Best Ball drafters have wisened up and are drafting fewer early running backs than ever this year. As of this writing, only 11 RBs on Underdog and 12 RBs on DraftKings have an ADP inside the first four rounds.
When the Zero RB strategy first became en vogue over a decade ago, those figures were typically twice as high, giving Zero RB contrarian and antifragile properties it now lacks. But that doesn’t mean it’s no longer a viable Best Ball strategy.
In Best Ball, I aim to maximize my chances of taking down a big contest by creating a diverse portfolio of roster builds with various combinations of players and stacks. Each strategy has its place and allows me to optimize for different types of builds. In the case of Zero RB, for instance, one obvious advantage is it allows for maximizing upside at wide receiver, which I’ll detail along with some other benefits and ways to get the most out of the strategy on Best Ball sites.
Best Ball Zero RB Strategy 2024
I want to allow for maximum flexibility based on how the draft unfolds, so I only have two general guidelines for employing a Zero RB strategy:
- Draft at least 4 WRs by Round 6. At a minimum, I want to fill each of my starting WR slots and FLEX with a top-36 WR. Typically, this means beginning with four straight WRs, but I also want to give myself the flexibility to fill one or both of my onesie (TE and QB) slots before drafting my first RB.
- Draft 3-4 RBs in Rounds 5-10. Typically, I opt for four more often than three to make up for fading the position early, but as RB ADPs continue to fall, it has allowed for more flexibility.
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The opportunity cost of going Zero RB is lower than ever
It’s hard to sweat fading RBs in the first four rounds when borderline RB1 value can be had in Rounds 5-6 in the form of Josh Jacobs, James Cook, Joe Mixon, Rachaad White, and Alvin Kamara. Draft your RB1 in Round 5, and there’s even a chance you come away with two borderline RB1 types despite fading the position early.
The RB position as a whole is undervalued from Rounds 5-10, so I don’t have an issue with letting availability dictate how I end up spreading out my exposure among them, though my preferred targets are Cook, Mixon, Kamara, Zamir White, and Zack Moss. The only player I actively aim to avoid is Javonte Williams.
Zero RB is the best way to avoid a potential WR bubble in Rounds 6-7
For those not in the know, a bubble occurs when the price of an asset rises significantly above its intrinsic value due to excessive speculation and investor enthusiasm. That perfectly describes many of the players in the WR4 tier, such as Xavier Worthy, Ladd McConkey, and Keon Coleman, who have seen their ADP rise 3-5 rounds since the NFL Draft. But more importantly, it describes WR4 ADP as a whole, especially on Underdog, where Worthy (WR37) goes off the board at the end of Round 5, kicking off a stretch of 10 WRs in a 15-pick span. That’s way too chalky for a collection of mostly overvalued WRs at a spot in the draft where the alternatives include RBs in the 14-17 range, QBs in the 5-7 range, and TEs in the 6-8 range.
I want to have specific builds that fade WRs in this range, and the only way to be in a position to do so without falling behind in the WR arms race is to go Zero RB and draft 4-5 WRs in the first five rounds.
Zero RB maximizes games played upside at premium draft slots
Large-sample historical data suggests missed-game risk due to injury at the RB position is 2-3x greater than at the other fantasy positions. Among players currently going off the board in Rounds 1-4 on DK, Underdog, or both, the average RB has missed 3.4 games per season, while the average WR/QB/TE has missed 1.4 games per season.
Zero RB is the optimal build for early-round QB-TE stacks
Spending two premium picks on onesie positions to stack Josh Allen–Dalton Kincaid, Patrick Mahomes–Travis Kelce, or Lamar Jackson–Mark Andrews is a lot more likely to be worthwhile if you surround them with a strong WR corps and take advantage of the value on the board at RB later on. Pairing Mahomes-Kelce with Worthy or Allen-Kincaid with Coleman is the best way to justify taking them at their bloated ADPs.
Zero RB Minimizes the Risk of human error in fast drafts
Zero RB minimizes the number of times you have to compare the value of players at different positions in real-time, which is more cognitively demanding than comparing players at the same position, especially when bye weeks are a factor. And even if you’re using rankings, they are more likely to be accurate within a position than between positions. It’s a slight edge, but an edge nonetheless.
More Best Ball Fantasy Football Resources
- Koerner’s Early Zero RB Targets
- Raybon’s Underdog Fantasy Best Ball Running Back Values
- Raybon’s Late-round Wide Receivers for Best Ball
