Introduction

We're now a few days past the start of the 2026 NFL preseason with the Hall of Fame game between the Panthers and Cardinals. The rest of the NFL teams kick off their preseasons this coming week, and then we're into the regular season on 9/9/2026 with the Patriots and Seahawks (which I want to note is a Wednesday, not a Thursday as is typical). I'll also note that the second game of the season between the 49ers and Rams the next day is in Australia.

That gives you about four and a half weeks to create entries for DraftKings' best ball tournaments. This article will go over the strategies to give you the best chance at winning your contests. This article may translate to Underdog best ball tournaments to some degree, though there are subtle differences between the two websites. There are also DraftKings' "Sit-and-Go" contests. These are typically smaller and less popular and run the full 17 weeks of the fantasy season as a standalone competition against the other people in your individual contest draft group. These are not as typically written/spoken about as the tournaments (marked "Tournament" and which say up front that they run through week 14), which are what this article is referring to.

General Notes

If you're new to these large best ball tournaments, here are some basic items to know:

1. When you enter a contest, you're placed into a pod with 11 other players. You'll draft against these teams in a typical snake draft. You do not select your draft position, nor is it based on your entry # out of 12 when you first enter the contest. It is randomized when the draft starts. There are both fast drafts (30 seconds/pick) and slow contests (eight hours per pick; you'll definitely want to set your own rankings and queue for this for when you're invariably sleeping while some picks go through).
2. Your team will consist of 20 players total. There is no free agency; who you draft is who you're stuck with.
3. You do not set a lineup at all during the course of the season. Your highest scoring players of one QB, two RBs, three WRs, a TE, and a flex (out of your RBs, WRs, and TEs) will automatically be placed into your starting lineup.
4. Scoring is the same as other DraftKings NFL daily fantasy (DFS) contests. 4 point passing touchdowns, 6 points for rushing/receiving/special teams touchdowns, full 1 point-per-reception (PPR), and 3 bonus points each for 300 passing yards, 100 rushing yards, or 100 receiving yards.
5. If you finish in the top two of your pod of 12 after 14 weeks, you will advance to Round 1 of the playoffs for week 15. You'll be placed into a new pod with 11 other teams who also advanced. If you're the top team in your new pod, you'll advance to Round 2 for week 16. This repeats in week 16, after which the winners of each pod advance to a finale. The number of seats in the finale is determined by the size of the contest; the large (okay, massive) $20M Millionaire contest has 1,089 seats in the finale. The $1M Play-Action contest (that is nearly filled up at time of writing) has 458 seats in the finale. You will receive a payout only if you advance to Round 2 or later; anyone eliminated from their original pod receives nothing.

The Reality of Winning These Contests

Truthfully, it's not easy to actually win literally anything of note in these contests. They tend to be absolutely massive, which is an issue in and of itself. The $20M Millionaire contest caps at 940,896 entries. Legitimately, there can be almost 1 million entries. That's better than the Powerball and Mega Millions which both sit around 1/300,000,000 odds for a jackpot, so you have that going for you at least (though those payouts are obviously dramatically larger). Here are some other thoughts about your path to victory:

1. Realistically, you probably should have started drafting teams at the start of the summer (especially if you're going to be drafting multiple teams, which you should). You need to feast on the uncertainty that comes after the draft and well before training camp. Not just for finding players whose roles may expand beyond what was thought of in June, but also for injury news - Malik Nabers' average draft position (ADP) was hovering around the late 3rd/early 4th rounds a few weeks ago. With positive news regarding his injury recovering from training camp, his ADP has shot up and now you're drafting him in the late 2nd/early 3rd (and keep in mind, this was a player going around the 1/2 turn last year). Those are the kind of things that will make a dramatic difference in your team's potential performance. Now, you're probably saying - okay, but you're also posting this article a few days before the preseason starts - and yea, you're right. We'll both aspire to do better next year =). There are, of course, some downsides to drafting so early - players do get hurt in training camp (whether for a few weeks, months, or the whole season). And that can be players on your roster or players who impact your roster like offensive linemen. Maybe you drafted Ricky Pearsall a few times and you're kicking yourself as you're now down a wide receiver for the entire season; though, maybe you drafted other receivers on the 49ers who you got cheaply compared to their currently spiking ADPs.
2. Many teams are always going to be better than one in terms of winning anything. Spreading out your exposure across multiple players and teams is really the only way to see any of your entries past the 2nd/3rd rounds. If you're playing casually/for fun, then I would recommend that you just draft a small handful of the best and most balanced teams you can. Trying to take it a bit more seriously but also not trying to go crazy with this at the same time? Maybe throw in 20 $3 entries instead of two $25 entries. Trying to swing for the fences here and maybe win something of real value? Well, you better buckle in and max out as many entries as you can in as many contests as you can stomach. A contest maxes out at 150 entries? Draft 150 teams while your brain oozes out of your ear from staring at the same draft screen on your phone for too long (there's another benefit to starting early - not drafting five teams a day for the next 30 days).
3. You have to be very deliberate in how you build your roster. A solidly built team like you would want in a normal fantasy league won't cut it for anything besides maybe winning your original pod. You need high-upside picks. You need to stack offenses. You actually need to look at weeks 15 through 17 and plan ahead - teams in potential shootouts playing in domes or (typically) good weather. Once you're out of your original pod, your super awesome Puka Nacua matters a hell of a lot less when every team in your new pod may also have Puka Nacua. But those teams might then also have Matt Stafford, Davante Adams, and Colby Parkinson and a Rams offensive explosion sets them apart from you. The fewer teams you need to rely on having an amazing week (or weeks) at the end the better - and the fewer matchups you can consolidate that down into, double plus more better (I don't think that's a phrase, but whatever). Floor be damned. If your team's floor collapses, yea, you won't win anything. You probably won't win anything having a team around the median, either. It's all ceiling.

Team Building

If you're used to building typical fantasy teams, you're going to really have to change your mindset when it comes to drafting these teams. If you typically play in a 10-team 0.5 PPR fantasy league, remember that you're now stepping into a 12-team, full PPR league with no free agency. Draft ADPs are going to look very different. You're going to draft players who you've never heard of who may spend the entire fantasy season on your waiver wire. Are you the type of person who gets slightly uncomfy because you have two players from the same offense on your team? Congratulations, you now may have four. Hell, maybe you have four players from two offenses each. Have your therapist temporarily increase the dosage of your anti-anxiety meds. Be brave.

For a team-by-team breakdown of which offenses are actually worth stacking this year, along with their playoff schedules and ADPs, see 2026 DraftKings NFL Best Ball Tournament Offense Stacking Strategies.

The "average" roster construction to shoot for is in the realm of three QBs, six RBs, eight WRs, and three TEs. You can shift that slightly if your roster falls that way - if you have strong running backs and are relying more on upside receivers, maybe shift towards five RBs and nine WRs.

You'll note I didn't say anything about shifting around the number of QBs and TEs you draft. You can potentially derail an otherwise fantastic lineup with two QBs or TEs due to bye weeks and injuries. Even with three, you're not guaranteed to have someone healthy. I legitimately had a lineup a few years ago where I had one QB out for the season, one QB out for a few weeks, and my third QB happened to have his bye week in there. Zero QB points for a week.

There is of course, an issue with that line of thinking. There are 32 teams in the NFL. You're playing in a group with 12 teams. Not all of the NFL teams even have a stable starting QB. Ergo, a few teams in your pod are going to be left holding the bag (this isn't a particularly big issue with TE; there are some touchdown-upside picks the whole way down). You have a few options:

1. Invest higher picks into two QBs (make sure they're not playing on the same bye week!). If you draft Josh Allen, you're generally going to hope he lands in your lineup every week regardless.
2. Take a swing on an unstable situation towards the end of the draft. Those include:
   • The Falcons, with Tua and Penix. My money is on Tua starting the season, but the chances that he gets through the whole season are...slim...though Penix isn't exactly a beacon of health, either.
   • The Raiders, with Mendoza and Cousins. This should be fairly straightforward - Cousins will start the season and Mendoza will step into the starting role at some point (legitimately, the last 1st overall pick QB to not start at any point in the season was Carson Palmer in 2003).
   • The situation with the Cardinals is a bit more murky. Brissett will start the season, yes. Minshew is on the roster as a backup. The Cardinals definitely aren't competing this season, so I'm not sure what it would take for Minshew to get on the field (unless Brissett is somehow so bad that he makes it impossible for them to evaluate their roster). Carson Beck was a 3rd round pick this past draft - not exactly a high pick who is going to demand playing time but still, he's there and a potential option for them. If you're taking Brissett, don't expect him to last the whole season (he actually works with Mendoza quite well in that regard, since Mendoza may be starting at that point if Brissett hits the bench). If you're stacking Cardinals, maybe snag Beck in round 20 on top of Brissett.
   • The uh, Browns, I guess. Kind of a "break glass in case of emergency" situation. Sanders had some pretty ugly play last year, manifesting all of the bad habits noted in his scouting profile (particularly holding onto the ball for far too long and taking a lot of drive-killing sacks). The other main potential QB1, Voldemort, has played in a whopping 19 games since the end of the 2020 season and he has looked quite bad while doing so. And lest we forget Dillon Gabriel is still around (maybe he doesn't have much of a ceiling, but his floor was better than Shedeur's last season).
   • In a desperate situation, there are some backup QBs who may have SOME value in the event that the starter is injured. Guys like Joe Flacco or Jameis Winston. I wouldn't make a habit out of going this route, however.

That being said, don't overinvest in either. You can only fit one QB and a max of two TEs into your lineup every week, compared to three running backs or four wide receivers. Those are the backbone of your team.

The rest of your roster? Try to pick up two anchoring running backs in the first eight rounds or so. Later on, focus on running backs with receiving upside or who can definitely step into a starting role due to an injury. Ugly timeshares or two-down running backs may never make it into your lineup. Focus on ceilings with late-round wide receivers. A player like Ryan Flournoy who topped 20 points twice over the course of the season but was otherwise almost entirely useless is FAR better to have on your roster than a player like Tre Harris who legitimately never topped 10 points once. Both of those guys are going around the same ADP at this point - one may actually make it into your lineup a few times and snag you an extra few points over who they replaced, the other won't ever sniff your lineup and will be a dead roster spot the whole season.

The last point? Be deliberate with who you draft in the last few rounds. Don't just throw those picks away. Do some research on who is available at the end at each position. Maybe save a roster spot for one RB, one WR, and one TE until your last three rounds. Look for players who may genuinely contribute rather than a deep-stash backup who will barely see the field and may not produce anything of value even if they do. Players like Theo Johnson and Dawson Knox can legitimately go undrafted right now and they may very well be worth your third TE spot.

Related Reading

Ready to pick your stacks? 2026 DraftKings NFL Best Ball Tournament Offense Stacking Strategies parses through all 32 NFL passing offenses for this format, with ADPs, bye weeks, and the weeks 15 through 17 playoff schedules.