Underdog drafts are finally underway, and today I wanted to provide a quick refresher on what to consider during these drafts and how to approach them. Of course, these are just suggestions to consider, rather than rules. Playing in such a large field tournament means there are many ways to win.
Roster Construction
As discussed on previous live shows and on Ballin with My Bestie, the preferred roster construction is five quarterbacks, six running backs, seven receivers, and two tight ends. Depending on how your draft starts, you could switch the above to seven running backs and six receivers if you go heavy at receiver early. The volatility of the receiver position is why I prefer to draft seven, especially with my emphasis on attacking running backs early.
There has been debate about whether drafting one tight end is better than drafting two, but drafting one automatically gives you zeros in two (or three) weeks. Using the additional spot elsewhere could be beneficial, but it isn’t something I’ve found to be optimal. And the tight end position is so weak, generally speaking, that taking a third almost always is going to be bad for your lineup.
Use the Best Ball Rankings to Manage Bye Weeks
This one is as straightforward as it gets. Use the rankings provided here at Campus2Canton to ensure you’re covered when it comes to bye weeks. By “filtering by player” and selecting the player, they start a list. From there, you can filter by position to see which player bye weeks you have selected. I’ve stated in the past that you shouldn’t worry about bye weeks when drafting, but you do need to have enough players to field a roster weekly. This is most important with tight ends, as we’re only drafting two of them, preferably.
Use the Best Ball Rankings
Don’t just use the Campus2Canton rankings page to help with bye weeks. Use them to help differentiate where we stand against the market. By uploading the rankings into Underdog, you can spot the differences between ADP and our rankings of the players.
In a large field tournament, you don’t want to draft what ADP tells you to draft. You want to draft the players you feel confident in that also align with rankings over ADP. This is where you can set yourself apart from the large field and give yourself a shot at winning the whole thing.
Be Mindful of Past Drafts
This one is a little more difficult to do, but you want to think about who you’ve taken in the past and then differentiate with future drafts. You don’t want to take the same first through third rounders and then pair them up with identical picks later on. If you’re drafting five or fewer teams, then this matters less, but if you’re drafting 10 or more teams, then you’ll want to spread your exposure around to players you believe in. Don’t just spread your exposure for the sake of doing it (like I did too much last year). You still want to take your guys, but you don’t want your teams to look nearly identical consistently.
Name Your Drafts
One thing Ethan and I are doing for the 2026 offseason is naming our drafts. There’s a benefit to doing it this offseason, too, though. You can use the name of the draft to help you with my above point. How often are you starting RB, RB, RB? Are you taking receivers in your first few picks? Using a naming convention like this: “7/8 BBM – 7p – RB – RB – RB” can help you not only from a data/analysis perspective next year, but it can help you understand how you’re drafting currently.
