2021 Fantasy Draft Results For An All-Expert, 12-Team Best Ball League: Round-By-Round Picks

The fantasy football community is at its best when it rallies around charitable causes. So, following the lead of Fantasy Cares creator Scott Fish and others, we rallied 12 analysts representing various sites across the industry for our first annual Action Charity Best Ball League.

Action will donate $1,000 to the charity of the winner's choice at season's end, so before we dive into their draft results, let's first meet our participants and which charities they've nominated (listed in alphabetical order by first name, which you can click to skip ahead to their individual draft results):

Alright, now for the results!

You'll find all 264 picks for their 12-team, half-PPR best ball draft below. You can search and sort the first table, which features round-by-round results, or skip ahead to each analysts' roster and to read (most of) their self grades.

Since this is a best ball league — meaning there are no waivers, no trades, no lineup setting each week — this draft was all about upside. We also started this slow draft over email on Aug. 17, so injuries and other developments impacted how well some of these picks have aged (see: J.K. Dobbins for example).

Best Ball Draft Results

Note: We drafted 22-man rosters, though only eight starters — the highest-scoring players in these positions: 1QB/2RB/3WR/1TE/1FLEX — will count toward an analyst's point total for a given week.

1. Scott Fish, #SFB11

Having an early pick this year has advantages, especially with the top pick. In drafting McCaffrey first, I was able to grab two great receivers after in A.J. Brown and Justin Jefferson on the next corner and worry less about my running backs for a few rounds.

I decided to turn the draft on it's head on the 4.12/5.01 corner, taking the final two of the clear cut top-six tight ends (Andrews and Hockenson) and forced everyone else to figure it out while I had that position set for the rest of the draft.

This strategy left me strong with high upside at three positions, but unfortunately my wide receivers paid the price for that bold move. I have Brown and Jefferson and a whole lot of question marks and rookies behind them. If none of those pan out, or one of my top guys go down, I'm toast.

That glaring weakness alone makes this a C draft.

2. Ian Hartitz, PFF

No self grade.

3. Evan Silva, Establish the Run

No self grade.

4. Mike Clay, ESPN

Some won't like my first-round pick of Barkley, but I feel he's worth the risk because of his massive upside. I went heavy on running back early — Barkley, Harris, Sanders — which then allowed me to focus on adding a ton of young, quality WR depth led by Lamb, Aiyuk and Shenault. I also really like my QB (Herbert/Burrow) and TE (Thomas/Goedert) situations.

My biggest weakness is RB depth, but that shouldn't be a major issue if my top guys stay healthy. All in all, I think this squad can contend for a title.

5. Sean Koerner, Action

I'd give my draft a B. I was pleased to land Kamara fifth overall, Carson in Round 4, Elijah Moore in Round 11, and Fitzpatrick in Round 17. In hindsight, Chase might have been a reach in Round 5 and T.Y. Hilton suffered a significant injury after I selected him. But overall, I thought I ended up with a pretty solid team considering it was an expert draft.

6. Jeff Ratcliffe, FTN

I'd give my draft a solid B. It's always tough to nail a draft with so many sharp minds, but I was happy to get out aggressively at wide receiver while also landing upside at tight end in Pitts.

I also got a bit lucky scooping Gus Edwards on the cheap before J.K. Dobbins' unfortunate injury.

7. Pat Fitzmaurice, The Football Girl

It's pretty much impossible to have an "A" draft against a field as good as this one, so I'll give myself a B-.

My WR group is strong (as it should be when you start off by bucking the RB paradigm and drafting Davante Adams at 1.07). I was pleased to get Lamar Jackson as my quarterback in the sixth round. But I'm one RB injury away from disaster, and I visited a thrift shop to pick up my tight ends.

It's not going to be easy to win a league this tough, but I think I have at least a puncher's chance.

8. Jennifer Eakins, 4for4

I'm actually pretty excited about this squad, considering who I am up against. I secured the top tight end in the league with my first pick, then followed it up with three straight wide receivers who have the potential to be among the 15 best for fantasy purposes.

I do need a few things to break my way in the running back department since I am banking on two rookies to take over their respective backfields, but feel like this squad is decently balanced and has the potential to emerge victoriously.

9. Cynthia Frelund, NFL Network

I'd grade my draft at maybe a 5.9/10 (have to stay on brand using a decimal), in large part because the field is so strong and also because my WRs are deep, but not strong at the top (okay it's a mess).

I also have a lot of exposure to the Bills, which is funny because I spent the preseason as their sideline reporter doing real-time analytics, which might seem like bias, but it's where their value netted out … so hopefully this works out.

10. Chris Raybon, Action

Pros: I was able to get a top-five RB1 in Ezekiel Elliott a few picks later than he usually goes in the first round. I was also able to build a strong WR core with DeAndre Hopkins, Tyler Lockett, Julio Jones and Tee Higgins, which I believe is the key to winning these things since WR has the most spots to fill. I also liked cornering the market best-ball specialist deep threat WRs (Marques Valdez-Scantling, DeSean Jackson, Darius Slayton). And I got a stud QB (Russell Wilson) who allowed me to only draft two rather than wasting a slot on a QB3.

Cons: I took a Hero RB approach given the value on the board at WR in Rounds 2-5, which backfired when Travis Etienne was lost for the season. I also got shut out of the stud TE market and ended up settling for Gronk. Though Tyler Conklin was a value I was able to get due to being on the clock during the time when Irv Smith Jr. was announced to likely be out for the year, I decided to cut my losses and only draft two TEs, which leaves me susceptible to injury.

Grade: C+

11. Jamey Eisenberg, CBS Sports

No self grade.

12. Samantha Previte, Action

The 12th pick is a tough one, especially this year. I went super robust RB in this draft and initially loved my running back corps of Nick Chubb, Jonathan Taylor and J.K. Dobbins. Obviously Dobbins wasn't the best pick in hindsight, but injuries are unavoidable.

I like the quarterbacks I ended up with in Aaron Rodgers and Trevor Lawrence. Both have really great upside. My receivers are definitely my weakness. Chris Godwin as my top receiver isn't an issue, but having two WR3s in Courtland Sutton and Robby Anderson is concerning. I would have been much happier with a top six tight end. Noah Fant is my TE7 so pairing him with Jonnu Smith isn't the worst outcome.

Overall, I give my draft a B-, though the team is probably a C relative to the others without Dobbins. I definitely could have done better, but drafting against sharps doesn't exactly lend itself to sniping value — especially when drafting after Jamey Eisenberg every round.