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The FFPC Best Ball Tournament is live with a prize pool of over one million dollars and a grand prize of $200,000. As if you needed the motivation to draft more best-ball teams...
You're likely familiar with how a best-ball league works by now but the FFPC Best Ball Tourney is slightly different. A huge tournament like this is essentially broken down into parts like a redraft league. Weeks 1-14 are the regular season where you have to win your league to qualify for the postseason, and that's where the real money comes into play. Then, you have weekly single-elimination tournaments for weeks 15, 16, and 17. In order to win the grand prize, you'll need to survive and advance with a team built for the postseason. The problem is, no waivers, trades, or lineup decisions are allowed so you'll have to do it all up front.
I've already discussed my favorite single-team stacks for Week 17. Now, it's time to get deeper and look at double-stacks and bring backs that could bring a huge payday ($200k to be exact) in the championship by honing in on the right matchups.
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Exploiting Week 17 Matchups with Bring Backs
A "bring-back" means you're stacking both sides of the same matchup to benefit from a high-scoring game. If two good teams are facing off against each other then having multiple players on each team could pay off huge. You're not hurting yourself from Week 1-16 either since you have players on potent offenses.
There is no better example than last year's Chiefs-Bengals matchup that ended up 34-31. It's where Ja'Marr Chase and Joe Burrow basically won fantasy championships single-handedly. Packers-Vikings could have been that type of game except Kirk Cousins didn't play and the Minnesota offense disappointed while Green Bay put up 37 points. Those rivals square off in Week 17 this year, as you'll read more about below.
Here are the best matchups to target in the FFPC Best Ball Tournament to benefit from high-scoring games in Week 17.
Buffalo Bills @ Cincinnati Bengals
I want to to get this one out of the way first because it's the most obvious but also the one you probably can't or shouldn't use in this situation!
Logically, you should go after two of the best offenses in the league that could potentially be fighting for home-field advantage on a Monday Night Football showdown in the second-to-last week of the season. The problem: so is everyone else. Chalk isn't going to win a large-field tournament.
Besides the fact that it might be logistically impossible to counter-stack this game if you can even manage one in the first place, to secure Ja'Marr Chase it takes a top-five draft slot. In order to get both Josh Allen and Joe Burrow, you'd need to select both of your quarterbacks in the first six rounds. That isn't ideal.
Having one pair of Allen-Diggs or Burrow-Chase/Higgins could pay off if those connections are anything like last year during fantasy playoff time. The thing is you just won't be able to pull it off and will have to hope for the draft board to fall this way:
Rd. 1 - Ja'Marr Chase (with a top-five pick)
Rd. 2 - RB/WR
Rd. 3 - Josh Allen
Rd. 4 - RB/TE
Rd. 5 - Gabriel Davis
Rd. 6 - Joe Burrow
or
Rd. 1 - Stefon Diggs
Rd. 2 - Tee Higgins
Rd. 3 - Josh Allen
Rd. 4 - RB/WR
Rd. 5 - RB/TE
Rd. 6 - Joe Burrow
Stacking is a good strategy but that's way too many eggs in one basket. If you take one or both QBs out of the equation, a pairing of Chase-Boyd with Davis-Knox could work with minimal draft capital investment.
That said, I'd even argue that every Bengal outside of Tyler Boyd is being drafted at their ceiling and isn't a good best-ball value this season, so I won't have much stake in this game anyway.
Denver Broncos @ Kansas City Chiefs
There are multiple avenues of entry to high exposure for this game, so I'll run down my favorites that don't necessitate huge draft capital i.e. drafting Travis Kelce and pairing him with Mahomes. I've advised against drafting a TE early and the same goes for quarterback, so that simply wouldn't make sense.
Russell Wilson + Jerry Jeudy + Marquez Valdes-Scantling + Skyy Moore
Russ is going off the board right at pick 80 as the QB9. That's not a hefty price to pay for a reliable passer joining what should be a prolific offense. Jeudy is going one round later than Sutton these days, which is a reversal from early in the preseason when Jeudy was in front. The domestic abuse allegations – which have since been dismissed – and a hamstring injury during summer workouts have dampened some of the enthusiasm surrounding his new union with Wilson. Truth is, we don't know who Wilson will connect with better so let's opt for the better value pick.
Russell Wilson + Courtland Sutton + Albert Okwuegbunam + JuJu Smith-Schuster
If you want to invest heavily in Denver's passing attack, opt for Sutton over Jeudy and then take their pass-catching tight end. Some will point to the fact the team drafted Greg Dulcich as a sign they don't think Albert O can handle the job, but it will take some time for the rookie to make a dent as a receiver. Okwuegbunam graded out 14th among tight ends as a pass receiver, ahead of guys like Zach Ertz and Mike Gesicki. He is a capable receiver and nice value pick in FFPC with an ADP of 118 overall.
On the other side, since we're only taking one Chief pass-catcher we'll make it the one who is expected to be the leading target among wideouts. If you're a Mecole Hardman truther or feel that Smith-Schuster is overvalued, you could easily pivot that way.
Courtland Sutton + Tim Patrick + Marquez Valdes-Scantling + Justyn Ross
Here's the discount stack that might be most appealing of all. Sutton is a solid WR2 pick and Patrick is going way too low based on his production the last two years. Some even think he might outproduce Jeudy this season, although that remains to be seen. You don't absolutely have to use a quarterback in order to double-stack and in this case it might be best not to because of the draft cost involved, although I do like Russell Wilson anywhere after pick 80.
On the other side, if there are five viable receivers for the Chiefs that could go off any given week, why not take the cheapest of them? MVS is a best-ball darling because his boom weeks pay off his draft cost easily. If this is a high-scoring game, which we're banking on when doing these stacks, then it stands to reason the deep ball will be in play. The next best deep ball threat on KC might be UDFA Justyn Ross, who has looked good in rookie mini-camp and could be just as productive as second-rounder Skyy Moore. He averaged 21.7 yards per reception as a freshman at Clemson and stands at 6'4" so he poses a formidable red-zone and deep-ball threat.
Minnesota Vikings vs. Green Bay Packers
Aaron Rodgers + Allen Lazard + Kirk Cousins + Justin Jefferson
This one is straightforward as it calls for the QB1-WR1 connection for each team. The great thing is that you can pull it off this year since Davante Adams is gone so you can grab JJ in round one and then wait until the ninth to take Lazard.
Allen Lazard + Robert Tonyan + Irv Smith Jr. + K.J. Osborn
Here's a low-key stack that doesn't necessitate the involvement of a quarterback at all. I've already noted that I like Smith as a TE sleeper this year in best ball. Tonyan is nine months removed from his ACL surgery and may not be a full participant until the exhibition season kicks off. This is fine, however, based on where he's being drafted (131 overall, TE18).
If Lazard is undervalued, Osborn is flying way under the radar despite finishing as a top-40 fantasy receiver. If Adam Thielen and Irv Smith stay healthy, that could leave fewer targets for Osborn than last year. However, that might be offset by new coach Kevin O'Connell who comes over from the Rams. That offense utilizes 11 personnel almost exclusively so we can expect the WR3 to be more involved than before.
San Francisco 49ers @ Las Vegas Raiders
Derek Carr + Davante Adams + George Kittle + Brandon Aiyuk
This one is doable if you end up with a pick between 7-10 and pull the trigger on Adams in the first. Kittle is going mid-third these days so it's possible he comes back to you. If not, Waller could be there and you pivot to dual Raiders pass-catchers while targeting Lance as your QB instead of Carr.
Trey Lance + Deebo Samuel + Derek Carr + Hunter Renfrow
I love the Lance/Carr pairing at QB, if you couldn't tell. Select Samuel in round two, Renfrow in round seven, then wait until rounds 8-9 to grab both of your QBs (you only need two). It's the ideal blend of upside and floor, and neither quarterback is being drafted inside the top 90 on average in this BB Tourney. Lance has true league-winning upside and we already know what Deebo can do. This build allows you to take your anchor RB in the first round, grab three solid WRs in rounds 3-5, then another RB before employing this strategy.
Conclusion
The point of all this isn't to imply that you absolutely must stack both sides of a game in championship week or to go all-in on these matchups alone. Every year is unique and the NFL is always unpredictable. Simply because a QB-WR stack turned out to be the key to winning fantasy football in 2021 doesn't mean it will happen in 2022. All we can do is learn from experience and try to create as much exposure to high-upside plays with as little risk as possible.
Speaking of exposure, the best way to do best ball is to create multiple teams at various points in the offseason with different builds. How many? As many as you can afford. Luckily, FFPC offers leagues as low as $5 for those who are new to the format with both live and slow drafts. It's a great way to practice drafting and give yourself a chance to create various rosters.
My ideal FFPC Best Ball Tournament team would look something like this through the first 10 rounds:
QB: Trey Lance
QB: Derek Carr
RB: Najee Harris
RB: David Montgomery
WR: Deebo Samuel
WR: Michael Pittman
WR: Courtland Sutton
WR: Rashod Bateman
WR: Hunter Renfrow
TE: Irv Smith Jr.
This team has smart stacks that will pay off all season but also build in bonus upside for Week 17. There's plenty of balance throughout so I'm not dependent on it in any way. It also avoids the dreaded RB Dead Zone, leaving room to take shots on high-upside backups (Darrel Williams, Khalil Herbert) or rookies (James Cook, Zamir White) later.
Try out your own roster construction for a shot at the grand prize. You can enter the FFPC Best Ball Tournament right now by clicking here!
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