Best Ball: 2019 Free Agent Cheat Sheet

Photo: Imagn Images

With Free Agency just around the corner, I wanted to get a head start on where and when to draft available Free Agents this year in my Best Ball drafts. I put together my own personal rankings with notes for each of the free agents at each position. I wanted to focus on where and when to draft these players in best ball leading up to free agency. You are always looking for any angle that you can find and trying to predict where players will land and what value they will have can give you an edge in drafting in Best Ball.

Most of my focus from January to March has been on DRAFT, so my draftable rounds below are based on a 12-person, 18 players, start 1QB/2RB/3WR/1TE/1Flex, 0.5 PPR, with no rookies included yet. Drafting in March with a 12-person draft without rookies makes rounds 14-18 pretty dicey and that is why taking some shots on late round free agents can pay dividends.

Quarterback

The big name at quarterback is Nick Foles who looks like a lock to end up in Jacksonville at this point. Behind him, Tyrod Taylor and Teddy Bridgewater are the other worthwhile names but it is still unclear if they will be given a chance to start for a team this year. In Best Ball, you can get away with drafting either two or three quarterbacks but if I was to take a shot on Foles I would want a high-end QB1 or have him part of a three QB committee.

Running back

At the running back position, we probably have the biggest names that we need to sort out. LeVeon Bell is the standout here and right now his ADP is sitting at 11.5 so even when he lands on his new team his value will likely stay around the same spot. The next two big-name RBs are Mark Ingram and Tevin Coleman who seem to be at somewhat of a discount for me right now with Ingram's ADP at 54.2 and Coleman's at 64.3. I suspect that both of their ADP's will move up a couple of rounds once they land on their new teams and are always on my radar in Rounds 5-7. T.J. Yeldon, Latavius Murray, Jay Ajayi, C.J. Anderson, Spencer Ware, Mike Davis, and Adrian Peterson are the best of the rest. I like Yeldon a lot at his current 145.5 ADP value as I think he can start slipping into the first 9 rounds once he finds a new home. I like taking some late shots on Murray as well as my RB5 or RB6 in the hopes that he finds a situation where he can be viewed as a co-starter or see heavy goal line work. After that, I will let others draft the likes of Ajayi, Anderson, Ware, Davis, and Peterson as I can't trust them entering the season. In Best Ball, I want a safety net of sorts and none of those players offer that for me.

Wide Receivers

Wide Receivers are the next up on the list and the list lacks a lot of star power. There are some nice names here that you will want to consider in the later rounds of Best Ball but other than the likes of Golden Tate and Tyrell Williams you are looking at a lot of dart throw type of picks at the end of drafts. Golden Tate right now has a 9th round value at his 96.8 ADP but if he lands with a team like New England or Green Bay his value will shoot up 3 or so rounds. Williams is my next top WR and I like him as a value but his ADP keeps increasing. His ADP now has him in the 12th round and usually, I will wait another round before he hits my radar. I like the plays of John Brown, Jamison Crowder, and Adam Humphries later in drafts and out of the three names I feel like Crowder has the best value. The names such as Devin Funchess, Randall Cobb, Michael Crabtree, Chris Hogan, and Cole Beasley are all avoids for me currently as I will be content in letting others draft them ahead of me.

Tight End

At tight end, Jared Cook is the big name but his round 7 ADP of 85.0 has me somewhat leery. The other names are all question mark type of players in Tyler Eifert, Austin Seferian-Jenkins and C.J. Uzomah. In Best Ball, the tight end position is one of the hardest to predict after the big names at the top but going with older injury prone type of players is a hard sell when you only have 18 roster spots available.

Below is my Best Ball - "Free Agent Rankings" with some quick notes and thoughts attached. After free agency, I will revisit this list with players new teams and ADP changes.

Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter with any questions. Happy Drafting!