Best Ball Robust RB Strategy & Recap
With the preseason winding down, time is running out to draft best ball teams. The end of the preseason can be a great time to get in some more best ball entries since you have the most information possible before draft day. It can also be a good time to try to differentiate your teams if you have drafted a lot of them. If you have a favorite strategy or favorite players, chances are you have pretty similar teams, so it wouldn’t hurt to throw in a few outliers, just in case your original predictions don’t go as planned. That’s exactly what I did in this draft, where I took the Robust RB approach. Typically I’m a fan of waiting on running backs and taking wide receivers early, as I detailed in my Zero RB and Hero RB strategy articles, but it’s not completely out of the question that the opposite strategy can take down the grand prize. In the case that a lot of the early-round wide receivers and mid-round running backs bust, you could gain a huge edge on the field by having a team with several elite running backs. I would define Robust RB as taking at least three running backs in the first six rounds, but I took it to the extreme here, starting my draft with back-to-back-to-back rushers.
Rounds 1-6
As I just mentioned, my first three picks were all running backs. Breece Hall, De’Von Achane, and Derrick Henry, to be exact. It definitely wasn’t the most optimal pick to get my third running back before any wide receivers, but for the sake of this article, I wanted to really emphasize the Robust RB strategy. A more practical approach would be spreading out your running back picks throughout the first six rounds rather than taking them all immediately, but I think I was still able to draft a competitive team. I needed to fill my WR spots as fast as possible after missing on the early-round guys, so that’s what I did with Michael Pittman, Christian Kirk, and Chris Godwin with my 4th, 5th, and 6th-round picks. Pittman and Kirk are the clear alpha WR1 in their offenses, and Godwin has shown top-12 WR upside before, too. It’s not likely that they finish as top 12 receivers, but they can each perform like one in any given week.
Rounds 7-12
I continued my run of wide receivers for my next three picks as well, taking Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Courtland Sutton, and Joshua Palmer in rounds 7, 8, and 9. I felt like I needed to go overboard with WR to catch up at the position, and I’m happy with my top 6. Smith-Njigba is one of my favorite breakout candidates, and Sutton and Palmer are both steals at their current ADP. Sutton is the no doubt WR1 in Denver, and Palmer may very well be the WR1 in San Diego if McConkey needs some time to adjust to the NFL. Another huge benefit of my receiving corps is that all of them except for Pittman play with quarterbacks who haven’t been drafted yet. This will allow me to form stacks that will greatly increase my upside for potential spike weeks. That’s exactly what I did in rounds 10 and 11, taking Trevor Lawrence to pair with Kirk, and doubling down with Gabe Davis a round later. I think the Jacksonville offense could have a huge year, and the Lawrence double stack lets me capitalize on that if I’m right. In round 12, I simply took the best tight end available to fill my TE1 spot, which in this case was Pat Freiermuth.
Rounds 13-18
In round 13, I found my QB2 in Deshaun Watson. I rarely draft a quarterback without any way of getting one of their top receivers on my team, but I made an exception here. Watson was the best quarterback available and his rushing upside gives him access to spike weeks without needing a receiver to also put up a huge point total. In the next two rounds, I made sure to build out another stack, and I did so with Baker Mayfield and Cade Otton, who paired with Godwin who is already on my team. In round 16 I took Kimani Vidal, who you’ll notice is the only running back on my team after the first three rounds. This is known as a hyper-fragile running back build, and I think it’s necessary to have a chance to succeed after drafting the position so heavily early on. I’m betting that my trio of Hall, Achane, and Henry stay healthy and put up elite numbers all season long, so there’s no reason to roster more than 4 backs. I got Juwan Johnson as my third tight end in round 17 which I think is great value, and closed out the draft with Elijah Moore in round 18. The last round is essentially a dart throw no matter how you look at it, so I figured I’d take a shot on Moore who at least gives me some correlation with Watson.
Review
Overall, I’m happy with how this team turned out. It’s not my favorite considering I usually lean away from RB-heavy builds, but for spending my first three picks on rushers, I love how I was able to build out the rest of the squad. I have two double stacks with Lawrence/Kirk/Davis and Mayfield/Godwin/Otton and managed to fill out my wide receiver group with guys who are in line for a lot of targets. My quarterbacks and tight ends are serviceable, and I think the two trios can provide a solid enough floor to give this team a shot at the playoffs. If the Jaguars and Buccaneers have great offensive seasons and my top three running backs stay healthy and produce all year, this team has massive upside.
