Zero-RB Best Ball Mock Draft: Is It A Viable 2026 Strategy On Underdog?

At the beginning of a recent stream, a viewer named Dan challenged me to force a Zero RB build in my Big Board draft—the 20-round best ball tournament on Underdog with a $200,000 top prize.

There's been a lot of conversation in the best ball streets recently about the viability of Zero RB, and it's always been a controversial strategy, but it feels almost impossible to pull off in early 2026 drafts, which is why Dan brought this suggestion to the table:

My existing thesis heading into 2026 drafts agreed with consensus—Zero RB is too hard to pull off. In my recent Underdog best ball strategy guide, I advocated for two RBs in the first four rounds. The position dries up too fast, the best picks late are WRs, and the most likely outcome is that you end up with a laundry list of uninspiring backs who are unlikely to make an impact.

I've always loved Zero RB, though, and I'm not one to shy away from a challenge, so I went for it. Besides, this wasn't a gimmick. This was research.

I drew the 1.08 slot. Let's see if I proved myself wrong ...

Zero-RB Best Ball Mock Draft on Underdog

Rounds 1-3: Loading Up on Elite WR Firepower

Pick 8: CeeDee Lamb | Pick 17: Malik Nabers | Pick 32: Tetairoa McMillan

This is what a classic Zero RB start looks like. Three alpha wide receivers through three rounds. I prefer the top three WRs on the board, of course, but Lamb is my WR4 and I'll happily take him here.

Nabers at 17 is where things get interesting. There are legitimate health concerns, which is why he's slipping into the second round rather than going top seven. But if we're going to pull off Zero RB, we need elite upside at the WR position, and a fully healthy Nabers has WR1 overall upside.

McMillan at 32 feels solid. His rookie year was good (not great), but he's a clear target hog in a Carolina offense that should continue to improve. He feels like a WR we will be drafting in the middle of Round 2 next year.

So far so good …

Rounds 4-5: Two Elite Onesie Detours (TE & QB)

Pick 41: Colston Loveland | Pick 56: Jayden Daniels

When I do Zero RB, I want an elite tight end. It's almost non-negotiable because if I'm punting RB, I need to be crushing my opponents at the other positions and it also frees up a roster spot since I generally go with only two TEs if one is drafted early.

In hindsight, I probably would have preferred the 2v2s where I go Trey McBride in Round 2 with Zay Flowers in Round 4 over my Nabers/Loveland combo, but it's impossible to deny the massive late-season upside if Nabers gets healthy and Loveland continues his destroyer-of-worlds trajectory.

Daniels in Round 5 was almost a no-brainer once the WR tier dried up. Similar to the Elite TE thesis, taking an elite QB here also allows for a potential 2QB build later, once again freeing up another roster slot to deploy on a running back. And as you will see later, that flexibility is going to matter.

Through five rounds: no running backs. Zero. The first part of the experiment is finished. Now it's time to catch up...

Rounds 6-10: Catching Up on RB (and a 2nd QB)

Pick 65: D'Andre Swift | Pick 80: Jaxson Dart | Pick 89: J.K. Dobbins | Pick 104: Blake Corum | Pick 113: Jadarian Price

And now we break the RB seal.

Swift at 65 was a stroke of luck since he slipped past ADP. Getting a running back who has proven he can handle a feature role at that price is exactly the kind of value you need to pull off a Zero RB squad in this landscape.

Dart at 80 was pure correlation play. Dart-Nabers is one of the more interesting stacks on the board right now, and there were no RBs I loved at this juncture. With Dart and Daniels (sounds like a country song), I'm all set at QB.

Dobbins at 89 was a slight reach, but he fits what I'm trying to do with banking some early-season production. The Broncos were tied to some RBs in free agency (and still might pull the trigger on one in the draft), but I read that more as an indictment of RJ Harvey than a referendum on Dobbins' role. Had he stayed healthy through those playoff games last year, we'd be talking about him very differently right now.

And then Corum at 104. This one made me very happy, as I'm on record as loving Corum as a 2026 sleeper. The ADP gap between Kyren Williams and Corum right now makes it seem as if 2025 never happened. Between the standalone value, the contingent upside, and the efficiency edge, there's almost no downside at that price.

Price at 113 gives us our first true upside lottery ticket at the position. In Peter Schrager's most recent mock draft, he had the Seahawks taking Price at 32. If that happens, he'll go 50 picks higher than this.

Rounds 11-13: Balancing The Roster

Pick 128: Denzel Boston | Pick 137: Chris Rodriguez | Pick 152: Isaiah Likely

This is where the draft gets strategic in a slightly different way. I still need RBs, but I also need to keep building out the WR room with upside profiles because I only have the three up to this point.

As I wrote in the newsletter the other day, Boston is one of the rookie wide receivers projected for Round 1 capital. He's far too cheap if that comes to fruition. If he goes in Round 1, he'll be 50 picks more expensive come June.

Rodriguez gives us another RB who should earn touches out of the gate in Jacksonville, even if we all prefer Bhayshul Tuten.

And Likely was a simple click who gives us an upside TE2 who doubles as a correlation play with Dart.

Rounds 14-16: More RBs and a Stacked WR

Pick 161: Jacory Croskey-Merritt | Pick 176: James Conner | Pick 185: Darnell Mooney

The RB room still needed more bodies, so we kept stacking them. Croskey-Merritt gives us a Washington teammate to pair with Daniels. Conner at 176 is another old, reliable back. Arizona loves him and reworked his contract for a reason.

Mooney at 185 stacks with Dart, Nabers and Likely, giving us a big Giants onslaught for the fantasy playoffs.

Round 17: A Devastating Autopick

Pick 200: Tank Bigsby

This pick was an accident. I was mid-monologue, someone started talking about carrot cake lattes, I looked away for two seconds, and I autodrafted Bigsby as my eighth running back. I want to be clear that this was not a strategic decision. I would have taken rookie WR Chris Brazell had I not been thinking of carrots in my lattes. It was a catastrophic lapse in attention, and I am not proud of it. Moving on.

Rounds 18-20: Hunting for WR Upside

Pick 209: Elijah Sarratt | Pick 224: Pat Bryant | Pick 233: Bryce Lance

The home stretch was all about grabbing late-round wide receivers with upside at prices so cheap that even a single breakout game pays for the pick. Sarratt and Lance fit the profile of guys who have solid Super Model scores and strong projected draft capital. These guys will not be free in drafts come June if they indeed go in Round 2.

As for Bryant, I'm a sucker for Year 2 breakouts and he flashed in his rookie year. Jaylen Waddle in the fold isn't great, but I think Bryant holds on to the WR3 job in Denver over Troy Franklin and Marvin Mims.

Final Roster & Verdict

2QB | 8RB | 8WR | 2TE

The Zero RB room–Swift, Dobbins, Corum, Price, Rodriguez, Croskey-Merritt, Conner and Tank "Carrot Cake Latte" Bigsby—isn't pretty, but that's what you sign up for with the Zero RB strategy. I do think the rest of the roster is constructed in a way that makes this more than viable, even if it isn't "optimal."

Ultimately, I'm giving this team a B. There were mistakes. As I said, I probably would have preferred McBride over Loveland at the TE spot, and the carrot cake latte situation set us back a round of WR upside.

The core is strong, though, and this team has a real late-season ceiling if a few RB dominoes fall the right way … which is the entire thesis of the strategy.

More importantly, I came out of this exercise more bullish on Zero RB than I went in. You don't need to commit to it ahead of time, though. You just need to read the room and be prepared to go down that path if non-RBs truly are the best selections at each of your early picks.