It is June. NFL teams are practicing, albeit lightly, but things are quickly moving towards the summer, which means it’s time to start seriously thinking about your drafts. What better way to prepare for your fantasy football draft than by 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 2025, nailing your picks will be more important than ever.
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- 2025 Best Ball Fantasy Football Draft Kit
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Fantasy Football Draft Strategy: Pick 1.08
Let’s dive into our approach for the fantasy football 1.08 pick for upcoming drafts.
We look into the players likely to be available, highlight players to target/avoid and share a mock draft from the 1.08 draft slot to help you prepare for your fantasy football draft.
Players to Consider at 1.08 Fantasy Football Draft Pick
Here are players likely available when you make your selection:
Players to Target at 1.08 Fantasy Football Draft Pick
It would be naive to put Christian McCaffrey this high without acknowledging this pick won’t be for everyone. Risk tolerance plays a big part in whether you’ll be drafting McCaffrey in 2025, given he’s only played over 11 games once in the last four years.
When he is on the field, though, he’s typically a league-winning type of back who brings elite volume and elite pass-catching skills.
According to reports, McCaffrey took part in everything at organized team activities (OTAs), including some drills most veterans sat out, indicating he’s over the Achilles issues he suffered through in 2024.
If he can stay healthy, he can potentially be a league winner once again. In 2023, when McCaffrey was last healthy, he ranked first in rushing yards (1,459), second in yards per carry (5.36), fourth in explosive run rate (7.4%) and first in missed tackles forced (63).
With no Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk recovering from a multi-ligament knee injury, the stage is set for McCaffrey to prove he can be an elite RB once again.
Whenever we draft rookie running backs this high, it’s worth remembering that since 1984, the only rookie to finish as the RB1 was Saquon Barkley in 2018.
However, it’s also worth considering that Ashton Jeanty belongs right in the same tier of prospect as Barkley was when he entered the league.
Jeanty possesses rare qualities in his vision and pass-catching abilities, and with Geno Smith at quarterback, he’ll play with someone comfortable getting the ball to his best players.
Jeanty averaged over six yards per carry in each of his last two seasons and didn’t catch a ton of passes in his final season because he was routinely taking the ball to the house.
The Raiders had no problem drafting Jeanty with the sixth overall pick, and it’s hard not to want to do so in fantasy drafts when he could be a lock for 300+ touches in his rookie season.
One of the true bright spots of 2024 fantasy football was Malik Nabers, who broke Puka Nacua’s record for rookie receptions with 109. If it weren’t for Brock Bowers getting to 112, he might be talked up even further.
The argument against drafting Nabers last year was his poor quarterback situation, and while it isn’t exactly perfect this year, Nabers showed enough to assuage any doubts. Current reports suggest it’s a true battle between Russell Wilson and Jaxson Dart for the QB1 job, with Jameis Winston a distant third choice.
Any of those options could be better than last year’s quadrant of poor options. Among quarterbacks with 50+ dropbacks, Daniel Jones, Drew Lock, Tommy DeVito and Tim Boyle all ranked in the bottom 20% of yards per attempt (YPA), and only DeVito ranked above 40th in quarterback rating (33rd).
Wilson ranked 16th in quarterback rating and 18th in YPA, while the Giants believed in Dart enough to spend a first-round pick on him.
Nabers continues to have minimal competition around him, with Wan’Dale Robinson the most noteworthy. Nabers should be set for another top-10 positional finish, having finished as the fantasy WR6 in 2024.
One of the more divisive picks of the first round is Amon-Ra St. Brown, who some people view as potentially in trouble due to the emergence of Jameson Williams, as well as a healthy offseason for Sam LaPorta.
However, St. Brown has seen 140+ targets in each of the last three seasons, as well as seeing his touchdowns increase each year in the league to a career-high 12 in 2024.
In full PPR formats, St. Brown will be an easier click than in half-PPR leagues. Ultimately, how much should you worry about a receiver who has finished as the WR3 in total points for the last two seasons?
Players to Avoid at 1.08 Fantasy Football Draft Pick
Since the start of the 2023 season, Nico Collins leads all wide receivers in yards per route run versus man coverage, and his journey from zero to hero has been truly impressive, but there are still reasons to doubt his ability to crack the top three wide receivers.
The Texans head into the 2025 campaign with a rebuilding offensive line, having traded away Pro Bowl left tackle Laremy Tunsil, who was traded to the Commanders. According to Pro Football Focus (PFF), the Texans ranked 29th in their offensive line grades last year, and that was with Tunsil. Without him, and with no significant additions, it could be rough for C.J. Stroud.
On top of this, the Texans added Christian Kirk, Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel. Lastly, Collins has missed seven games over the last two seasons and averages 12.7 games per season over his four-year career, which might make him a risky pick.
As we’ve already covered, Brock Bowers caught a record-breaking 112 receptions in 2024, a simply astounding accomplishment for a rookie tight end, but we still can’t get too carried away. Currently, Bowers tends to go a few picks later, around 1.12 or 2.01 typically, and tight end production can be so volatile that dragging him up to the 1.06 pick seems problematic unless your league has a large tight end-premium scoring setting.
A year ago, confidence in Sam LaPorta was sky-high, and we all know how that worked out. No position is as susceptible to the ups and downs of fantasy football quite like tight end, and while locking in Bowers might feel like a way to avoid that, it could be an incredibly costly mistake should he fail to gel in this new offense.
If you’re contemplating Derrick Henry here, it likely means there has been a mean run on running backs to start your draft. Henry is coming off 1,953 all-purpose yards and 16 touchdowns in 2024, but he is 31 and has the lowest target share of any back in the top two rounds (4.4%).
Henry is an excellent talent, but not a better choice than some of the wide receivers ahead of him in average draft position (ADP). Henry potentially could make it back to you in the middle of the second round, which is a far more palatable price.
Fantasy Football Mock Draft From the 1.08 Pick
We used our FREE fantasy football mock draft simulator to show you an example of a draft from the 1.08 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 1.08 position turned out.
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