By Mike Bland @TheFFOffice
With Drafters now available to UK based players, I’ve been diving into their $2 Drafters Mini NFL Best Ball Championship. My goal? Max enter all 150 teams. Once full, this tournament will feature 56,256 teams competing for a $100,000 prize pool, so understanding ADP (average draft position) dynamics is absolutely essential.
Yes, you need the right players to win these kinds of tournaments—but it’s not just about having the breakout star. For example, 4,688 other teams might have that same player on their roster. The real edge comes from drafting the best version of those lineups. That means balancing market awareness with your own player takes.
We don’t want to draft like robots. Sticking rigidly to ADP limits our upside. But by blending market trends with our own evaluations, especially where we can predict ADP movement, we give ourselves the best shot at creating unique and competitive rosters.
De’Von Achane (ADP: 17.8 | My Rank: 14th)
Achane is exactly the type of back I want to bet on early. He’s explosive, he catches passes, he’s tied to a strong offense, and there isn’t a ton of competition around him.
We saw his ceiling in Week 3 of his rookie season: 51.3 PPR points against the Broncos. He followed that up with 27 and 23.5 point performances before an injury slowed him down. In 2024, he proved that elite burst wasn’t a rookie-year fluke, even though his efficiency naturally regressed.
The Tua factor is important. Achane’s splits with and without Tua are significant, and while many assume Tua is an injury risk, he played all 17 games in 2023. We shouldn’t default to the worst-case scenario when projecting for 2025.
Achane is a young, ascending talent with the kind of high value workload (passing + efficiency) that wins in Best Ball. I’m comfortable taking him at the start of Round 2, and l’m thrilled when he slides to the mid-late 2nd.
George Kittle (ADP: 50.5 | My Rank: 43rd)
The 49ers’ offensive landscape is shifting.
- Brandon Aiyuk is recovering from a ligament knee injury
- Christian McCaffrey battled Achilles tendonitis
- Deebo Samuel has been traded
- Ricky Pearsall had a muted rookie campaign
- No significant additions have been made to replace the production lost
Kittle already finished as the TE1 in points per game last season, and with Deebo out of the picture, there’s room for even more volume. Historically, when Deebo has missed time, Kittle’s production has spiked significantly. That’s a trend I’m happy to bet on.
I am comfortable drafting Kittle as my TE1 in Round 4, but often find him at or beyond ADP in Round 5, which feels like strong value for a proven positional advantage.
Final Thoughts
To win in large-field Best Ball tournaments, we need to balance market awareness with strategic player stances. Targeting players like Achane and Kittle who have ADPs below where I value them and real paths to elite production gives us leverage over the field. Stay flexible, stay informed, and don’t be afraid to get ahead of the market.
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