Best ball is all about team building and roster construction. Focusing your strategy on targeting players on specific NFL teams can be just as important, if not more important, than homing in on standalone players. That’s where optimal best ball stacking comes into play, and emphasizing the best NFL offenses on your roster is the ticket to winning a big best ball tournament.
For that reason, we’ve ranked all 32 NFL offenses, taking into account the team’s ADP, fantasy points projection and projected real-life win totals. ADP helps us distinguish between cheap and costly teams, the points projections give us an idea of who the top-tier offenses should be and the win totals help us identify winning versus losing squads.
These all play a critical role in each team’s ranking because we need to know how each squad “stacks” up against one other when we analyze the sum of its parts versus the individual pieces. Leverage our rankings as a final resource when debating between two closely ranked players as you construct your own super-mega best ball stacks.
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1. Kansas City Chiefs
TE Travis Kelce
WR Tyreek Hill
RB Clyde Edwards-Helaire
QB Patrick Mahomes
WR Mecole Hardman
WR Demarcus Robinson
The Chiefs' offense is nearly impossible to stack in fantasy because of its high ADPs. Travis Kelce and Tyreek Hill are both first-round picks with an ADP inside the top 10, so you would have to be extremely lucky to be able to grab both on the same best ball roster.
If you draft either Kelce or Hill, then strongly consider grabbing Patrick Mahomes if he falls to you in the third or fourth round. PFF’s fantasy projections rank Mahomes as QB1, Hill as WR2 and Kelce as TE1. Hill and Kelce tallied a ridiculous 46% target share in 2020, and this trio stack single-handedly carried teams through the best ball playoffs last season.
Pairing Clyde Edwards-Helaire with either Kelce or Hill would make for a very unique roster construction. The opportunity cost of CEH probably means no Mahomes, but you can make up for those quarterback points elsewhere. Each of CEH, Kelce and Hill can post a monster season if Kansas City continues to be its typical juggernaut self.
Any rosters with Mahomes should give a projection boost to the secondary receiving options — Hardman, Robinson and Pringle. All three players have weekly spike potential whenever they are on the field simply by way of the Mahomes factor. They are also fantastic handcuffs if Kelce or Hill were to miss any playing time.
2. Buffalo Bills
WR Stefon Diggs
QB Josh Allen
RB Zack Moss
WR Cole Beasley
WR Gabriel Davis
RB Devin Singletary
The Josh Allen plus Stefon Diggs pairing was the No. 1 fantasy football stack last season, with Allen ranking as the overall QB1 and Diggs the overall WR3. Go right back to the well with this stack by simply drafting Diggs in Round 2 and Allen in either Round 4 or 5.
Buffalo’s fearless leader offers the incredible combination of high passing volume (572 attempts in 2020, sixth-most) and rushing equity. Allen has posted at least eight rushing touchdowns in all three of his NFL seasons. He essentially functions as the Bills' goal-line running back.
Diggs led the NFL with a whopping 162 targets last season. He is Allen’s most coveted target and is a strong bet to surpass 150 targets once again in 2021. Buffalo’s high-powered aerial attack could even help Diggs crack double-digit touchdowns, which is an exciting thought for fantasy managers.
Continue building around this offense in the middle rounds with Cole Beasley and Gabriel Davis. Beasley led the NFL with 948 slot receiving yards last season and carries a high floor. Davis offered weekly spike potential with his downfield role, headlined by his 10 deep catches (third among rookie WRs) for five touchdowns (first). Plus, he didn't drop any of his deep targets last year. Emmanuel Sanders is worth a late-round flier, though I prefer spending up for the ascending Davis.
Zack Moss endured a roller-coaster rookie season, dealing with a litany of injuries while managing just 4.3 yards per carry. However, he is the favorite to be the lead back on one of the best offenses in the NFL, which makes him worth his eighth-round price tag. If his ADP continues to be pushed much higher, then I will pass on him for the cheaper Devin Singletary or Matt Breida and embrace the ambiguity of this backfield.
3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
WR Mike Evans
WR Chris Godwin
RB Leonard Fournette
RB Ronald Jones
QB Tom Brady
WR Antonio Brown
The Bucs boast one of the NFL’s premier offenses with the true GOAT at quarterback, and we know exactly where all the receiving production is headed. Mike Evans (WR14), Chris Godwin (WR15) and Antonio Brown (WR23) were all true fantasy WR2s on a per-game basis last season. Evans and Godwin are priced appropriately in that fourth-round range, but Antonio Brown is ludicrously cheap at an ADP of 106. Stack all three of these guys every which way with Tom Brady.
The running back situation is exactly what zero-RB drafters should be targeting. Go after the upside of Leonard Fournette and Ronald Jones II with the hope that one of them emerges either via injury or otherwise. If picking one, go Lombardi Lenny, who was a terror in the playoffs. He scored 23.2, 21.7, 18.4 and 23.5 PPR fantasy points in his playoff outings — true RB1 production.
O.J. Howard is my favorite late-round tight end to draft. He is literally free, and let’s not forget that in 2018 he posted the No. 2 PFF grade (88.9) among tight ends, trailing only George Kittle and ranking one spot above Travis Kelce.
4. Dallas Cowboys
RB Ezekiel Elliott
WR Amari Cooper
WR CeeDee Lamb
QB Dak Prescott
WR Michael Gallup
RB Tony Pollard
The Cowboys stack was shaping up to be a league-winning combination until Dak Prescott got hurt last season. Let’s go right back to the well and buy into the entire offense. The team is essentially in the exact same situation with a consolidated high-powered offense and a sieve of a defense that will force Dak to consistently air it out. Through Week 5, Prescott had 15 more pass attempts and 269 more yards than any other quarterback, averaging a whopping 27.1 fantasy points per game (first).
Make it a priority to stack Amari Cooper and CeeDee Lamb in the third and fourth rounds, then follow it up with Prescott in the fifth or sixth round. Snag Michael Gallup in the eighth or ninth round and embrace his volatile upside. Blake Jarwin is a premier late-round tight end target, and he is viable with any Cowboys combination.
Confidently draft Ezekiel Elliott as a first-round bell cow despite his 2020 struggles. He averaged 22.6 PPR fantasy points per game (third) with Dak healthy and should return to that form in 2021. However, stacking Elliott with Cooper and Lamb is probably too expensive.
Instead, consider the discount route by pairing Tony Pollard as a handcuff. Pollard exploded down the stretch last year, including a 31.2-fantasy-point outburst in Week 15 that sent many managers into the championship.
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