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

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:

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.

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