The best ball drafting season is essentially four months—May, June, July, and August—which means we are already a quarter of the way through.

With 70-plus drafts under my belt, I finally feel like I have a firm grasp on the ADP landscape and a plan of attack for this next quarter of drafts in June.

In this piece, I want to make the case for building out both three late-round QB and three late-round TE builds.

Here's how I arrived there …

QB and TE Draft Strategy for Best Ball

An Elite TE crisis of faith

I'm a self-proclaimed Elite TE slappy. I made an entire video about it last year where I laid out an evidence-based argument for the benefits of Elite TE, specifically in large-field Underdog tournaments. I also advocated for a barbell approach with Elite TEs in the pre-NFL Draft contests. 

Of course, a structural strategy is ultimately only as good as the performances from the individual players. And in 2024, the Elite TEs bombed. Outside of George Kittle and Trey McBride, the other elite tight ends going in the first six rounds of drafts destroyed advance rates and playoff hopes (Sam LaPorta, Travis Kelce, Mark Andrews, Kyle Pitts, and Dalton Kincaid).

Drafters have responded accordingly in 2025. Brock Bowers and McBride are the only tight ends in the top 50 picks. And Kittle, who goes in the early 5th round, is the only other TE with an "Elite TE" price tag.

At the start of drafting season, I was aggressively selecting Bowers and McBride at any opportunity. But then I realized something … I almost always liked my teams better when I took a running back or wide receiver in Round 2 as opposed to an elite tight end.

I noticed the same thing is true for the Elite QBs. This resulted in an extremely weird dynamic where I realized I loved the individual click of those Elite QBs and TEs in the moment, but not the end result of the team.

The QB & TE Values In 2025 Drafts

To understand why Elite TE and Elite QB builds often feel gross in 2025, we have to understand where the value pockets of the draft are and then work backwards.

And this year, there are two extreme late-round value pockets for both the QB position and the TE position.

Round 10-13 QBs (purple players):

Within this cohort, we have proven pocket passers with elite weaponry like Brock Purdy, Dak Prescott, Jared Goff, and Tua Tagovailoa. We have bounceback candidates with improved weaponry like Justin Herbert, Trevor Lawrence, and C.J. Stroud. And we have Year 2 QBs who are set up for a performance leap like Drake Maye, J.J. McCarthy, and Michael Penix.

You can build out an extremely strong 3QB room with three QBs from this window or with two from this window and a cheaper option in Rounds 14 or 15 like Cam Ward, Matthew Stafford, Bryce Young, or Geno Smith.

When comparing these signal callers to the RBs and WRs available in the same range, it's nearly impossible to make the case that the QBs aren't the better value. The best way to illustrate this is via 2v2s. Which side do you like better?

Round 5 QB like Joe Burrow + Round 12 RB like Trey Benson or Round 5 RB like Joe Mixon + Round 12 QB like Trevor Lawrence?

Round 11-15 TEs (blue players):

This dynamic also holds true for the TE position, where we have a plethora of options who are cheaper than they were in 2024. Some of those ADP falls make sense (Pitts and Kincaid deserve the plummet), but some of them don't …

Guys like Dallas Goedert, Jake Ferguson, and David Njoku are all significantly cheaper than they were last year, despite their situations remaining unchanged or improving. 

Similar to QB, you can build out an extremely strong 3TE build from this range alone.

If you haven't experimented with a build like this, I recommend restricting yourself to not selecting any QBs and TEs until after Round 9. My guess is you'll be surprised at how much you like the squad, even if you had to pass on values at Elite QB or TE.

I actually did a more extreme version of this challenge recently (and the last-round pick aside), really liked how it turned out.

The benefits of 3QB & 3TE builds in large-field tournaments

In addition to the value pockets of the draft leading us to late-round QB and TE builds, there is also an added strategic benefit to having three QBs and three TEs in these tournaments.

This is due to the unique structure of Underdog tournaments, where teams advance through three different pods before arriving at a Week 17 final.

Using BBMVI as an example, these are the pods:

  • Weeks 1-14 pod: 2 of 12 advance
  • Week 15 pod: 1 of 13 advance
  • Week 16 pod: 1 of 16 advance
  • Week 17: 539-seat final

As teams advance through these rounds, ownership condenses around the highest-performing players. This makes sense, right?

Chuba Hubbard had an incredible season as a late-round RB and had a 31.5% advance rate in the regular season.

Davante Adams led all players in the semi-finals with an advance rate of 4.98% thanks to his 198-yard and 2 TD performance in Week 15.

And James Conner had the highest finals advance rate (.394%) thanks to his 117 yards and 1 TD.

These performances propelled teams to the next stage of the tournament, which resulted in said players being very highly owned in the next pod. 

Put simply—if your players smash, they are going to be overly-represented by the field. This isn't ideal because we want to have unique players on our teams to make our path to first place less crowded.

This is less of an issue at RB and WR because you will often have a handful of other options at those positions even if ownership condensed around a single one, but if you show up to the finals with a 2QB or 2TE build and one of them is 30% owned, you are essentially down to only one unique piece at the position.

Having three QBs or three TEs, however, allows you to "ping pong" spike weeks throughout the playoffs. 

As an example, let's say you had a QB room of Stroud, Lawrence, and Young. If Stroud goes off in Week 15, he'll be very highly owned in Week 16 pods.

But in that scenario, Lawrence and Young would be unique. Let's then say Lawrence goes off in Week 16 … then he'd be very highly owned in the finals. But thanks to your 3QB build, you've snuck in a low-owned Young to Week 17, who has the potential to be a unique differentiator in a crowded 539-person final.

Why this dynamic will shift in August

Even though I think 3QB and 3TE builds are optimal right now, I also envision this dynamic changing in August.

Right now, there are a ton of landmines at RB and WR in the late rounds of drafts. But as we push through training camp and start the preseason, we'll start to get clarity on backfields and potential breakout WRs. This information edge will allow us to take more RBs and WRs late as opposed to QBs and TEs, which will, in turn, free us up to do more elite QB and elite TE builds.

Ultimately, this is one of the biggest edges in Best Ball Mania—dictating your drafting strategies based on when you are drafting. The strategies we employ when the contest opens in May can often be very different than the edges we are pressing in August.

Last year, I made an entire video on how to attack BBM by month if you'd like to see more details on how to attack the contest in specific drafting windows.

Otherwise, I'll see you in the lobbies waiting patiently at QB and TE.