FFPC Best Ball | Targets and Fades in 2026

by Dan Williamson · Featured
best ball 2026 targets

Playing the FFPC early-season best ball tournaments is a refreshing change from most pre-draft contests on other platforms. For starters, the FFPC offers two different contests. The 2026 Never-Too-Early Best Ball Tournament has a $125 entry fee, while the cheaper Never-Too-Early Superflex Best Ball Tournament is priced at only $35 to enter. While the names of those contests don’t exactly roll off the tongue easily, they are a blast to play.

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FFPC Best Ball | 2026 Targets and Fades

The Formats

Each contest utilizes a base lineup of 1QB, 2RB, 2WR, 1TE, 2Flex. Both also feature full point-per-reception (PPR) with a TE premium (TEP) of 1.5. The two flex positions and the TEP scoring give us maximum versatility when building our teams. The primary difference between the contests is that the Superflex version allows for a quarterback in one of the flex spots, which slightly devalues passing yardage and increases the effect of interceptions on your lineup. Of course, this leads to an early run on QBs, which pushes many of the elite RBs, WRs, and TEs down the draft board.

In general, the ADP order within each position group is consistent across both contests. Thus, we will only reference positional ADP rather than overall ADP to cover both contests at once.

Otherwise, much of the strategy for finding value in these tournaments is similar to any other contest. Fear and uncertainty create surplus value, while overconfidence and recency bias often lead to regrettable decisions. Bold, decisive, and contrarian thinking typically highlight winning entries. Winning entries also generally tell a cohesive story about how the season might unfold. Handcuffs and hedging bets will only get you to a minimum cash-out at best. As such, many of the recommendations below aren’t for the faint-hearted drafter.

Quarterback Best Ball Target 2026

Tyler Shough, Saints | QB19

In many ways, Tyler Shough is the Platonic ideal of a best-ball quarterback. At QB19, the opportunity cost of foregoing RB, WR, or TE is low. He plays for a creative, offensive-minded head coach who likes to play fast, allowing for more snaps per game. First named the starter in Week 9 of 2025, Shough quickly got on a roll. From weeks 10-18, he was the QB9 in PPG and scored fewer than 20 points only once. Going into this season, Shough has shown himself to be a more efficient passer than many of the quarterbacks selected ahead of him in drafts.

Quarterback Fade

Justin Herbert, Chargers | QB8

This isn’t a terrible price for a very good quarterback who is getting an upgrade at offensive coordinator in Mike McDaniel. It’s also not a great price, either. Justin Herbert has finished as the QB9 or worse in his last four seasons. Unless you believe the offense is going to tilt more heavily towards the pass and vault Herbert into the top tier of fantasy QBs, there’s just no reason to spend up to get him. Herbert is at the beginning of a flat tier of quarterbacks that includes players like Jaxson Dart, Trevor Lawrence, Dak Prescott, and more. I’d rather take one of the cheapest among those options than one of the most expensive.

Running Back Best Ball 2026 Targets

Javonte Williams, Cowboys | RB20

After years of playing the “running backs don’t matter” game, Jerry Jones opened his wallet to pay Javonte Williams. It was a nice reward for last year’s fantasy RB12. Yet it was the best of times, and it was the worst of times, all in one season. Javonte was the RB8 in PPG from weeks 1-8, but only the RB23 from weeks 9-17. He needs plenty of touches to hang with the league leaders, but that’s a likely outcome as the unquestioned lead RB in Dallas. Some drafters are scared by that pedestrian finish to 2024. That’s likely just noise from scoring the majority of his touchdowns in the first few weeks. We should expect that output to be more normally distributed over time.

David Montgomery, Texans | RB24

For the 2024 fantasy season, Texans’ running back Joe Mixon was the RB6 in fantasy points per game (FPPG). Then a mysterious foot injury derailed his career. Caught by surprise, the Texans struggled through the 2025 season at the position. Now they’ve added former Detroit Lion David Montgomery. Monty tends to dominate goal-line and short-yardage work, and will translate into frequent red-zone opportunities for the Texans. He can also provide a solid scoring floor in full-PPR formats with weekly contributions in the passing game. That receiving usage adds steady weekly points, while the touchdown role creates tournament-winning upside. All of this makes him a bargain at his price.

Running Back Fades

Jonathan Taylor, Colts | RB4

Recency bias is a helluva drug. Jonathan Taylor rode a soft early-season schedule and a rare healthy season to an RB4 finish. What we forget is that over the past three years, JT missed more than 30% of his regular-season games. Also, after quarterback Daniel Jones went down last year, Taylor’s fantasy scoring cratered. To pay off this ADP, we have to assume that Taylor will stay healthy all year. We also need Jones fully healed and able to stress defenses when the season opens, a mere nine months after tearing his Achilles. You can talk me into making that first bet, but not the second. This is far too much downside risk for a first-round pick.

De’Von Achane, Dolphins | RB5

De’Von Achane is still an elite running back, but his environment has changed too much to give him a free pass to being a top-six RB in 2026. Head coach/offensive guru Mike McDaniel is gone, and Bobby Slowik will be running the offense. Word is, the design of the offense won’t change, but this is a downgrade, nonetheless. The Dolphins also just signed Malik Willis to be the quarterback, replacing Tua Tagovailoa (Atlanta). Across his six starts, Willis has averaged less than 15 pass attempts per game. Last year, the Dolphins averaged over 28 attempts per game.

For a back who has scored a staggering 50% of his fantasy points on receptions, this is extremely concerning. Recall, every target is worth about 2.7x as much as a rush attempt in point per reception (PPR) scoring. Thus, even if Achane’s total touches remain the same, every target lost will have a multiplier effect on lowering his PPR output. We can do better than this with our first-round pick.

(Ed. note: Achane’s ADP has remained largely unchanged since the exit of Jaylen Waddle to Denver)

Wide Receiver Best Ball 2026 Targets

Terry McLaurin, Commanders | WR24

In 2024, Terry McLaurin finally got the chance to play with a quality NFL quarterback, and he delivered a WR7 season. He posted useful best ball scores in an incredible 13 of 17 weeks. Then, in 2025, the wheels fell off as McLaurin first held out and then (somewhat predictably) suffered multiple soft-tissue injuries. Meanwhile, quarterback Jayden Daniels also struggled mightily with injuries last year. I’m willing to place a bet at the fifth/sixth round turn that McLaurin can return something close to his 2024 season. As a bonus, Daniels goes around this same turn, making an easy stack.

Matthew Golden, Packers | WR57

When Romeo Doubs signed with the Patriots, it opened a “Golden” opportunity in the Packers’ wide receiver room. Christian Watson is the safer bet to benefit, but that’s already mostly priced in to his WR31 cost. Enter last year’s first-round pick, Matthew Golden. The wideout from the University of Texas is likely to take over Doubs’ role opposite Watson on the outside, while Jayden Reed mans the slot. Golden will get a huge boost in snaps and routes. Assuming the targets follow, we have access to asymmetric upside at a bargain price.

Wide Receiver Fades

Jaylen Waddle, Dolphins Broncos | WR25

Jaylen Waddle has always relied on a high volume of targets to produce useful best ball scores. As we’ve already explored with De’Von Achane, the pass volume in Miami is likely to crater. Losing Tyreek Hill probably means a larger target share for Waddle, which does help a little. Nevertheless, counting on having a larger slice of a smaller pie has rarely been a winning strategy in best ball.

(Ed. note: This was written before the Waddle trade to Denver. While the wideout appears to lock in as the new No. 1 Broncos’ receiver on an offense far more reliant on the pass than the run, his target opportunity of over eight per game in Miami is unlikely to grow. He has eclipsed six touchdowns just once in his career, and while there should be more opportunities in Denver, it is accompanied by more competition for red zone work. Waddle is still firmly a gamble at WR25, a number which has only varied slightly since the trade, while pushing teammate Courtland Sutton down to WR41.)

Michael Wilson, Cardinals | WR36

Offensive coordinator Drew Petzing might be gone, but that’s about the only evidence I can see that favors taking Michael Wilson this early. Marvin Harrison hasn’t gone away, and isn’t likely to do so this year either. That means Wilson is once again the 3rd option in this passing offense. The only times he’s produced scores that matter in best ball are when injuries have pushed him up the target ladder. You can safely pass on Wilson and still take D.J. Moore, Jacobi Meyers, or Michael Pittman a little later in your draft and expect far better results.

Tight End Best Ball 2026 Target

Eli Stowers, Rookie | TE28

When I draft rookies, I prefer them served raw rather than steamed up the draft board. That goes double for rookie tight ends. I think there is a good chance that Eli Stowers ends up being the best tight end in this rookie class over the long haul. Of course, we only care about this year in best ball. We don’t know what team Stowers will land on, so there is plenty of risk here. But in the later rounds of a draft, we need to be asking what could go right, not what could go wrong.

A former quarterback who switched positions midway through his college career, Stowers projects as a potential star in the NFL. He posted back-to-back 600-plus yard seasons (638 and 769 yards) and recorded a 62-catch season. That’s rare volume for a college tight end, indicating he’s a consistent target-earner. His 12.5 yards per reception (Y/R) across his final seasons show he’s not just a short-area specialist. He comps favorably with players like Trey McBride, Sam LaPorta, and Dalton Kincaid. These are the kinds of darts we want to throw late in our drafts.

Tight End Fade

Jake Ferguson, Cowboys | TE10

Jake Ferguson is a classic “trap” player. Looking at his season-ending rank in FFPC tight end scoring, we see he finished as TE4 overall. So this is a huge discount, right? Not so fast, my friend. Ferguson’s role changed a lot over the course of the season. Many of his highest-scoring weeks came while CeeDee Lamb was out. Indeed, once Lamb returned and George Pickens was fully integrated into the offense, Ferguson’s weekly production tanked. From Weeks 8 to 17, Ferguson averaged only 9.47 PPG in FFPC scoring, which was only good for TE24 during that stretch. Not great, Bob. To take Ferguson at this ADP, we need to assume that the Cowboys’ offense is somehow forced away from either Lamb or Pickens. We can make better bets at the position than this with our best ball 2026 targets.

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