Hero RB Strategy
Best Ball is one of the fastest-growing fantasy football formats, for good reason. It’s perfect to start drafting early in the offseason and serves as a great tool to learn the ins and outs of the player pool for your main drafts closer to the season. While it’s fun to just fire away as many drafts as you can, it’s important to put thought into the teams you are building if you want to walk away with one of the big prizes. The two most important things you want to be thinking about are roster construction and stacking. You want to do what you can to set up game stacks for the fantasy playoffs, especially in week 17 when the final prize pool is at stake. You’ll want to construct your roster to maximize your upside, and how quickly you draft running backs will define how the rest of your roster will look. I already recapped a Zero RB draft, and in this article, I will show you how to take a Hero/Anchor RB approach. This is essentially drafting one elite three-down back early to “anchor” your group of running backs, and then punting the position after that like you would see in a Zero RB build.
Rounds 1-6
Of course, the easiest way to employ the Hero RB strategy is to land CMC early in the first round. That was the case for me here, but I also like doing it with Robinson or Hall in mid-round 1, Taylor or Gibbs in early-round 2, and Barkley or Achane in late-round 2. The next 5 rounds are pretty easy in this type of build, as you just want to hammer down WR, with maybe one pick for a quarterback or tight end if the value is there. I took Cooper Kupp and Malik Nabers at the 2/3 turn, who were the two best available WRs at the time. At the 4/5 turn, I took the next best receiver, Christian Kirk, and opted for a tight end, Trey McBride, with the first pick of the fifth round. I could have taken another wide receiver like Rice, but I opted for McBride for a few reasons. Drafting an elite tight end will save me roster space later, as I will only need two total tight ends instead of three. I also got him 3 picks later than his ADP, and he correlates well with my WR1 Kupp. The Rams and Cardinals face off in a dome in week 17, making it a very high-upside game stack for the playoffs. This will open up my options at quarterback later, making Stafford a very appealing pick if I can get him. Jaxon Smith-Njigba is one of my favorite breakout candidates this season, so I was glad to snag him in round 6 as my WR4. Overall this is a very solid start to the draft, locking in an elite running back, an elite tight end, and four high-ceiling receivers.
Rounds 7-12
The middle rounds are where you would typically draft a lot of running backs if you went with a Zero RB build, but in Hero RB you can take a more balanced approach. I took rookie Brian Thomas Jr. in round 7, who is another upside pick who has looked great in the preseason. It may seem counterintuitive to draft a fifth receiver to my bench before taking a single QB or an RB2, but best ball is all about getting access to as many wide receiver spike weeks as possible. This also pairs Kirk and Thomas together, leaving the door open for a Jaguars stack if Trevor Lawrence falls to me later. At the 8/9 turn, I took my second and third running backs, Raheem Mostert and Tony Pollard. Mostert is sharing a backfield with Achane so he could have some down weeks, but he still possesses massive single-week upside that is perfect for best ball. Pollard is also sharing a backfield but I like him more than Spears in half-PPR by a good margin, and he creates a week 17 game stack with the Jacksonville receivers that I’ve already drafted. My plan in round 10 was to take Trevor Lawrence to complete the game stack, but unfortunately, he was taken four picks before me. That’s why it’s always good to set up multiple potential stacks with quarterbacks, so I went with Brock Purdy instead, who pairs nicely with CMC. I followed that up with Rashid Shaheed, to add another breakout candidate as wide receiver depth. Taking an early running back will immediately set you back at receiver, so taking 5 in the first 7 rounds and taking my 6th by the 10/11 turn should offset that. With the 12th pick, I went with Stafford as my QB2 to lock in the Stafford/Kupp/McBride week 17 game stack that I discussed earlier.
Rounds 13-18
A big part of my strategy when going with a Hero RB build is drafting at most 5 running backs. I trust my top rusher to contribute to my lineup every week, and having four other guys compete for the RB2 spot every week should be enough to get a good enough score. This allows you to roster an extra receiver to try to capture more of that spike week upside. Since I’m only going with 5 running backs, I want to fill out that group before the talent level completely drops off the map. That led me to go J.K. Dobbins in round 13, and Antonio Gibson at the next turn in round 14. They are both number two on their teams but could become huge fantasy contributors if Edwards or Stevenson go down. Even if there aren’t any injuries, the Chargers’ run-heavy offense will still find touches for Dobbins, and Gibson should work as the pass-catching back for the Patriots. With my other pick at the 14/15 turn, I finished my QB group with Geno Smith, which pairs him with my WR4 Smith-Njigba. My next back-to-back picks were Ben Sinnott and Jermaine Burton. Sinnott has sleeper appeal, and I can take the risk on the rookie tight end knowing that McBride will be a reliable contributor in my TE spot all season. Burton is another rookie who is a part of an explosive offense, but he will most likely have a bench role to begin the season. Still, the beauty of best ball is that you don’t need all of your players to reach their ceiling at the very start of the season, and I like his odds to carve out more playing time as the year progresses. With the final pick of the draft I went with Juan Jennings, who could earn a more prominent target share as the result of an Aiyuk trade or an injury, and he adds to my stack of Purdy and McCaffrey.
Review
Overall, I think my team turned out very solid. I think I have enough talent to reach the playoffs, and enough stacks to give myself a chance to make it through the playoffs. My team stacks include Purdy/CMC/Jennings with a Mostert bringback for week 16, Stafford/Kupp with a McBride bringback for week 17, and Smith/Smith-Njigba. My stacks of the 49ers and Rams also face off in week 15 to give me an additional game stack, and I have one more quarterback-less game stack of Kirk/Thomas/Pollard in week 17. My build ended up finishing as a 3-5-8-2, which is my favorite construction for a Hero RB team. My running backs are solid enough to get away with only having 5, and 8 receivers will provide plenty of spike weeks. None of my quarterbacks are studs, but together will be serviceable, and McBride should give me a noticeable edge at tight end.
