Tales From the Underworld 7: Post-Draft Underdog Best Ball Fun

by Ray Marzarella · Best Ball Plays & Strategy

The date was May 7th, 2021. I found myself in Key West, Florida. It was a beautiful morning, and as my wife and I enjoyed it on the patio of the hotel room we occupied, we planned out the day. For me, the plan for the early portion was to enjoy drinks by the water with her while engaging in one or two Underdog drafts. She went inside to get ready while I stayed out to apply sunscreen. With visions of D’Andre Swift dancing through defenders and leading me to the Best Ball Mania II championship in my head, I pulled the patio door open to re-enter the room. Unfortunately, I didn’t get my right foot out of the path of the outward-opening door in time.

(editors note: warning – graphic content ahead)

The corner of what felt like a damn near 50-pound door SWIFTLY dug into the top of my right pinky toe, and I collapsed inside in a heap. My wife, assuming I had walked face first into the frame and knocked myself down, burst out laughing. While I writhed in pain and spittle, I still took the pro wrestler mentality of “suck it up, you’re fine.” When I saw how much skin was hanging off my bleeding toe, I quickly realized I would need a band-aid. Maybe three. I immediately took this as a sign to maybe not focus on football for a little while. After all, this was my birthday morning.

With hash tag DRAFT KIT SZN upon us by the time the trip was over, it took me roughly a month to be able to find the necessary time to dive back into best ball to take notes for the latest edition of my fabled Underworld series: TALES FROM THE UNDERWORLD.

Tales From the Underworld – Part VII – Post-Draft Underdog Drafts

6/7/21 – Drafting with Friends of the Underworld (1.05)

Fresh(ish) off my recent appearance on the Dynasty Wonderland Podcast, I jumped into a draft room hosted by THE MAD CHATTER and THE SALARY CAP-TAIN. A number of Underworld friends took part in this exercise, ensuring this room would be full of savvy drafters. I drew the 1.05 and turned it into:

no YOU can’t stop drafting Shepard, Hamler, and Schwartz

After picking Ezekiel Elliott, I immediately began to ponder how I could turn this into a super stack if necessary. While reaching too egregiously to complete any stacks is not recommended, the best way to win Best Ball Mania II will be to differentiate ourselves from the field while still being smart about optimal roster construction. That said, ADP dictates that the only way to ensure a Cowboys super stack would be to start the draft with Elliott, Amari Cooper, CeeDee Lamb, and Dak Prescott. It’s not the world’s worst strategy given that, contrary to popular belief, there is no RB dead zone this season. It would still be a struggle to win this tournament without guaranteed bell cow production from at least two players.

Plus, why would anyone with a brain pass on D.K. Metcalf in the mid-third and five spots past his ADP for the sake of a stack?

Stacking is the proverbial secret word that seems to make everybody scream these days.

With more drafters than ever ready to reach for players well above their ADPs to ensure correlation, drafting players at value will be the real secret to success.

Our days of taking Kyle Pitts in the fourth round may soon be numbered. And I wonder exactly how my strategy of picking two top six tight ends will pay off, if at all. At least I didn’t  have to worry about picking three of them. Same goes for the QB position, though I did reach a bit to acquire Ryan Tannehill to ensure I wouldn’t have to take a third. I’m fine with it in this instance because my next two picks were Cole Beasley to pair with Zack Moss and Matt Ryan to pair with Pitts. After taking Jamaal Williams in Round 12, it was time to pound WR the rest of the way. I added Josh Reynolds to pair with Tannehill for a third mini-stack before ending my draft with some familiar faces.

fantasy-football-dynasty-league-rankings

6/8/21 – Drafting with the Early Risers crew (1.01)

From Ron Stewart‘s Zero RB strategy, to Josh Larky‘s Zero TE approach, to Michael O’Connor‘s Zero WRs with Faces strategy, to… whatever the hell the randomizer made Rooster and Corey do, this draft was particularly thought-provoking. You can even re-live what was inarguably the greatest snipe in Early Risers history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMTJTZ3nAi4&t=1903s

This draft featured Underworld friends and interns alike. In a situation where mostly everyone is likely to target the same general players (editors note: we all used Larky’s rankings and we know it), it forces you to adapt on the fly and end up with players you wouldn’t normally end up with. As for me, I only ended up with one of my usual hobby horse players in K.J. Hamler. But I did draw the 1.01 and, for once, proceeded to not completely screw it up.

Also, it’s possible that I now may or may not have a Kyle Pitts problem.

Not watching along to see what the Randomizer was giving Rooster made this draft REALLY entertaining to follow. I mean, Gurley? Tebow? GTFOH. At least they also drew the Draft James Robinson ball. Poop emoji

An RB-thirsty crowd ensured I couldn’t start RBx3 with Michael Thomas and D.K. Metcalf left for me at the 2/3 turn. That said, this draft was a lesson in taking the value and letting things play out. I have a generally unexciting RB core, but David Montgomery, Raheem Mostert, and Ronald Jones were picked 10, 18, and 19 spots past their respective ADPs. We know what we don’t know, and at some point, we just need to shut up and take the value. Again, drafting against a crew of like-minded individuals, who ensured these players wouldn’t be picked anywhere near their ADPs because they focus on the right sorts of details, made it so that these may (hopefully) be the only Underdog drafts I end up with them in.

This draft also brought about some good online discourse regarding the benefits of stacking in this format.

If I had a brain in my head, I would’ve taken Jalen Reagor at 11.01 to stack with Jalen Hurts instead of Marvin Jones to pair with Laviska Shenault for whatever reason. Knowing that I wasn’t taking Trevor Lawrence with my QBs set after a lethal Hurts/Russell Wilson grab at the 6/7 turn, and knowing that D.J. Chark and Tim Tebow were gone (logs off and jumps face first down the stairs), Reagor was the move here and the one I would re-do since I didn’t end up with any additional Eagles. Additionally, getting Robert Tonyan 17 spots past his ADP was nice, and gave me the confidence to roll with just he and Pitts instead of feeling the need to draft a third tight end.

Hey, this is the first time I’ve ever drafted Nico Collins, mock or otherwise, for whatever it’s worth. Hopefully it isn’t the last.

Finally, had I realized how far past their ADPs I obtained most of my RBs, I likely would’ve went Tyrell Williams over Ty Johnson at the end to secure one more high-upside WR flyer. Though taking Thomas and Metcalf early insulated me from feeling like I NEEDED to go that route. And I’m not THRILLED with the RB2-RB4 selections regardless of how far they fell past their ADPs. Johnson may be the steal of this draft when it’s all said and done. YOU don’t know.

Best Ball Mania II

People, I’ll be 1,000-percent honest. I was planning on writing up a Best Ball Mania II entry for this thing as well. But as it stands right now, it’s 12:14 AM EST on June 13th, I’ve yet to do this BBM2 draft, I have no other articles ready for publishing, this is the last section to be written, and I’m already close to 2,000 words. We threw a small birthday party earlier in the day for Dasher, our two-year old mini Sheltie, and I once again find myself full of beer, wine, and copious amounts of crawfish. I don’t have it in me to piss $25 away and stay up for the rest of the night figuring out what to say about it.

To make it up to the good people of the Underworld community, I vow to try my damnedest to figure out how to use my Logitech streaming software to do a live BBM2 draft and share my thoughts (editors note: INCREDIBLE CONCEPT! And one I’m sure NO ONE has EVER thought of before. I should be so proud of myself). Think of it as a test run for a live version of TALES FROM THE UNDERWORLD.

And now for something completely different

Not Really, Actually It’s Rookies and Sophomores Again

The last time I put together a team in the Rookies and Sophomores format, I came away pleased but felt I had a better draft in me. Though I went from 1.01 last time to 1.04 this time, I’m much happier with this draft.

I got a six, a five, a jack, a four, and a eight: I win

Drafting two early quarterbacks is the key to survival in this format. Relying on Zach Wilson and/or Mac Jones to bail you out is not, especially when considering this stacked QB field. The key to putting together teams with this much upside is D’Andre Swift continuously being available in the fifth round, which allows me to go after players like Jalen Hurts and Brandon Aiyuk. Though if I had missed out on Hurts and taken an RB in that spot, the move would’ve been to target Trey Lance to pair with Aiyuk.

I have no idea why Zack Moss, who makes for the perfect RvS RB4, is a last-round pick in these drafts. And while I likely could’ve waited for the 11/12 turn to take him, I still like that I was able to come away with Adam Trautman and Bryan Edwards. Aside from the Moss selection, I didn’t have to reach much to come away with the team that D’Andre Swift will lead to the proverbial promised land. It may not be the Best Ball Mania II championship as alluded to in the introduction, but dammit my right pinky toe had to die for SOMETHING, right?