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My Guys in 2025: Best Ball Edition

These are the players that Derek Devereaux drafted the most in 2025.

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.


After over 200 drafts, and a few more still to come, my best ball portfolio is well-defined for the 2025 season, with the majority of my teams on DraftKings but quite a few on Drafters and some on Underdog as well. And every season, I get some odd looks from the Basement Brewed Fantasy Football Discord community about how condensed my portfolio is. This year will be no different.


I like to call my strategy conviction drafting, where I'm drafting every player on the right team at the right time for the right scenarios. That means I'm not over-worrying about having "too much" of a guy while also not going out of my way to make sure I don't have zero of some players. If I'm right about my decisions, I want to be really, really right about them and lap the field.


So who were my guys I drafted with conviction in my 2025 best ball drafts? Let's take a look at three players each from different portions of the draft and what their purpose serves on my teams.





The early-round picks


When I'm setting the tone for the rest of my draft in the first six rounds, these are the players that I've built around the most, both stacked and unstacked. This area of the draft is generally more spread out than the middle and later portions of drafts, where the conviction really comes into play, but there's still guys here that I've drafted much more than others.



RB Kenneth Walker III, Seattle Seahawks

  • Percent of teams drafted on: 20.41%

  • Percent of dollars allocated: 30.99%


Kenneth Walker III is elite and explosive when he's on the field. That's, of course, the caveat to it all - he needs to be on the field. But he's a great runner and catches passes out of the backfield. Is it possible Zach Charbonnet cuts into the workload this season? Maybe. But right now, the team hasn't said as much.


KW3 is going around good, but less upside, players based on his ADP. Right next to him is Breece Hall, who is in a similar boat except the Jets have already said they're going to mix in Braelon Allen, plus they have Justin Fields who will run a bunch. That's not to say KW3 is guaranteed to outperform Breece Hall this season, but I like the odds based on what we know today.


In fact, those two guys are the drop-off point for me where we have upside backs in the RB1-ish territory, so it's natural that I'm just hammering the latest of the bunch.



WR Puka Nacua, Los Angeles Rams

  • Percent of teams drafted on: 24.49%

  • Percent of dollars allocated: 24.81%


Puka Nacua is a target monster on a team with a very condensed target share. Simple as that. The Rams replaced their number two target earner, Cooper Kupp, with another high target earner in Davante Adams, and to me, nothing has changed. Yes, there have been concerns about Matthew Stafford's health, which has caused his ADP to slip, but Puka could certainly be QB-proof in a Sean McVay offense - and Jimmy Garoppolo isn't horrible, either.



WR Tyreek Hill, Miami Dolphins

  • Percent of teams drafted on: 22.96%

  • Percent of dollars allocated: 23.73%


There have been a lot of injury concerns around Tyreek Hill going back to last season, to the point that people are starting to wonder if we've seen the end of the elite Tyreek Hill we have known for years. It's possible we have, but it's also possible we haven't. Knowing that a top five WR is in the range of outcomes for someone going in the third round of drafts feels like a risk you should be taking more often than not, especially in best ball, so naturally, here we are. You surround Tyreek with more theoretically stabilized players (see: Nacua, Puka and the wide receiver in the next section) and you're covered off in the worst case scenario, but in the best case scenario, you have the early-round steal of the draft.




The mid-round backstops


My strategy in the middle rounds is to ensure my stacks are aligning and grab quarterbacks. But when I'm not doing that, there are three main players that acted as "backstops" for me - guys that I can get usable weeks out in a pinch to cover bye weeks or injuries. All three have access to some ceiling, but mostly aren't going to be zeroes clogging up my roster.



RB Austin Ekeler, Washington Commanders

  • Percent of teams drafted on: 53.57%

  • Percent of dollars allocated: 51.70%


Friend of the program Austin Ekeler has a defined role on this Commanders offense, regardless of whatever happens with Brian Robinson Jr. He's going to be the third down back and the pass catching back, and in a full PPR setting, having someone available in the 14th round - or even later! - that we know will have a role throughout the season is so valuable to have.


Is he going to have shots at RB1-like finishes like some of the other running backs going in this range? Probably not. But did Austin Ekeler have eight regular season games with 10 or more PPR points on DraftKings last season? He sure did, and that's in only 12 regular season games played. I'm taking that to the bank.



WR Adam Thielen, Carolina Panthers

  • Percent of teams drafted on: 30.10%

  • Percent of dollars allocated: 25.75%


Adam Thielen is 35 years old. His team just drafted an elite WR talent in Tetaiora McMillan. He has two theoretically ascending young receivers behind him in Xavier Legette and Jalen Coker, who were both rookies last season. And yet, old man Adam Thielen continues to outperform, year after year, and it's already been all but confirmed in training camp that Thielen will remain the team's #2 receiver and primary slot player this season. Will the falloff be sharp whenever Father Time catches up? Probably. But the best ball market has believed that Father Time was going to catch up to Adam Thielen for three years now, and it continues to do so again. I'll just keep drafting him until that happens and reap the rewards.



TE Hunter Henry, New England Patriots

  • Percent of teams drafted on: 19.90%

  • Percent of dollars allocated: 25.32%


Why can't Hunter Henry be second on the New England Patriots in targets? He's come close before. In fact, the last time that Hunter Henry was second or better in targets on the Patriots offense was...checks notes...last season, when he led the team in targets. Yes, they added Stefon Diggs, who will probably take over the target lead this season, but the collective best ball community is out here drafting Kyle Williams and DeMario Douglas before the guy who will be out there on every snap on an ascending offense who has shown massive rapport with the young quarterback already. Why wouldn't this be my highest-owned tight end?




The late round dart throws


When I need a home run swing, I'm swinging in this area. This is where the value upside lives; running backs with contingent upside, receivers in ambiguous situations, and overall sleepers that not every draft pod will have drafted.


RB Woody Marks, Houston Texans

  • Percent of teams drafted on: 17.86%

  • Percent of dollars allocated: 24.86%


I've been drafting Woody Marks since before the NFL Draft. His skill set lends to third down back usage, and now that we know he's on the Texans, his only competition for that role is Dare Ogunbowale. To me, it's a matter of when, not if, that competition is over and Woody Marks overtakes him, and even if it's not week one, I suspect it will be come best ball playoff time. And there's additional upside as a runner here, too - Joe Mixon is hurt, Nick Chubb isn't exactly a beacon of health (nor anywhere near his old form, at least from what the coaches are saying), and they've been trying to replace Dameon Pierce for years. It's a who knows scenario, and that ambiguity is one to target.



RB MarShawn Lloyd, Green Bay Packers

  • Percent of teams drafted on: 21.94%

  • Percent of dollars allocated: 23.59%


If MarShawn Lloyd could stay healthy, he would be drafted two rounds higher, full stop. The players going in that range are the same bet in the same scenario: If the starter goes down, they're likely getting the majority of the work. So why would I go out of my way to draft the same bet two rounds earlier from a value perspective, when I could take an upgraded wide receiver bet there instead? And that, my friends, is how you end up with this much MarShawn Lloyd. He has the talent to be a serviceable back, he has the former draft capital. Just stay healthy, my friend.



WR Nick Westbrook-Ikhine, Miami Dolphins

  • Percent of teams drafted on: 34.18%

  • Percent of dollars allocated: 37.13%


I've written about Nick Westbrook-Ikhine multiple times already, so I won't bore you with the same writeup over and over again, but the TL;DR for all of you is this: Biggest receiver in the room who caught a bunch of touchdowns on a worse team gets brought onto a team who had trouble in the red zone because they didn't have a big receiver, and their only theoretical power back left is rookie Ollie Gordon II. Touchdowns are fun, right? Right?!




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

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