The mad scramble has begun! The 2024 NFL Draft is now in the books which means we have about a week, maybe two, to take advantage of ADP that is all over the place in early best ball drafts. It’s the Wild West out there and the fastest gunslingers get all the deals on QBs. 

If you want the secret to winning, we have already updated the full rankings in the 2024 Fantasy Alarm Best Ball Cheat Sheet with a tiered draft grid you can directly draft off of. While everyone else is panicking and fumbling to get their gun out of the holster, you’ll be calm and collected, stealing all the best values and winning your share of the $15 MILLION-dollar Best Ball Mania prize pool on Underdog Fantasy.

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How do I know this? Well, I’ve done a bunch of drafts myself already. And I’ve fine-tuned the rankings with each one. So, I can assure you that ADP is an absolute mess with value all over the place (and traps based on pre-draft ADP that your competitors are falling for, but that’s for the next article). 

It’s so wild out there that I can actually share a couple of quarterbacks here in this article for free. This is just the tip of the iceberg on the kind of analysis you get with all the articles and rankings in the Fantasy Alarm Best Ball Guide so don’t forget to pick up your copy today here if you like winning money!

 

 

 

Jayden Daniels, QB, Washington Commanders

There are a lot of “mobile QBs”. But Jayden Daniels is a rushing QB. He has a college season on his resume with 186 rushes in 14 games which is over 13 carries a game. He scored 34 rushing TDs in college. There is no doubt that he’s going to run the football at this level – and that often translates to fantasy football regardless of how well you are throwing it. 

I mean, look at Josh Allen, who had a 52% completion percentage as a rookie. In his second season that “improved” to 58% which was still 32nd among quarterbacks. That didn’t stop him from having a top 10 fantasy QB season over that span.

In fact, we looked at every quarterback drafted since 2000 and pulled out the guys that had an 80+ carry season within their first two seasons. That’s 4-5 carries a game. Of the 15 guys, 14 of them recorded a season where they finished top 10 in fantasy. The lone exception was Tim Tebow. All the others, including guys like Justin Fields and Vince Young, had top 10 seasons over their first two years. 

It’s THAT hard to be a complete bust for fantasy as a rushing QB. And I don’t think Daniels is the next Tim Tebow. Right now, Jayden Daniels goes off the board as QB16 but don’t be shocked when that trickles up close to the QB10 range or higher this summer.

 

 

 

Derek Carr, QB, New Orleans Saints

In the first two Best Ball Mania V drafts I did this year, Derek Carr went undrafted in both. I’m not kidding. In one of them, Justin Fields went at QB26 when he’s probably a backup quarterback. 

Daniel Jones went ahead in one when he was on pace to throw six touchdown passes last year before suffering a serious injury. And I had foolishly already loaded up at quarterback, so I basically just had to sit and watch the Carr value get wasted in those drafts. I’m not letting that happen again.

There is no quarterback controversy in New Orleans. They weren’t one of the record six teams to draft one in the first round. Or second round. Or third or fourth round. Derek Carr is the starter. In his first season with the Saints, he had a quarterback rating of 97.7 and threw 25 touchdowns with only 8 interceptions. 

He still has Chris Olave, Rashid Shaheed, Alvin Kamara, Juwan Johnson etc. to throw to with another year under his belt. This is a format where every single team needs to draft two or three quarterbacks. I absolutely have no problem drafting Derek Carr as my QB2, especially if I spend up on my first QB. 

This guy offers a pretty solid weekly floor and just think of how much value you can generate at other positions by waiting and taking Carr with one of your last couple of picks. And that’s especially true if you just wait on QB entirely and take three. Based on early ADP, you can let every team in your league draft a QB then take all three from this article.

 

 

 

Russell Wilson, QB, Pittsburgh Steelers

Russell Wilson didn’t have a good year last year. But, in fantasy football, it really wasn’t as bad as you would think. Russ finished as the QB14 overall and the QB15 in points per game. And that was despite getting benched for the last two games to make sure he didn’t get hurt, locking in his contract. If we went off public sentiment, you would think that he finished as QB32 last year. 

Which is funny, because he’s currently being drafted as the QB32 on Underdog. This comes in spite of him being signed by a better organization with a coach that has NEVER finished below .500. With weapons like George Pickens, Pat Freiermuth, Roman Wilson, Najee Harris, and Jaylen Warren. Folks are actually drafting Justin Fields AHEAD of Russell Wilson, despite recent comments from Jaylen Warren that Justin Fields could be returning kicks this season. 

It makes no sense. You’ll want to check the Best Ball Cheat Sheet on Russ, because I’ve found the perfect spot to rank him where you can fairly comfortably grab him without overpaying. The draft guide practically pays for itself!