amphitheater of pain | RealTime Fantasy Sports

Best Ball Championship Data

Fri Aug 19 10:58am ET
By JEFF PAUR
Sr Fantasy Writer

Kupp won a lot of leagues in 2021

We like to revisit the past to help us in the future, so here is a look at some interesting Best Ball Championship data from our site. This is our big best ball contest, that gives out a $25,000 grand prize. For this year, the contest is about sold out (90 percent), so if you still want to get in it, sign up now (click here). So use the data below to help you build that winning team come draft day.

BBC 2021 Winners Draft Slot
Draft Position	% Won
7	14.1%
6	12.4%
8	11.9%
9	11.8%
10	10.1%
4	9.5%
5	9.5%
3	8.2%
2	7.1%
1	5.2%

TAKEAWAYS: Christian McCaffrey was the first overall pick in nearly all drafts last year, so his injury-plagued season was a disaster for many of those owners. And these numbers clearly show that with just 5.2 percent of owners that drafted first overall won their leagues. It was not a good season to be picking first overall. . . .Normally, drafting right in the middle is not an optimal spot for fantasy owners. It can be a tricky position to be picking come draft day. Well, the owners picking near the middle had a lot of success last year. The seventh spot saw 14.1 percent of owners win it all and the sixth position had 12.4 percent of the winners. If you look at the players that were drafted around that area last year, they were Aaron Jones, Davante Adams and Jonathan Taylor. . . . .The big takeaways from the draft slot data is you can win from anywhere. The first through third draft slots were not great last year, but still had plenty of winners. But after those three spots, the last seven saw at least 9.5 percent of the winners. It was pretty even after that. You can build a championship roster no matter where you pick.

BBC 2021 Winners Roster Build
Position	# Drafted
QB	3.0
RB	6.6
WR	7.5
TE	2.9
K	2.0
DEF	2.0

BBC 2021 Non-Winners Roster Build
Position	# Drafted
QB	3.1
RB	6.6
WR	7.6
TE	2.9
K	1.9
DEF	2.0

TAKEAWAYS: There is nothing earth shattering here with this data. The big thing is both winning and non-winning teams drafted nearly identical rosters. There was next to no difference between the two roster builds. The most interesting aspect was seeing how teams handled the kicker and defense positions. That is really the only big debate when it comes to roster build for best ball leagues. Should you take two kickers and defenses come draft? It seems most think this is the way to go, not missing out on points any given week. It seems pretty logical, making sure you don’t get a zero at any position any given week.

	BBC 2021 Players on Most Winning Rosters	% Owned
1.	Cooper Kupp	28.5%
2.	Jonathan Taylor	21.4%
3.	Deebo Samuel	18.6%
4.	Mark Andrews	18.2%
5.	JaMarr Chase	17.2%
6.	Austin Ekeler	17.1%
7.	Leonard Fournette	16.7%
8.	Mike Williams	15.2%
9.	Najee Harris	15.1%
10.	Joe Mixon	14.7%
11.	Justin Herbert	14.6%
	James Connor
13.	Tom Brady	14.4%
14.	Joe Burrow	14.2%
15.	Justin Jefferson	14.1%
16.	Keenan Allen	13.9%
17.	George Kittle	13.8%
18.	D’Andre Swift	13.6%
19.	Rob Gronkowski	13.5%
20.	Damien Harris	13.4%
	Jaylen Waddle

TAKEAWAYS: Cooper Kupp was clearly the most owned player on championship rosters. This is not a surprise at all as he had one of the greatest fantasy seasons ever and was around the WR19 on draft day last year. This is unbelievable value for a fantasy player. . . . .Jonathan Taylor was not far behind Kupp as he led the way at running back last year. He was the top scoring back and a guy selected near the end of the first round (ADP was nine). Just like Kupp, he had a huge year and was on a ton of fantasy winning teams. . . . So you didn’t have to have Kupp or Taylor on your roster last year, but if you had them, it made a big difference. Just 54 percent of championship teams did not own either Kupp or Taylor. So nearly half of the winners had a share of Kupp or Taylor. That is a pretty remarkable number and shows how big of difference makers both those players were last year. And there were 4.6 percent of teams that had both Kupp and Taylor. Those teams had to dominate last year. Kupp and Taylor won a lot of leagues for owners in 2021. . . . .There are just three quarterbacks on this list and the top scoring quarterback (Josh Allen) didn’t make the cut. This is an interesting note, showing you can win with a variety of quarterbacks on your roster. The most owned quarterback was Justin Herbert at 14.6 percent and he was about the eighth quarterback off the board come draft day. Tom Brady and Joe Burrow also were on the list and not one of the higher drafted quarterbacks. Brady was the QB9 and Burrow was the QB13. If anything, this data shows that the teams that waited on a quarterback last year had more success. This could be something to keep in mind when draft this year. . . . .Mark Andrews was the most owned tight end on this list, coming in at 18.2 percent. He was another decent value, being the TE5 on the ADP list. Andrews was first overall in fantasy tight end scoring. George Kittle and Rob Gronkowski were other tight ends to crack the top 20 most owned by championship teams. Kittle was a high draft pick but Gronk was the TE10, so he was on a lot of teams that waited to draft a tight end. Andrews and Kittle show that teams going early on tight end can pay off come draft day.

There is always a lot debate when to take certain positions, so we thought we would look a little more closely at that, mainly the quarterback, tight end and defensive slots. The average winning team picked a quarterback in Round 6, pick three. That means they didn’t go for one of the elite options like Patrick Mahomes, Allen or Kyler Murray. The winning teams waited a little longer, getting second tier guys likes Justin Herbert, Tom Brady and Matthew Stafford. And as you remember with the most owned data, none of the early drafted quarterbacks made that list, so this data makes even more sense. Waiting a little longer on a quarterback was the right strategy come draft day.

The tight end spot had a very similar draft spot for the winning teams. The average first pick of winning teams for tight ends was Round 6, pick four, just one spot after the winning quarterback slot. This is pretty amazing. It seems a similar strategy worked for a lot of championship teams. Spending early draft capital on Travis Kelce and Darren Waller didn’t pay off for a lot of teams last year. You also have to keep in mind that in this best ball format, a lot of owners take three quarterbacks and tight ends, which is another reason you see many owners wait on these positions. The thinking is at least one of the three will hit each week, helping maximize points for the position while not spending high draft picks on those players. This seems to be a good winning strategy for both positions.

Lastly, we wanted to look at defenses to see if going early on one makes sense. Well, this data shows it really doesn’t. The average first pick of a defense by winning teams was Round 17, pick seven. There is not a huge difference in scoring between the top rated and 10th rated defense, so many owners just wait on the position. Plus, most owners draft two defenses, giving their teams a decent chance of points each week as the best score is inserted into their lineup. It makes sense to wait on the position, take two and hope for the best each week.

In closing, it is always good to look at past data to come up with a good game plan for the next season. The aforementioned information should really help you formulate a winning strategy for this coming season. Things do change from year-to-year, but there are always good takeaways from every season. Last year was no different. Put it to use and go win your best ball league!

Jeff Paur is a two-time finalist for FSWA Fantasy Football Writer of the Year and won the FSWA award for Best Fantasy Football Article on the Web in 2011. He also was the most accurate expert in 2012, winning the FSTA Fantasy Football Accuracy Award. If you have any questions for Jeff, email him at jeff@rtsports.com. Follow Jeff on Twitter @jeffpaur.

Top Headlines

The Paur Report

2024 NFL Draft Recap

Player Notes

Bud Dupree May 11 9:20pm ET

Free-agent linebacker Bud Dupree has reportedly signed a two-year deal with the Los Angeles Chargers. Dupree met with the Pittsburgh Steelers and Atlanta Falcons in addition to the Chargers. The 31-year-old has played with both the Steelers and Falcons during his career so it appears Dupree was looking for a new home. The veteran linebacker still has something left in the tank. He recorded 6.5 sacks last season with Atlanta. Those 6.5 sacks were the most for Dupree since the 2020 season. His addition should be a solid boost for this defensive unit heading into next season.