece misses any time, Allen would be a weekly plug-and-play RB2 in season long leagues, so there’s plenty of contingent upside as well.
Also considered: Pat Bryant, Pop Douglas
Round 17, Pick 8 – Dyami Brown
We did briefly consider the rookie RB in Giddens with this pick in order to further lean into our Colts stack, but this team is betting on Trevor Lawrence and the Jaguars in a big way. We figured we might as well correlate with Dyami Brown in Round 17 as he’s penciled in right now for WR3 duties. At this price tag, we don’t need much from Brown to pay it off – a few spike weeks here and there will be just fine.
Also considered: D.J Giddens
Round 18, Pick 5 – Tahj Brooks
After attacking WR and TE early in this draft, we knew we had to add some potential RB upside late. The RB2 role in Cincy is ambiguous right now, but Zack Moss has been an afterthought based on recent coach speak blurbs, and Samaje Perine is a declining veteran. We’ll take the upside swing here on the RB out of Texas Tech.
Also considered: Blake Corum, Adonai Mitchell
Round 19, Pick 8 – Adonai Mitchell
We were close to taking AD with our Round 18 selection, so when he fell to the 19th round, it made sense to take him as another stacking partner with Daniel Jones. The path to targets isn’t exactly clear for Mitchell, assuming health for Pittman, Downs, and Tyler Warren, but in Rounds 19 and 20 on DK, I’m usually looking for correlated upside swings. Mitchell needs to beat out Alec Pierce for the WR3 job, but if he does, he could have a couple of spike weeks, and that’s all we’re asking for at this price. We also considered the rookie in Thornton Jr., but we felt it made more sense to go with the stacking partner for Indy.
Also considered: Dont’e Thornton Jr.
Round 20, Pick 5 – Tyler Conklin
This was a bit of a polarizing pick in Discord that led to some good discussion. Entering training camp, we don’t exactly know who’s going to lead the LAC TE room in routes and targets this year. Dissly had a nice year last season, but he dealt with some injuries and was somewhat inconsistent. LA revamped the TE room by signing Conklin in free agency then drafting Gadsden in Round 5 of the NFL Draft. Those two moves might signal that the team is looking for more juice at pass catcher in this position, so we opted for Conklin over Dissly and the rookie, though it does sound like the rookie had a nice spring. For now, this is a situation to monitor for best ball formats. Either way, we liked tacking on another stacking partner with Justin Herbert. In Round 20, honestly a few TD catches (especially in the right weeks) is probably enough for this pick to hit our lineups a few times this season. Conklin isn’t exactly the sexiest pick in the world, but he’s had 50+ catches in four straight seasons.
Also considered: Sean Tucker, Jordan James, Will Dissly, Oronde Gadsden
Full Roster (3-6-8-3 build)
QB – Justin Herbert, Trevor Lawrence, Daniel Jones
RB – Ken Walker, D’Andre Swift, J.K. Dobbins, Austin Ekeler, Braelon Allen, Tahj Brooks
WR – Puka, BTJ, Rashee Rice, Jauan Jennings, Josh Downs, Tre Harris, Dyami Brown, Adonai Mitchell