With the Super Bowl in the books, fantasy football sites will now be launching their initial offseason best ball contests. This time of year affords best ball fantasy football draft strategy opportunities that aren't available in best ball contests that take place closer to the start of the NFL season.
These opportunities are available because early drafts are often less efficient due to the uncertainty inherent with pending free agency changes. Best ball fantasy managers who navigate this uncertainty well will have an edge over the competition.
RotoWire provides many tools to assist with this navigation. Prime among these is a fantasy football news wire that is second to none. Those who use it to follow any personnel changes closely are likely to get ahead of the curve in best ball leagues.
Now that we've talked about the basics of mastering post-Super Bowl best ball leagues, let's get into some specifics.
Types of Best Ball Fantasy Football Contests & Leagues that Draft This Week
There are two main types of best ball leagues – standard and tournament-style. Each of these styles can benefit from knowing fantasy football ADP, but there are differences to keep in mind.
Standard Best Ball Leagues
The typical goal in standard best ball leagues is to generate the highest season-long points total in your specific league. There isn't an overall component like there is in a best ball tournament. This game format means savvy fantasy managers will use fantasy football rankings to build a
With the Super Bowl in the books, fantasy football sites will now be launching their initial offseason best ball contests. This time of year affords best ball fantasy football draft strategy opportunities that aren't available in best ball contests that take place closer to the start of the NFL season.
These opportunities are available because early drafts are often less efficient due to the uncertainty inherent with pending free agency changes. Best ball fantasy managers who navigate this uncertainty well will have an edge over the competition.
RotoWire provides many tools to assist with this navigation. Prime among these is a fantasy football news wire that is second to none. Those who use it to follow any personnel changes closely are likely to get ahead of the curve in best ball leagues.
Now that we've talked about the basics of mastering post-Super Bowl best ball leagues, let's get into some specifics.
Types of Best Ball Fantasy Football Contests & Leagues that Draft This Week
There are two main types of best ball leagues – standard and tournament-style. Each of these styles can benefit from knowing fantasy football ADP, but there are differences to keep in mind.
Standard Best Ball Leagues
The typical goal in standard best ball leagues is to generate the highest season-long points total in your specific league. There isn't an overall component like there is in a best ball tournament. This game format means savvy fantasy managers will use fantasy football rankings to build a balanced roster that can deliver solid point totals every week. This is the type of league you'll want to get into if you are a "set-and-forget" grinder.
Tournament-Style Best Ball Contests
A tournament-style best ball contest is like the standard best ball league format except that the last few weeks of the season are converted into a playoff structure. This means you can't simply draft for weekly consistency. You have to build in higher upside plays in order to win those playoff matchups.
That makes correlation, stacking, and optimizing for Weeks 15-17 a lot more important. You can build this upside potential into your draft strategy by incorporating it into your RotoWire fantasy football cheat sheet.
Draft Room Habits That Win Early
There are draft strategies that you can use in any type of best ball league. Prime among these is tracking ADP swings via the RotoWire fantasy football draft kit.
You can also use the RotoWire fantasy football mock draft tool to help you practice multiple types of draft builds, such as hero RB, zero RB, hyper fragile RB or elite QB/TE.
Why Best Ball Drafts Start Immediately After the Super Bowl
Best ball drafts start immediately after the Super Bowl because fantasy managers want to keep the fun of drafting going throughout the offseason. That entertainment value can also provide fantasy managers with tons of invaluable drafting practice.
Early Best Ball Means Getting an Early Edge
Volatile is an apt word to describe early best ball drafts. This is because group think has yet to kick in, as it often does during preseason fantasy drafts. Think of this as an asset for those who take the time and effort to properly value players.
What Changes Most Between Super Bowl and Preseason
The offseason has many elements that can dramatically change player values. Free agency, coaching and scheme changes, the NFL Combine and NFL Draft, offseason injury updates and more. The common denominator is that each of these can benefit insightful best ball fantasy football managers.
Early drafts from the day after the Super Bowl up to the NFL Draft give best ball players a valuable opportunity to get an early jump on ADP and identify pockets of value. This time frame is particularly advantageous for those who closely follow rookie propsects, as their ADPs are the most volatile based on combine performance, draft capital and landing spot. Being ahead of the curve on rookies can pay big dividends.
The Dynasty Angle: Offseason Is Prime Trading Season
The offseason can be incredibly entertaining and useful for those in dynasty leagues. The key here is to approach things like an NFL general manager would. You must take advantage of every opportunity to upgrade your squad.
Here are some of the most useful upgrading tools, starting with trading.
Taking Inventory
This upgrading starts by taking inventory of the assets and liabilities of each team in your dynasty league. Once you have done that, you can then match those with the plusses and minuses of your team.
For example, if you have a squad that could make a title run in the 2026 season, you may be willing to trade away prospects for the short-term value of older players. If your team is rebuilding, you may want to trade away your older players for younger prospects.
Get Ahead of the Free Agency Curve
Free agency is a fantastic time to upgrade a dynasty squad if you know the best scheme fits for each player and have an idea where those players might end up. RotoWire has multiple ways to receive and make use of this information and put your team on the right side of trades both before and after the free agent signing period.
Thinking About April Now
It's never too early for dynasty managers to start thinking about the NFL Draft. Knowing which players are rising and falling will help you in this year's rookie drafts, but you will also want to know the volume of quality prospects at each position. Doing this can help you determine if you want to trade up for draft picks or if you should trade down and thus stockpile even more picks.
RotoWire Tools to Use for Early 2026 Draft Prep
Every hour that you spend prepping for the 2026 fantasy drafts is an hour that will pay dividends come August and September. RotoWire adds value to that prep time via an expansive set of tools. These cover every area imaginable, including lineups, rankings, projections, reports and more.
Player News Tracker Is Your Offseason Advantage
RotoWire is the industry leader in fantasy football news aggregation. There is no other site that offers this depth of coverage. This includes an up-to-the-minute NFL injury report. You can also review roster changes through the team and position depth charts and adjust value for role updates as they occur.
Use Player Pages for Context and Background
Raw information is a plus, but you also want to get the proper context and background on players when making roster decisions. RotoWire allows you to do this with its comprehensive player pages. These provide you with information on past production and usage trends, but they also give you a forward spin. This can be especially useful when figuring out which backup players you should be prioritizing.
Anchor Draft Decisions with Rankings and Projections
Think you have to wait to review 2026 fantasy football projections? Think again. RotoWire already has a complete list of 2026 projections for every player position. These will be updated throughout the offseason, so you can be assured of being fully prepped for any offseason draft.
Study Depth Charts + Team Outlook Pages
It's a very good idea to familiarize yourself with NFL depth charts when going over player changes that occur during free agency and the draft. This is especially true at running back. Getting familiar with the top backups will help you target potentially undervalued players at this crucial position.
Your 2026 Fantasy Football Season Starts Now
Wise fantasy managers know that the best prepared managers are the ones who typically win fantasy football championships. Doing best ball drafts right after the Super Bowl is a terrific way to get that prep time in today. Managers can also use this offseason roster building to help prepare for re-draft leagues during the 2026 NFL preseason.
Add it up and it's clear that fantasy football is now a year-round endeavor.
