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Fantasy Football Draft Strategy: Pick 1.06
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.
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/avoid and a mock draft from the pick to help you prepare for your fantasy football draft.
Players to Consider at 1.06 Fantasy Football Draft Pick
Here are players likely to be available when you make your selection:
- Jahmyr Gibbs (RB – DET)
- Christian McCaffrey (RB – SF)
- Ashton Jeanty (RB – LV)
- Puka Nacua (WR – LAR)
- Malik Nabers (WR – NYG)
Players to Target at 1.06 Fantasy Football Draft Pick
Once we get past the top four picks, including Ja’Marr Chase, Saquon Barkley, Bijan Robinson and one other, it becomes a slightly flatter tier for several picks. A few weeks ago, it seemed unlikely Christian McCaffrey would be in this range, but after making it through organized team activities OTAs healthy, his rise continues to trend upwards.
Jahmyr Gibbs (RB – DET)
We might be hesitant about drafting Jahmyr Gibbs ahead of this spot, due to David Montgomery‘s looming presence in the backfield. We’re all very familiar with his presence around the goal line in particular. With that said, Gibbs finished as the RB3 in PPR points per game, third in running back total yardage and sixth in running back targets.
Not to downplay David Montgomery, but man… imagine Gibbs full-time with no competition. pic.twitter.com/GWwuhGb1gg
— Tom Strachan (@NFL_TStrack) June 3, 2025
Gibbs was undeniably excellent and had six games with 20+ PPR points. Four of those games came when Montgomery was healthy and also playing. Gibbs is a ceiling outcome player who might not be as safe as other options, but there’s no denying his upside or how much fun he can be to watch.
Christian McCaffrey (RB – SF)
This comes down to risk tolerance, and for some, spending a first-round pick on a 29-year-old running back who has only played over 11 games once in the last four years might be a stretch too far. When healthy, Christian McCaffrey is as good as anyone in this league and has won people fantasy championships plenty of times over, but the injury record is cause for concern.
According to reports, McCaffrey took part in everything at organized team activities (OTAs), including some drills most veterans sat out, indicating he’s over his Achilles issues he suffered through in 2024. If he is healthy, then it’s hard to fade an elite pass-catcher and game-breaking talent.
Isaac Guerendo also impressed last year, to the point that the 49ers were willing to trade Jordan Mason to the Vikings. Guerendo averaged 16.3 PPR points in the games where he saw double-digit touches. He could be in for an increased role in 2025. Even if that role eats into McCaffrey’s ceiling, we’re probably still talking about a top-five running back, and we know how hard it is to find them later in drafts.
Ashton Jeanty (RB – LV)
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, but it’s also worth considering that Ashton Jeanty belongs right in the same tier of prospect as Barkley 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 in college, and only caught fewer balls in his final season because he was routinely taking it to the house on his carries. 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.
Puka Nacua (WR – LAR)
The Rams are primed for a bounce-back year, having put their eggs in a Puka Nacua-shaped cart after moving on from Cooper Kupp. Davante Adams should help alleviate some of the pressure from Nacua, with him ranking 58th in ESPN’s open score metric, compared to Kupp, who ranked 108th out of 116 qualifying wide receivers.
Nacua has averaged 6.6 receptions per game over his two seasons and has consistently delivered. The only area he could improve is touchdowns, with nine combined across two seasons, but that shouldn’t be enough to dissuade us from drafting Nacua highly.
Malik Nabers (WR – NYG)
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.
Players to Avoid at 1.06 Fantasy Football Draft Pick
Brock Bowers (TE – LV)
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.
Derrick Henry (RB – BAL)
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.
Roster Constructions to Consider at 1.06 Fantasy Football Draft Pick
The 1.06 opens up many roster construction possibilities, but it will largely come down to how you start your draft for how you want to proceed. If you take Puka Nacua, there will still be top running backs available when the draft board makes it back to you — players like Bucky Irving and Josh Jacobs — and you’ll have access to the top-end quarterbacks and tight ends.
If you go running back to start the draft, the receivers who make it back are a little less appealing, with A.J. Brown and Ladd McConkey both having enough doubt about them to stop them from being first-round talents. Because of this, you might find it easier to go with a Hero RB build and draft your RB1 in the first or second round. If you lean into a Dual RB build, it can become much harder to build a nice wide receiver room.
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 1.06 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.
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