Welcome to the FTN Fantasy 2023 Best Ball Guide

Welcome to the 2023 FTN Best Ball Guide!

Best ball season has officially begun, with drafts occurring daily until the 2023 NFL season kicks off Thursday, Sept. 7. We are still four months away from the start of the season, and there’s so much yet to transpire – trades to be made, training camp, depth chart changes and some inevitable injuries. Starting your prep now doesn’t necessarily mean you have to start drafting, but these four months will fly by quickly and the more we dig in, the more confident and better prepared we’ll be.

I’m beyond thrilled to share with you the first wave of FTN best ball content. We’ve assembled a magnificent group of talented fantasy football writers and best ball players to create insight and strategy to whet your best ball appetite. 

I’d like to first introduce you to our contributors for the 2023 Best Ball Guide:

Sam Choudhury (@SC_FFB)

Sam Choudhury is a former data analyst, reviewer and recorder for Pro Football Focus. He was also a fantasy contributor for RotoViz. Choudhury is a DFS expert with multiple GPP takedowns. 

Tyler Loechner (@LoechnerNFL)

Tyler is a 20-year fantasy football vet specializing in best ball and redraft. He has earned multiple FSWA nominations and won the Best Football Series award in 2017. You can always find Tyler in the Underdog lobby @LoecherNFL. Tyler will do anything to convince you that ceiling is all that matters in fantasy football. As Ricky Bobby once said: “If you’re not first, you’re last.”

Jeff Ratcliffe (@JeffRatcliffe)

Jeff Ratcliffe is a fantasy and betting analyst who specializes in football and basketball, along with dabbling in NASCAR and horse racing. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @JeffRatcliffe.

Nelson Sousa (@The_Franchise12)

Nelson is our high-stakes lead analyst. He’s self-employed, married with two boys and has been playing high-stakes fantasy for over 15 years. He has well over $1 million in career earnings, including winning the FFPC Main Event, two NFFC Platinum titles ($20k entry fee) and second overall in the 2022 Primetime for $50,000. Nelson also had 22% ROI in 2022, so he’s not just giving you advice, he’s putting his money where his mouth is and backing it up,

Vlad Sedler (@RotoGut)

Vlad is the head of fantasy baseball content at FTN Fantasy as well as a contributor to seasonal football and DFS analysis for FTN Daily. He is one of the world’s top high-stakes players with over 50 league championships in NFBC/NFFC. Vlad is a DFS live finalist, Tout Wars expert league champ, CDM Hall of Famer and a two-time nominee for FSWA’s Football Writer of the Year award. A die-hard L.A. Kings and Dodgers fan, he has been playing fantasy sports competitively since 1995. Some, though not all, call him the FAAB Whisperer.

Alex Blickle (@AlexBlickle1)

As our Director of Analytics, Alex uses a mix of strong mathematical fundamentals and creative problem solving in his data analysis. He combines degrees in economics and statistics with a love and deep knowledge of football. He’s also a professional golfer, giving him unique insight into the psychology and preparation of professional athletes and what it takes to perform under pressure.

Chris Meaney (@chrismeaney)

Chris is an award-winning sportswriter, producer and show host and the Head of Media at FTN. Meaney not only tirelessly covers multiple sports (MLB, NHL, NFL and more) with a variety of articles and videos every single day, but he’s a true expert in all of them – a talent that is rare in our industry these days. 

I’d also like to shout out some of our valued in-house staff who were invaluable to this project. Our legendary editor and novelist Daniel Kelley and our master graphics artist George Zainoun. Also, our dedicated management team, Kevin Adams (CEO) and Stefano Vaccarino (CMO) for their continued leadership and support. 

This FTN Best Ball Guide is divided into seven sections: Rankings, Projections, Strategy, Stacks, Rookies, Strength of Schedule, and Underdog Fantasy Best Ball Mania IV. Each section will remain fluid until the start of the NFL season, with articles being added continuously. The topics include: 

• Tyler Loechner’s Rankings
• Adam Pfeifer’s “Better in Best Ball” Players
• Best Ball Strategies and Builds
• Stacking
• Floor vs. Ceiling
• Positional Allocation
• Rookies
• Strength of Schedule Analysis 

We will also have a separate analysis for the critical Weeks 15-17 of the best ball playoffs. 

Our goal is to help you learn to become an advanced best ball fantasy player and hopefully dominate your drafts. The competition in fantasy leagues is sharper than ever, making it imperative to stay one step ahead of the competition by finding strategic new pathways to success. 

Hopefully you enjoy this initial wave of Best Ball draft strategy and analysis. Here’s hoping your journey throughout the best ball season with FTN is fun and profitable.

Happy Drafting!

Mike Randle
CCO, FTN Network
@RandleRant

FTN Fantasy’s 2023 Best Ball Guide

Find more Underdog best ball content in FTN Fantasy’s 2023 Best Ball Guide, which includes:

• Tyler Loechner’s top 250 Underdog best ball rankings – here
• Full staff rankings – here
• Underdog ADP – here
• Jeff Ratcliffe’s 2023 NFL projections – here
• Underdog best ball draft strategies – here
• Underdog roster construction – here
• Players that are better in best ball – here
• How to find high-floor players – here
• Stacking 101: How to stack in best ball – here
• Advanced stacking theory – here
• Top new-teammate stacks for 2023 – here
• Jeff Ratcliffe’s 2023 rookie fantasy scouting guide – here
• Best landing spots for the 2023 rookie class – here
• Worst landing spots for the 2023 rookie class – here