Becoming a Best Ball Bro: What Just Happened?

JJ Zachariason (0:02)

Rich, we just celebrated the new year. You got any resolutions this year?

Rich Ryan (0:06)

You know what? I'm pretty focused on getting my adult things in order. Like today, I actually did some car insurance stuff that I've been putting off. I'm very proud of myself. And yeah, 2025, I'm really trying to focus on being a productive adult. What about you, JJ?

JJ Zachariason (0:23)

I have one resolution this year. It's to not invest in a Brian Callahan offense ever again. I'm JJ, and I've been playing in Best Ball Leagues for years. But there are people out there who play a lot more than I do, and there are people out there who have won a lot more than I have. And I want to learn from them. This season, I'll be documenting my journey of Max entering Underdog's Best Ball Mania contest. And I'll be doing so with guidance from some of the most successful best ball players on the planet. This is the year where things start to change.

Welcome in to another episode of Becoming a Best Ball Bro. I'm JJ Zachariason, and I am joined, as always, by my co-host Rich Ryan. Rich, what's going on, buddy?

Rich Ryan (1:16)

Doing good, man. The last time we talked, the Jets hadn't lost a game yet. I hadn't burnt all my money on best ball. I hadn't lost every season-long fantasy championship. I was in hope, sprung, eternal, but here we are. New year, new me, JJ. Good to see you, bud.

JJ Zachariason (1:33)

That's right, I like the attitude. It's sort of like my Jalen McMillan stance, never wrong, just early.

Rich Ryan (1:41)

That's right.

JJ Zachariason (1:42)

I was in on Jalen McMillan this season, and I was still telling people to add him despite his 0.7 yards per outrun rate, whenever the Chris Godwin injury happened. But things turned around from McMillan. The funny thing about McMillan, this is a total tangent. But the funny thing about McMillan is that one of his top comps in the ZAP model last year, and this is in the late-round prospect guide from last year, one of his top three comps was Amon Ra St. Brown. And he kind of went, I mean, not to the same degree that ARSB did, but the way he produced down the stretch was very Amon Ra St. Brown-esque. I'm really excited to see what he ends up doing moving forward. This is not a Jalen McMillan show, but...

Rich Ryan (2:23)

It is now. I mean, even from a real football perspective, when it was third and gotta have it, who did Baker go to?

JJ Zachariason (2:29)

That's right.

Rich Ryan (2:30)

He went to our guy, and by the way, I still don't think Liam Cohen knows that Jalen McMillan is a slot player. He still refuses to put him in the slot. But he's eating regardless.

JJ Zachariason (2:39)

Yeah, I mean, that's the thing is that he can play inside out. He's not even playing the position that I thought in most projected him to play. They threw Chris Godwin in there. I mean, Godwin was eating before that injury, and that feels like a lifetime ago at this point. But they throw in Jalen McMillan, and he was flying the perimeter for...

I mean, they had Sterling Shepard playing the slot a little bit. They moved Mike Evans inside even more frequently than Jalen McMillan. But I think those reps helped, and at the end of the day, now they're in the playoffs, and we might be able to get a little McMillan action in the playoffs, which by the way, everybody, promo code LATEROUND on Underdog right now. They're our playoff contests. You can get a nice deposit offer at the moment if you go and you play. But I've been doing some mitten drafts. I started this week. Now, I know that I've become a Best Ball Bro, but I did not get into the playoff contests until week 18 ended only because of time, from a timing perspective and stuff. Like I just, I needed to take a little bit of a break after the season long season ended. I have no time during the season long season, you know. And so, you know, the holidays happened. I just didn't really sit down and I didn't want to join these contests having no idea what's going on. But for people who aren't aware of what's going on with some of these playoff contests, it's really fun. Like, I've been doing the Mitten $5 entries, you can max up to $150. I've been doing some Mitten drafts today, and I will all week long, I'm going to get, I don't think I'm going to max, but I mean, the drafts go quickly. So it's really easy to just kind of go and just go and go and go with these drafts. But it's cool. I mean, it's a similar structure to what you've experienced if you made the playoffs in any of the contests for your season long best ball, where in round one, you got to advance out of your pod, then there's a new one in round two, and so on and so forth. So you want to be cognizant of a team that has a buy, like the Chiefs or the Lions, and not only stacking those teams, because you do need some production here in the first round, in the wild card round of the playoffs, so that you can then move on and then hopefully have your Lions and your Chiefs kind of enter the picture and help your lineups out. But it's really like, it's a crazy mind game, the playoff contests are.