Fantasy Football Best Ball Rankings - February 2026
- Kev Wheeler
- 6 days ago
- 9 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Best ball is a version of fantasy football where all you need to do is draft a team and then watch the season play out. Your optimal lineup will be selected automatically each week, at the end of the week, the highest-scoring players are automatically inserted into the starting lineup spots. There is no roster management, no start/sit questions, no waiver wire, no trades. There are many types of best-ball leagues out there so it is very difficult to come up with a standard set of rankings.
Fantasy Football Best Ball
For years all of the biggest fantasy sites harped on not drafting early, urging people not to draft until August because of the unpredictability of what could happen during training camps. What they should have been telling you is not to visit their site or listen to them until August because they are just throwing darts at a board anytime before then.
The best players in the world start drafting in February and March, this year we started in January. By July we can draft blind-folded, we are the ones that have set ADP so they are merely drafting against we own previous biases. We have fine-tuned their rankings and/or projections to the point that they are as good as, if not better than the “Expert” consensus.
2025 Expert Draft
We are able to do this because we are constantly drafting in best-ball drafts. Not having to manage starting line-ups throughout the season is glorious! Best-ball allows us to participate in hundreds, or even thousands, of drafts.
Please follow on Bluesky for updates and discussion. You can let us know where you think we' are getting it wrong, it could help us improve our process.
Quarterback
Drake Maye was a 74% passer for 2474yds in the 1st half of games in 2025. This was the best rate for any QB for either half in both metrics. He also had the 7th most dropbacks of any QB in either half, the 2nd most TDs, the most scrambles, and 2nd most points per opportunity. There could be a higher ceiling with better opponents in the future.
Sam Darnold 2025 numbers (rank among QB) via @ftnfantasy.com StatsHub:
4,048 yds (5th)
8.4 yds per attempt (2nd)
99.1 passer rating (11th)
67.7% completion rate (7th)
11.9% explosive rate (5th)
Malik Willis
In an extremely small sample of 159 plays, Willis is the QB1 in EPA per play out of 75 qualifiers over the past 3 seasons. He's also 1st in completion percentage over expected and 11th in success rate. Willis has real physical tools to work with beyond being a small-sample legend, and the well-run Packers seemed to really like him. Teams can’t be sure he will be their long-term starter given his inexperience, but Willis is an intriguing bridge for teams in uncertain situations like the Cardinals, Vikings, or NY Jets.
