Becoming a Best Ball Bro: Time to Get Caught Up?

**JJ** (0:01)
Hey everyone, I'm on vacation this week, but I still wanted to bring you something for becoming a Best Ball Bro. We've done this each year with the show, but Rich, as in my co-host Rich Ryan, he's put together a nice little compilation of some of the most interesting insights from our shows thus far this season. We've had some great guests, and I know that some of you are just now getting into things. You're just now focusing on fantasy football for this 2026 season. So this is a way to get caught up with Best Ball.
I'll be back next week with our typical show. I'll talk to you then. I'm JJ, and over the last couple of years, I've been doing everything I can to be a Best Ball Bro. Last season, things finally fell into place. I got 40th in the DraftKings Millie Contest taking home $20,000.
Maybe I became a Best Ball Bro, but I'm still looking to learn more about this game, and I still want others to come on this ride with me. So even if you consider me a Best Ball Bro, this could be your year. This could be the year that you officially become a Best Ball Bro.
This episode is sponsored by DraftKings. We've partnered up with DraftKings again this year for best ball, and we've got a can't-miss offer on their biggest best ball contest ever. $20 million in total prizes. It's draft one, get one. Draft your team once, no weekly lineup management, and your top scorers start automatically each week, all season long. Download the DraftKings Daily Fantasy app and sign up with promo code LATEROUND. Enter a lineup in the $20 million best ball contest for $25 and get a bonus ticket for a second entry. Two shots at the title. Draft one, get one, only on DraftKings. The crown is yours.
Pat Corrane, what's one of the biggest difference that you're seeing year over year? Or, I mean, you could be looking at this landscape and thinking that it's the same, but what are you seeing overall and if there is a change year over year?

**Pat Corrane** (2:07)
Well, one thing is, you know, this year, we have a different rookie class than last year, and there's some strengths and weaknesses, mostly weaknesses compared to last year's rookie class. And I think that changes things up in some pretty big ways for this year's landscape in best ball rookies have been a pretty big part, especially rookie receivers have been a pretty big edge in best ball leagues over the years. And so, you know, I think you're seeing a couple of things. One, the rookie running backs. There's a couple of first rounders that go reasonably high. And I think both guys are interesting picks. I like Jeremiah Love more at ADP, but then you get past those guys and it really dries up.
And we're talking, you know, a lot of day three type of guys that here in June are hard to know for sure if we're going to get anything from this year and not having interesting rookie upside swings in, you know, let's say outside the top six rounds, definitely shakes things up a bit. And then at wide receiver, I think some of the stink of the rookie class from a dynasty perspective has translated over to the best ball market.
And I actually think there's some values at rookie wide receiver this year, where they're a little bit cheaper than we've had over the past couple of years. So those guys to me are actually targets. A number of them are pretty clear targets at cheaper prices than we've had recently, where rookie wide receivers have kind of had some inflation compared to where they used to go like four or five years ago.

**JJ** (3:49)
With this rookie class, because I'll kind of skip ahead to another question that I wanted to ask you, but I think it's pretty pertinent and kind of ties into it. When I'm drafting right now, I'm looking at the late rounds, and I feel awful about almost every player that is available in the late rounds of these drafts.
My question to you is, do you think that this is a normal feeling that I feel every year and I've forgotten, and this is not any different than what we typically see? Or do you think that it is a weaker late round, round 18, round 19, round 20 type group than we've historically seen? And again, we have to give this context, so we're doing this in June, where I think probably in July and August, we'll have at least some better idea of some situations and stuff like that, and players and the roles they're going to play, and maybe we feel better about some more late round darts. Maybe you don't even feel this way at all, but do you think the rookie class is playing a huge role in that feeling that I'm feeling?