CFB Best Ball · Favorites
My most-drafted quarterback, and I got him 15 picks after his ADP. Two starts, seven total touchdowns, no interceptions, and Kennesaw State comes to Knoxville next.
2026 So Far · 2 games
PASS
23-38
374 yds
TD-INT
5-0
passing
RUSH
15-90
2 TD
HALF-PPR
28.0
per game, QB11
What I Paid · Underdog
ADP
136.8
QB40
MY AVG PICK
151.9
15 picks after ADP
EXPOSURE
8 of 16
6 Tailgate, 2 BBM
MY BOARD
193rd
set Sept. 3
Faizon Brandon is on eight of my sixteen teams, more than any other quarterback. The next one, Malik Washington, is on five. In a superflex format where quarterbacks are the scarcest thing on the board, he is tied with Daniel Hill for the biggest single bet in my portfolio.
Two weeks in, it looks like a good one. Brandon has 56.0 half-PPR points, 28.0 a game, 11th among the 77 quarterbacks in Underdog's player pool who have played two games in our box-score data. The market took him as the 40th quarterback.
Averages hide the shape here, so here are both games.
Week 1, Furman, a 56-9 win: 13 of 17 for 226 yards and three touchdowns, plus 10 carries for 68 yards and two more scores. That is 39.8 points (ESPN box score, Sept. 5, 2026).
Week 2, at Georgia Tech, a 45-24 win: 10 of 21 for 148 yards and two touchdowns, plus 5 carries for 22 yards. That is 16.1 points (ESPN box score, Sept. 12, 2026).
The Georgia Tech line is the honest one to look at. A true freshman on the road, completing under half his passes, still gave me 16 points and no turnovers. WVLT in Knoxville (Sept. 14, 2026) reports he was named SEC Freshman of the Week after both games.
Tennessee does not throw much. The team attempted 27 passes against Furman and 21 at Georgia Tech, per the ESPN box scores. A quarterback on a team throwing twenty-odd times needs another way to score.
Brandon has it. He has 15 of Tennessee's 92 rushing attempts, 16%, and two rushing touchdowns. How I count it: his rushes divided by every rushing attempt Tennessee logged in the box score. College stats count sacks as runs, and ESPN has him sacked twice, so about 13 of those 15 were real carries.
The worry is the trend. Ten runs in Week 1, five in Week 2. In superflex best ball, the gap between a 16-point quarterback and a 30-point one is usually rushing.
His ADP is 136.8. I averaged pick 151.9 for him, so the room let him slide more than a round past his price in my drafts and I kept taking him when it did.
My preseason board had him 193rd. It had no college stats to work from for a true freshman and landed below the market. Two games do not settle it, but the board's caution has cost me nothing, because I did not follow it.
Tennessee hosts Kennesaw State at Neyland Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 19 (ESPN schedule). That is the right opponent, and after it comes Texas on Sept. 26.
The setup for a big week is there: a home game against a non-Power Four opponent looks a lot more like Furman than Georgia Tech. The risk is the one that comes with every blowout, that the starter's day ends early. Against Furman he still threw only 17 passes.
Best Ball Playoffs · Tennessee (bye Week 9)
WEEK 11
at Texas A&M
WEEK 12
vs LSU
WEEK 13
at Vanderbilt
Two SEC road games and LSU at home. None of these is a Furman. His playoff value depends on the rushing floor holding up against real defenses.
These are Underdog best ball teams. Nothing gets traded or dropped, so the verdict is about what I do in my next drafts at this price.
No player is on more than half my teams, and he is at that line. I would not add more even with the start he has had. I would make the same picks again at the same price.
If he runs five times or fewer again against Kennesaw State and Texas, Tennessee has decided to protect its freshman, and I own a lot of a low-volume passer.
If he keeps 8 to 10 carries a game into SEC play, 50% was the right number and I should stop worrying about the completion rate.
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Exposure figures from my own Underdog draft exports. ADP from Underdog best ball rankings. Statistics and quotes from published reporting. Nothing here is betting advice, and I am telling you what I did, not what you should do.