Fantasy Football Mock Draft: How to Approach Pick 1.06 (2024) (2024)

The NFL season will be here faster than expected, and before that comes the all-important fantasy football drafting season! What better way to prepare for your fantasy football draft than completing FREE mocks with our fantasy football mock draft simulator?

This series will give you an overview of what you can expect to see no matter which first-round pick you draw. In what feels like a very strong first round in 2024, nailing your picks will be more important than ever.

Let’s dive into our approach for the fantasy football 1.06 pick for upcoming drafts. We look into the players likely to be available, those to target or avoid and a mock draft from the pick to help you prepare for your fantasy football league.

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Fantasy Football Draft Strategy: Pick 1.06

Players to Consider at 1.06 Fantasy Football Draft Pick

Here are players that are likely to be available when you make your selection.

Justin Jefferson (WR – MIN)
Amon-Ra St. Brown (WR- DET)
Bijan Robinson (RB – ATL)
Breece Hall (RB – NYJ)
A.J. Brown (WR – PHI)
Puka Nacua (WR – LAR)

Players to Target at 1.06 Fantasy Football Draft Pick

If available, you should target these fantasy football players at the 1.06 draft pick:

Justin Jefferson (WR – MIN)

It’s possible when all is said and done that Jefferson deserves to be going higher than Chase in average draft position (ADP) and Jefferson has shown us far more consistency and is everything we’d hope Chase could turn into. Over the last three seasons, Jefferson has averaged 102.3 yards per game, 20 more than Chase’s 82.6, and Jefferson also averages 15.0 yards per reception compared to Chase’s 13.9. Jefferson has finished higher than Chase in PPR points per game in every single year they’ve both played in the league, with Jefferson the WR4 in 2021 to Chase’s WR5, then WR1 to Chase’s WR5 in 2022 and again in 2023 Jefferson pipped Chase finishing as the WR5 to Chase’s WR10.

Bijan Robinson (RB – ATL)

No team in the NFL received such a significant offensive upgrade this offseason than the Atlanta Falcons. While the Kirk Cousins and Michael Penix situation is messy at best, it ensures that the Falcons’ skill position players will have adequate quarterback play this year; something that was impossible to say in the past two seasons under Marcus Mariota and Desmond Ridder.

Bijan Robinson out-touched Tyler Allgeier 272 to 204 in 2023 and had 78 targets to Allgeier’s 20, but was kept off the field in the red zone with 23 touches to Allgeier’s 36, including only three carries inside the five-yard line versus Allgeier’s six. Everything we’ve heard from the new coaching staff since they took over from the fantasy football demon — Arthur Smith — suggests this will no longer be the case. The coaching staff predominantly comes from the Sean McVay coaching tree, who have a history of preferring to lean on one running back, rather than using a committee, which is something that would be sensible when you have Robinson under contract. Whether it’s Cousins or Penix, either will be a more efficient quarterback and keep the team on the field more often, which would be welcome after the Falcons finished eighth-lowest in drive success rate, a statistic that measures how often a drive resulted in points for the offense. Robinson was viewed as generational back when he was drafted and it’s not too late for him to show us that was warranted.

Breece Hall (RB – NYJ)

Despite playing with a miserable set of quarterbacks and a horrible offensive line, not to mention coming off an ACL injury, Hall led all running backs with 93 targets and was second in receptions with 74. Due to the ineptness of the Jets offense, however, Hall finished with only eight touchdowns, tied for 17th most among the position. 36 other running backs had more attempts inside the red zone than Hall did and the Jets ranked fourth-worst in percentage of drives to end in points (26%). Even with an aged Aaron Rodgers, that should be better this year and Hall has the RB1 overall potential in his outlook.

Players to Avoid at 1.06 Fantasy Football Draft Pick

Here are a few potential fantasy football draft landmines that you should avoid:

A.J. Brown (WR – PHI)

While the wide receivers are the more attractive pick at this spot in the draft, there is no need to reach further down to get A.J. Brown. This past year was a tale of two halves for Brown, who scored 22.6 points per game in Weeks 1-9 before going off a cliff and scoring only 12.3 points per game for the rest of the season. Part of this can be attributed to the Eagles’ collapse in general and an injury to Jalen Hurts that we never heard any proper details about. However, that didn’t seem to hinder DeVonta Smith. Smith still returned reasonable value as the PPR WR13 over the second half of the year, scoring 3.2 points more per game than Brown, despite seeing a 6% lower target share than Brown’s 31%. Brown is a fun player with a super-high ceiling, but we don’t need to reach on him here even if we’d prefer a wide receiver with the 1.06.

Puka Nacua (WR – LAR)

Nobody is suggesting that Puka Nacua doesn’t deserve to be a first-round fantasy pick in 2024 after breaking both the NFL rookie receiving yards and receptions records with 105 total receptions, 1,486 receiving yards (fourth in the NFL), and six touchdowns, but it’s perhaps not worth taking him quite this early. Cooper Kupp still looked good in 2023 with his 25.6% target share very close to Nacua’s 28.8%, and his route participation outdoing Nacua’s 92.8% to 91.2%. Nacua is firmly entrenched in the first round, but is it crazy to imagine that Kupp — who is currently healthier this year than last offseason — manages to outproduce Nacua this year?

Roster Constructions to Consider at 1.06 Fantasy Football Draft Pick

When we’re drafting from the 1.06, we are right in the area of drafts where the best of the best wide receivers dry up and you might likely end up choosing between Bijan Robinson or Breece Hall. This leaves us likely to have to decide on a running back-focused strategy such as Hero RB or Dual RB, rather than Zero RB.

If we opted not to take a running back here, how much faith do you have in Jonathan Taylor or Saquon Barkley to be your RB1 consistently this year? If the answer is plenty, then it might be worthwhile reaching for a wide receiver. However, starting with consecutive running backs will leave you in a position where our WR1 might end up being Malik Nabers or DeVonta Smith; both fine players but lacking a bit compared to what some of the teams around us will be boasting.

One could also make the argument that starting Hero RB with Bijan Robinson or Breece Hall might actually give us a better opening two-round combo than what the Christian McCaffrey drafters get, as we might land Drake London, Chris Olave or Brandon Aiyuk as our WR1, while the McCaffrey owner likely ends up with Mike Evans, Malik Nabers or Davante Adams.

Fantasy Football Mock Draft from the 1.06 Pick

We used our FREE fantasy football mock draft simulator to show you an example of a draft from the 1.01 position. You can sync your league for free and mock draft against your fantasy football league settings to prepare more specifically for your draft. Here’s how our fantasy football mock draft from the 1.06 position turned out:

More Fantasy Football Draft Picks to Target

Fitz’s Top Fantasy Football Draft Targets (Premium)
Erickson’s Top Fantasy Football Draft Targets (Premium)
DBro’s Top Fantasy Football Draft Targets (Premium)