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How building unique best ball stacks could lead to a high finish on Drafters


Derek Devereaux's Drafters portfolio review

NOTE FROM MIKEY: Basement Brewed Fantasy Football is happy and proud to offer a space for friends of BBFF to share their own articles, thoughts and analysis, like what you're about to read below.


That said, please note that what you're about to read does not necessarily represent the views, opinions or beliefs of Mikey or anyone at Basement Brewed Fantasy Football.



Building a best ball portfolio is a skill that is learned over time. You need to have a fundamental understanding of your risk tolerance. You need to be able to stack players together in a way that makes sense for each roster, independent from your other rosters. And, most importantly, you need to be able to find player values and incorporate them when they strike.


But where do you start? How do you know where these values lie, and how can you properly create the right portfolio of unique best ball stacks and lineups that gives you the best shot of taking down a large tournament?




We'll start with how I approached the now-filled $2 Drafters Mini NFL Best Ball Championship. With 50 teams in the tournament, we're hoping one of these finishes high up in the standings to earn a profit in 2025 fantasy football.




The importance of stacking for Drafters Best Ball tournaments


Drafters plays their fantasy season out during the (almost) entirety of the NFL regular season. Each week, from week one to week 17, is weighted equally, with no playoffs. That means we need to find ways to differentiate ourselves from other people in the field and find correlated ways to grab upside. Stacking is the way to do that.


In this format, you're trying to bet on pieces of an offense - or even an entire offense - that could outperform their draft ADP and shoot you up the rankings.




How many players on a team is too many?


That depends on that risk tolerance exercise mentioned above.


My "standard" stack size is usually a quarterback plus two other offensive players - and when we look at the data set of stack types I have in this tournament, you'll see that reflected in my actual results:


This chart shows the number of stack types I have in my 2025 Drafters Best Ball portfolio in the Mini Championship tournament. Out of 132 QBs drafted on 50 teams, 3 do not have any correlated players, 11 have one correlated player, 76 have two correlated players, 34 have three correlated players, and 8 have four correlated players.
This chart shows the number of stack types I have in my 2025 Drafters Best Ball portfolio in the Mini Championship tournament. Out of 132 QBs drafted on 50 teams, 3 do not have any correlated players, 11 have one correlated player, 76 have two correlated players, 34 have three correlated players, and 8 have four correlated players.

The longer tail on the right-hand side of the data - where QB + 3 players and QB + 4 players resides - showcases how important I think it is to over-correlate relative to the field when the opportunity arises. This means I'm taking on more risk than the average player would even consider in many of my lineups - but the key here is that I'm also diversifying which teams I'm doing this with, too, so I have multiple outs to climbing high up the leaderboard.




Looking at the extreme - building unique best ball stacks with a quarterback and four players


These stacks are either going to tank the teams they're on or - ideally - produced outsized returns if the offense as a whole overperforms expectations. For all of these quad stacks, I have the quarterback paired with one running back, two wide receivers and one tight end, ensuring I have some diversification among my position groups as well.


Here are the eight quad stacks I have in this tournament:

  1. Chicago Bears: Caleb Williams + D'Andre Swift + DJ Moore + Rome Odunze + Colston Loveland

  2. Dallas Cowboys - this one I did twice!: Dak Prescott + Javonte Williams + Cee Dee Lamb + Jalen Tolbert + Jake Ferguson

  3. Houston Texans: CJ Stroud + Woody Marks + Nico Collins + Jaylin Noel + Dalton Schultz

  4. Los Angeles Rams: Matthew Stafford + Jarquez Hunter + Puka Nacua + Tutu Atwell + Tyler Higbee

  5. Miami Dolphins: Tua Tagovailoa + De'Von Achane + Tyreek Hill + Nick Westbrook-Ikhine + Darren Waller

    1. I actually had another one of these earlier in the season with Jonnu Smith on it + Jaylen Waddle instead of Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, but RIP that quad after the Jonnu trade, now it's just an awesome triple.

  6. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Baker Mayfield + Rachaad White + Mike Evans + Jalen McMillan + Cade Otton (looks a lot like a team I drafted on DraftKings, too...)

  7. Washington Commanders: Jayden Daniels + Austin Ekeler + Terry McLaurin + Noah Brown + Zach Ertz



BBFF helps me make better decisions when I'm on the clock



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