top of page
Search

Is Joe Mixon worth the risk in best ball drafts?

DraftKings Best Ball Millionaire 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.


One of the trickiest parts of drafting best ball teams is deciding how to value injured players, especially when there are unknown variables at play. Joe Mixon is probably the most impactful player that we, as a collective best ball community, just simply don't know what to do with.


As with any injured player, I think there are scenarios where taking Joe Mixon, now going in the 100s, makes sense. The upside case is pretty easy to make - he's going to be the starter and see the majority of early-down snaps when he's healthy. The downside case, similarly, is easy to make - we simply don't know if, much less when, he'll be healthy, although recent reports suggest he's "in danger" of missing week one.


On team nine of my DraftKings Best Ball Millionaire portfolio, I took Joe Mixon as my RB3 at pick 111, with established starter Chuba Hubbard leading the running back room and presumed 1A Jaylen Warren as my RB2. There was enough risk that Jaylen Warren was going to lose some work as the season goes on to rookie Kaleb Johnson that I felt the need to swing for late-season upside in this spot, and, again, Joe Mixon was staring me down. Plus, he adds some correlation to my playoff stacks as an added bonus.


Would I want to be drafting Joe Mixon to rely on him early in the season? No, not at all. But the reality is that he could be back by, say, week 3 and end up being one of the best picks at that spot in the draft. In hindsight, I probably needed one more "safe" back on this team to try and cover Jaylen Warren's week five bye, but we're just going to have to cross our fingers and hope for the best. After all, we can do as much strategy as we want, but luck, especially injury luck, still plays a large factor in this game we play.


Let's break down the rest of this team and see what we got cooking.




The team, position by position

  • 2 QBs

  • 6 RBs

  • 9 WRs

  • 3 TEs


We're back with another elite QB, and it's one I've been drafting a lot more as the price as slipped. But unlike last draft, we don't snag an elite TE here.




The stacks


Washington Commanders triple stack

  • QB Jayden Daniels (pick 39)

  • WR Deebo Samuel (pick 63)

  • WR Noah Brown (pick 231)

  • TE Zach Ertz (pick 135)


Arizona Cardinals double stack

  • QB Kyler Murray (pick 106)

  • WR Marvin Harrison Jr. (pick 34)

  • WR Michael Wilson (pick 202)


Funnily enough, the two stacks you see here - not to spoil it or anything, are the exact two stacks from that last draft, with the Commanders and the Cardinals at play here. I don't think having the same two QBs in a contest is a bad thing. But in both cases, they're completely different looks at the offense, so it gives me a diversified way of saying these teams can still be valuable, but if one player underperforms, I've got the likely beneficiaries on the other team.




Playoff correlations

  • Giants WR Wan'Dale Robinson plays the Commanders in week 15.

  • Texans RB Joe Mixon and WR Nico Collins play the Cardinals in week 15.

  • Falcons WR Drake London plays the Cardinals in week 16.

  • Cowboys TE Zach Ertz plays the Commanders in week 17.




The resources

bottom of page