The summer is here, meaning it’s time for best ball drafts before we turn the page to our season-long leagues. It’s a great way to get acclimated with the current fantasy football landscape, earn some draft reps, and have fun. The beach, pool, or just a nice walk in the neighborhood is better when you’re drafting a best ball team. For those not aware, the crux of a best ball league is you draft and forget. No lineups, waivers, or trades. The platform you play on picks your best lineup for you each week. Sounds like a plan to me.
Every couple of weeks ahead of August, we’ll do a quick check-in with the current ADP (average draft position) on Underdog to see which players may be coming at a bargain, and which ones may be getting picked a little higher than I’d prefer. Let’s get the negativity out of the way and start with a few overvalued players. All ADPs are courtesy of 4for4.com as of 6/13/26.
Trey McBride, Tight End, Arizona Cardinals
Current Underdog ADP: 27.3
I know. I know. This is painful to write with McBride being a fantasy gold mine in 2025. A 2-3 turn price isn’t unreasonable, but it’s easy to poke a few holes in his outlook for 2026. Everything fell right into place for the Colorado State product last year. A team forced to throw all over the field with an inconsistent (and heavily injured) run game led to massive volume last year for McBride. It’s almost guaranteed he’s due for touchdown regression. His 11 touchdowns in 2025 will be hard to follow up, considering he had six total touchdowns between 2022 and 2024. The team also drafted Running Back Jeremiyah Love with the #3 overall pick. The Cardinals’ backfield didn’t have anyone close to the talent level that Love brings to the table, and that’s without mentioning the addition of Tyler Allgeier in free agency. Both backs, especially Love, will command more than their fair share of carries, taking away possible opportunities from McBride. Love is no slouch in the passing game either.
Not that the quarterback situation was great last year, but it’s not out of the question that McBride could be catching passes from third-round rookie Carson Beck at some point during the season. QB Jacoby Brissett isn’t happy with his current contract situation. What’s the motivation to pay him any significant money when you’re likely not competing in 2026? Gardner Minshew is there too, but if I’m taking an elite tight end, this isn’t the quarterback situation I’m looking for. Between McBride’s touchdowns probably coming back down to earth, increased opportunity competition with the addition of Love, and a less-than-stellar quarterback situation, that’s more than I want my elite Tight End to have to overcome. Bears Tight End Colston Loveland, who gets drafted more than 20 picks later with an ADP of 46.2, is an attractive alternative option. His offensive situation is much more predictive, and he ended his rookie season on absolute fire.
Travis Etienne, Running Back, New Orleans Saints
Current Underdog ADP: 30.2
The former Jaguar signed a lucrative 4-year $52 million contract with the Saints in free agency. It’s exciting when a team makes a significant investment in a Running Back, with the idea that he’ll get a bulk of the workload. He likely will see most of the carries, but the first concern with Etienne is the presence of Alvin Kamara. At almost 31 years old, Kamara is well beyond his prime, but the career Saint is still a capable pass catcher. His 33 receptions in just 11 games last season still almost beat out Etienne’s 36, who played in all 17 contests. Kamara showed up to voluntary OTAs last week, which surprised the Saints, considering he typically trains independently in Miami. It seems like a good show of faith by Kamara, sending a message to the Saints that he wants to be there.
Then there’s the “under-the-hood” concerns. 2025 was a productive season for Etienne, but he was just 37th in explosive run rate, 31st in missed tackle rate, and 34th in yards after contact per attempt, according to Derek Brown of FantasyPros. He also only had two games of over 100 rushing yards last season. The volume very well may be there for Etienne in this Saints offense, but at his current ADP of 29, I’d like a guy with a little more juice and upside than Etienne offers. The utilization in the passing game is another worry as long as Kamara is still involved. If the Saints decide to move on from Kamara, which would be a bit of a surprise at this point, then this is a different situation, but as long as he’s there, the ten-year veteran will undoubtedly chew into Etienne’s passing game volume.
Now, let’s get to the fun part and cover a couple of undervalued players to target in your drafts.
Ladd McConkey, Wide Receiver, Los Angeles Chargers
Current Underdog ADP: 36.4
The Chargers are a popular pick to have a spike in offensive production in 2026 for a couple of different reasons. New offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel brings a fresh offensive philosophy to the table, along with the hopeful improved health of bookend tackles Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater. McDaniel anchored explosive offenses in Miami, particularly in 2023, and that was with Tua Tagovialoa at the helm. It’s not a controversial take to say that Justin Herbert’s talent and upside blow Tua’s out of the water, and pairing him with McDaniel has the fantasy community excited.
So how does this change benefit Ladd McConkey in particular? For starters, McDaniel’s offense may give McConkey less target competition. According to Fantasy Points’ Ryan Heath, Jaylen Waddle found himself in two WR sets on 46% of the time in McDaniel’s offense last season, compared to McConkey’s 9.9%. When teams are in two WR sets, a receiver tends to compete for targets with a second tight end or a fullback instead of another receiver. This type of alignment was one of the catalysts to Jaxon Smith-Njigba‘s incredible 2025 season, and the Chargers using two WR sets more often could be a boon for Ladd’s production.
The Chargers signed FB Alec Ingold, who followed McDaniel over from Miami. The former Dolphins head coach has been at the top or close to it in 21 personnel (two running backs, or in his case a fullback, two WRs, one TE) throughout every season in Miami. McDaniel also utilized three+ WRs on dropbacks just 53% of the time, fourth-fewest, compared to 81% of the time for the Chargers in 2025, all according to Heath as well. The change in scheme looks to make McConkey a great bounce-back candidate this season and a value late in the third or early in the fourth round, a discount on where he was getting drafted last year. As more of the fantasy community may catch on to the Mike McDaniel hype, his ADP could spike.
McConkey was limited during mini-camp due to a hamstring strain, but expects to be fully ready for training camp in July.
Kenneth Gainwell, Running Back, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Current Underdog ADP: 106.8
Todd Bowles sent Bucs fans and the fantasy football community into a panic when he said Bucky Irving would return from injury in the “summer or fall.” Bowles seems like a nice guy, but his wording has been playing with all of our emotions. The good news is that Irving was out on the field in a limited capacity during the final OTA session of the offseason, according to multiple reports, meaning the promising Oregon product should be ready to go come September. Still, Irving had a disappointing second season marred by foot and shoulder injuries, leaving a fair amount of question marks on his potential for his third year.
Tampa Bay made it a priority to sign Kenneth Gainwell in free agency from the Steelers, giving him a two-year, $14 million contract with $9.83 million guaranteed. That’s nothing to sneeze at for a player who’s always found himself as a rotational back. The 27-year-old is an excellent weapon in the passing game out of the backfield and will take over Rachaad White’s role, who has the third-most receptions among Running Backs since 2022. Bucs RB coach Skip Peete recently noted that Gainwell is “exciting and intriguing” and can play on all three downs. He actually paced the Steelers in targets from Week 11 on in 2025, though DK Metcalf missed two games during that stretch, but proved he can play a critical role for a team’s passing attack.
Sean Tucker, the Bucs’ third RB, poses no threat as a receiver, as he’s coming off eight receptions on 11 targets in 2025. Gainwell can do that in one game (maybe not, but close). Bucky will, of course, get his fair share of work, but he’s never proven he can stay healthy or be a high-end fantasy asset for an extended period, as it was his play towards the end of his rookie season in 2024 that propelled him in drafts a year ago. The Bucs also showed they didn’t completely trust Irving with the ball near the goal line, as he had zero rushing attempts inside the five-yard line last season. Meanwhile, Gainwell had five red zone rushing touchdowns in 2025, with four of them occurring within the five-yard line, according to FantasyPros.com, showing he has a little more versatility to his game than some may think. Gainwell is the perfect third or fourth running back to draft and has a solid floor due to his pass-catching skills, but a tremendous ceiling if he can actually overtake the backfield. He also reportedly shone as a pass catcher during minicamp, but that’s no surprise. I’ll take a chance on a guy like this in the ninth round over the supposed “lead back” with an injury history and lack of scoring opportunities.
Featured image by Ethan Kaplan (@djfreddie10.bsky.social on Blue Sky and @EthanMKaplanImages on Instagram)