2022 Fantasy Football: Best-ball draft strategy for picks 5-8 on DraftKings

Drafting from the middle position is one of my favorites every season, and 2022 is no different. It is a great spot to grab sliding value, cut off positional runs and snag the stacks you want without reaching.

This week, I drafted 27 best-ball teams on DraftKings in an effort to put my draft strategies and tier articles into an actionable format.

Earlier this week, we covered Pick Nos. 1 through 4. In this article, I will walk you through my strategy for tackling Pick Nos. 5 to 8 by walking through a recent draft round by round. Some of the key concepts we will cover:

- Roster construction goals
- When to be aggressive vs. ADP
- When to wait for value vs. ADP
- Stacks and correlation

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DraftKings Best Ball Overview

Starters: 1QB, 2RB, 3WR, 1TE, 1FLX (RB, WR, TE)
Scoring: PPR with 3-point bonuses for 300 yards passing, 100 yards rushing and 100 yards receiving
Teams: 12
Roster spots: 20

The contests have a top-heavy payout structure that requires advancing through multiple rounds to ultimately play in a final week, similar to a DFS contest.

Round 1: Weeks 1-14, top-2 seeds out of 12 advance
Round 2: Week 15, the top seed out of 12 advances
Round 3: Week 16, the top seed out of 12 advances
Round 4: Week 17, 969-team pool for $3.5M Millionaire ($1M to first) and 135-team pool for $300K Play-action ($30K to first)

TEAM SUMMARY:

DraftKings $3.5M Millionaire: Pick 5
Position		Player	Team	Pick	ADP
Starting Lineup	QB	Kyler Murray	ARI	68	62
	RB	Leonard Fournette	TB	20	22
	RB	Javonte Williams	DEN	29	28
	WR	Ja'Marr Chase	CIN	5	5
	WR	Diontae Johnson	PIT	53	45
	WR	DeAndre Hopkins	ARI	77	82
	TE	Darren Waller	LV	44	41
	FLX	Cordarrelle Patterson	ATL	92	88
Bench	QB	Trey Lance	SF	101	96
	RB	Ronald Jones II	KC	140	134
	RB	Tyrion Davis-Price	SF	173	167
	RB	D'Onta Foreman	CAR	197	194
	RB	Hassan Haskins	TEN	221	218
	WR	Christian Watson	GB	116	112
	WR	Tim Patrick	DEN	125	132
	WR	Jahan Dotson	WAS	149	149
	WR	Robby Anderson	CAR	188	183
	WR	Wan'Dale Robinson	NYG	212	201
	WR	Zay Jones	JAX	236	225
	TE	Tyler Higbee	LAR	164	161

Build: 2QB, 7RB, 9WR, 2TE
Quarterback-receiving stacks: 1 (Murray-Hopkins)
Super-Stack 12 Players: 11 (ARI, TB, DEN, CIN, LV, SF, KC, GB, LAR)
Week 17 Stacks: 4 (ARI-ATL, TB-CAR, DEN-KC, LV-SF)

ROUND-BY-ROUND ANALYSIS

Round 1 (Pick 5): Ja’Marr Chase, Cincinnati Bengals

Targets: Christian McCaffrey (3), Justin Jefferson (4), Cooper Kupp (2), Chase (5), Austin Ekeler (7), Travis Kelce (9), Davante Adams (11)

No other receiver boasts a more potent combination of downfield prowess (28% deep target rate) and the ability to generate yards after the catch (8.1) than Chase. That is a Randy-Moss-esque profile.

Tee Higgins will challenge for targets, but Cincinnati has an ascending offense that is projected for a good season (10 wins) behind a top-seven ADP quarterback in Joe Burrow.

The Bengals have matchups against the Chiefs (Week 14), Buccaneers (Week 15) and the Bills (Week 17) late in the season when fantasy points matter the most.

Additional target notes:

Ekeler is a candidate to mix in with Chase from the No. 5 spot. The Chargers’ schedule is loaded with shootout potential, and there are endless ways to stack the elite receiving back against quality opponents.

Kelce will likely serve as the focal point of the Chiefs’ passing offense despite heading into his age-32 season. No other schedule packs as many 50-point game totals as Kansas City’s nine.

Stefon Diggs and CeeDee Lamb technically rank ahead of Adams, but I have them in the same tier and grabbing Adams first provides the best shot at getting two based on ADP. The Raiders also offer many game-stack options, and Derek Carr isn’t hard to stack thanks to a round-nine ADP.