Underdog Fantasy is the cutting edge of best ball content, especially in the fantasy football space. Their flagship contest, “Best Ball Mania,” turns one lucky/skilled drafter every year into a millionaire. They also boast perhaps the earliest look at each season in all of best ball with their “Big Board” contest. This year, the winner of the contest takes home a cool $250k.
The Big Board offers drafters the unique opportunity to flex their prospect eval muscles, while also focusing on best ball theory and roster construction, in a beautiful blend of knowing football and knowing game theory.
So where are the opportunities for any of us sickos drafting these teams in February? The good news is, there’s lots of them. Let’s take a look at the current rankings on UD, as of February 9th (yes the Super Bowl is on in the background while I write this, I’m a multi-tasker). For anyone new to Underdog, scoring is 4 point passing TD, half PPR. You start 1 QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, 1 TE, and 1 FLEX, with 12 bench spots. Best Ball puts all emphasis into the draft, as the system auto-starts your highest scoring players in each position every week as you try and score as many cumulative points as you can.
Round 1
It’s hard to have a better or worse pick in the first round, but Malik Nabers is an absolute smash at the turn. If Brock Bowers didn’t exist, Nabers would have immediately broken Puka Nacua’s one year-old rookie reception record, despite having absolutely putrid Quarterback play.
Now, the Giants are in good position to improve at Quarterback, either through the draft or in free agency. They also might improve their core of weapons, which will only take away coverage looks from Nabers and allow him room to operate one-on-one more. The odds that Nabers regresses is pretty low, and even if he only puts up similar stats from last year, that’s still a player worth a first round pick. But the needle seems to be pointed up for Nabers, and it’s a very good bet to make at the back of the first (and occasionally even in the second).
Round 2
Ashton Jeanty. Enough said. But seriously, he’s going to get first round NFL draft capital. And when he does, there are legitimately maybe 4 running backs in the NFL that he wouldn’t win the lion’s share of the work from in the first year. And one of them (CMac) is older and coming off injury on a team begging for financial savings opportunities.
The instant Jeanty has an actual landing spot, he will be a first round pick in best ball. Take him now while he’s discounted. This kid is an absolute stud. He is a Bijan-level prospect, maybe a half-step below Saquon as a prospect.
(Honorable mention to Brock Bowers, who has prime Travis Kelce levels of smash potential if he gets even a competent QB.)
Round 3
Round 3 of the Big Board is chalk full of values, but to me, the obvious choice is the Jets’ duo of Garrett Wilson and Breece Hall. Wilson is still a bonafide stud, and he is now rid of the locker room cancer that was Aaron Rodgers (and the target hog Davante Adams). Yes, QB is a huge question mark again. But we’ve seen Wilson produce perfectly good stats with Zach Wilson under center. Whoever the Jets get as their starter, I can promise that it will be difficult to be worse than Garrett has had so far (knocks vigorously on any wood I can find).
And Breece Hall has been a good running back when he’s been healthy. Plain and simple. Last year was, again, marred by Rodgers and his distaste for checking the ball down or running the ball against light boxes. Hall is young, talented, and has been able to easily hold off Braelon Allen and Isaiah Adams so far.
Now if the Jets pull a Jets move and draft Ashton Jeanty at 7… then sure, we have a problem. But drafting like that is likely to happen is how to lose your draft from the start. What is most likely to happen is that Hall is again the workhorse, and he goes back to catching passes at a high clip as well. And to get a young back in the third round who can do that, is a gift that you should happily accept when you can.
Round 4
This man just caught 8 passes for 157 yards and 2 tuddies in the Super Bowl, and was the lone bright spot for an otherwise desolate void of despair that was the Kansas City Chiefs offense. But it’s time to be serious for a second. What is the difference in outlook between Ladd McConkey in the second and Xavier Worthy in the fourth? Even if Rashee Rice doesn’t get suspended, Worthy is just a better athlete, and he’s quickly ascending into a better wide receiver to boot.
It’s unlikely KC would get anyone who could steal targets from Worthy at this point. Whether the Chiefs decide to take the regular season seriously at all is still uncertain, but if you get warpath Patrick Mahomes and primary target Xavier Worthy… we’re talking about a league winner.
Round 5
Two words. Chris Olave. Yes, he has concussion concerns. He is a risky pick, no doubt about it. You don’t win an incredibly top-heavy contest like the Big Board by drafting with safety goggles on. As the great Bruce Arians used to say, “No risk it, no biscuit.” Olave is still a wildly talented wide receiver, and he still has room to improve statistically from his career so far.
Derek Carr is not an inspiring QB, but he does love to force feed his primary targets. Even with Rashid Shaheed breaking out last year, Olave still was the team’s target leader until he got hurt. You don’t usually get target leaders with his upside in the fifth round, and when you do, you need to take them. (Coincidentally, honorable mention to target leader with upside George Pickens.)
Round 6
Now I know what you’re thinking. “Gross, Calvin Ridley?” Just hear me out. Ridley finished last season with multiple spike weeks in fantasy, and showed when he got consistent, accurate targets that he could still score a lot of fantasy points. And here’s the thing. His QB situation in 2025 almost cannot possibly get worse than it was in 2024.
The Titans hold the number 1 pick in the NFL draft. They’re either taking a QB with it, or passing on a QB because they signed someone they see as a starter in free agency (the favorite bet right now is Sam Darnold). So considering that fact, we can pretty confidently say that Ridley’s QB situation is going to improve. We’re also pretty confident that the Titans will add at least one more weapon as well in the off-season. This will free Ridley from double team hell that he spent much of 2024 in once DeAndre Hopkins was traded. To me, Calvin Ridley is a smash pick at the end of the sixth or beginning of the seventh round.
Round 7
People seem to forget what Quinshon Judkins did as a college running back before he had to share a backfield with TreVeyon Henderson. The man was a monster with Ole Miss, and still is one with OSU. But with this season in the books, he’s now a monster in waiting. Judkins would win the starting RB job in at least 2/3 of current NFL backfields from the jump, if not more. Draft him with confidence here in the seventh round of the Big Board. He will be a starting running back almost immediately, and he will be a damn good one. In a round full of a lot of uncertainty and uninspiring picks, Judkins is a stud.
Round 8
Round 8 is the first round where none of the picks are especially overwhelming. There’s some solid players here with upside like Josh Downs and Ricky Pearsall. But out of a round of a lot of question marks, Rashid Shaheed is a question mark worth investing in, especially in best ball. And sure, he suffered a season-ending injury last year. That’s not up for debate. But he’s still relatively young, he broke out last year, and he can either return to the Saints, or possibly go to an even better situation (KC maybe?).
If he’s 90% as good as he was last year, but he plays the full season, you will get excellent production from Shaheed as an eighth round selection. Even if he is mediocre, he provides spike week upside that is not matched by anyone else in this range (unless Cooper Kupp goes full Jesus and resurrects himself next year, but that’s an entirely different level of risk to bet on).
Round 9
Listen, I get it. A lot of people despise Kyler Murray. And as a Cardinals fan, I’m getting to that point myself, in real life anyways. But in fantasy… he’s going into his second healthy off-season in this system. He gets another full summer to work with Trey McBride and Marvin Harrison Jr. And there’s always the chance that Drew Petzing suddenly remembers that Kyler is a good runner and to use his legs to the Cardinals’ advantage as a play caller (unlikely, that’s pure copium).
But regardless of that fact, Kyler still has weekly upside at QB that none of his peers have in this range, and if he regains his form from a few years ago before the knee injury, he is arguably the steal of drafts at the QB spot. He’s also aided by the fact this round is again very vanilla.
Round 10
It’s honestly unfair that Round 9 is so boring, because the tenth Round of the Big Board is full of great picks. I’d honestly even put out the idea to just reach on one of these tenth round guys in the ninth as well. But, if ADP matters more to you, let me give you a bonus. There are two smashes at receiver, and two smashes at quarterback in this round.
Drake Maye and Justin Herbert provide the right amount of rushing, arm talent, and youth to get excited about at the QB position, especially if you’ve held off on drafting a QB up until now. Both could very easily finish as Top 5 fantasy QB’s by the end of the 2025 season.
If you’d prefer a wide receiver, you have a safer option, and a risky as hell option. Marvin Mims Jr. doesn’t feel like a safe pick at first. But then you see the eye-opening stat that he was ninth in the entire NFL in Yards Per Route Run last season, a pretty sticky stat for predicting and displaying wide receiver excellence.
The Broncos offense really came into its own at the end of the year when they started utilizing Mims correctly and with consistency. Regardless of what weapons the Broncos bring in, Mims looks to be a part of this team’s future, and he has the speed and ability to get open that lends itself to Mims taking the next step in Year 3 with hopefully a much bigger workload on his plate.
However, if you’ve drafted a little safer up to this point, and you really need some juice as you reach the halfway point… Travis Hunter is your guy. This man may truly be the closest we get to seeing a Shohei Ohtani in the NFL. He’s that good at both cornerback and wide receiver. If you’re not convinced, his NFL draft capital will. He’s a locked and loaded top 5-10 pick in the draft. Now why is he in the tenth, you ask? Well, he might be a cornerback. And that’s very true, he might be. There’s a chance Hunter is only a gadget receiver on offense and only plays a small percentage of snaps.
But there’s also a realistic chance that he’s a unicorn, and he’s able to play above 50% of the snaps on both sides of the ball. And if Travis Hunter gets more than 50% of the offensive snaps… he’s a slam dunk in the tenth round. He’s the best wide receiver in the draft class (and in the convo for the best corner in the draft as well). He’s better than Tet, he’s better than Burden, he’s better than Egbuka. Travis is only cheaper than them because of (rightful) fear of his usage.
I’ll say it again though. You don’t win $250,000 in the Big Board by drafting risk averse. Picking your spots is important, but Travis Hunter is the caliber of player that you make bets on. It takes a special type of athletic freak to be able to play both corner and wide receiver at an elite level, even in college. His college head coach was an incredible multi-sport athlete, but even he could never play on both sides of the ball with consistency.
If I had to choose just one of these 4 guys in this round, I’d choose Hunter. Because if you’re wrong in fading him… you will be very, very wrong. But if you are correct, and Hunter is a corner with little offensive output, well now you just have another already 50/50 shot of a tenth round pick who could easily bust just as hard as Hunter did.
To Be Continued…
In Part 2, we’ll look at Big Board rounds 11-20, aka the money rounds of best ball contests.
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