Tom Strachan | Wed, Jun 17th 2026, 9:37am EDT

Fantasy Football Mock Draft: How to Approach Pick 1.06 (2026)

Some years, the middle of the first round feels better than others. Yes, there is sometimes ambiguity there, and the players don’t feel as good as the top two or three picks. Quite often, however, when those top players fail, league winners emerge. The beauty of a mid-round selection is you’re never more than 11 picks away from adding your next player. Plenty will change between now and Week 1, but this is how to approach the 1.06 based on current average draft position (ADP) data. Test out different strategies with a fantasy football mock draft.

Fantasy Football Draft Strategy: Pick 1.06

Players to Consider at 1.06 Fantasy Football Draft Pick

These players will likely be available when you make your selection:

At this point in the draft, both the top two stud running backs, Bijan Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs, will be long gone. There isn’t a consensus 1.01 pick, but both are typically gone by the top two picks. Ja’Marr Chase is locked in as the 1.03 or 1.04 pick, at worst.

Should Chase fall for any reason, he’s an obvious smash pick, but let’s not hold onto that hope too strongly. Puka Nacua and Jaxon Smith-Njigba tend to go after Chase, but it’s possible one might slip this far. This pick most likely comes down to a tier of four players before the back half of the draft.

Players to Target at 1.06 Fantasy Football Draft Pick

Puka Nacua (WR – LAR)

Off the field, Puka Nacua hasn’t had a great offseason, and the Rams seem slightly hesitant to extend him, with reports suggesting that’s not in their immediate plans, despite Nacua being extension-eligible and watching Jaxon Smith-Njigba reset the market.

Things can change quickly, but for now, it sets Nacua up for what should be a massive prove-it year, both on and off the field. Nacua is coming off a career-high 10 receiving touchdowns, which, until 2025, had been the only area of his game that lacked. He combined for nine total touchdowns in the previous two seasons.

Perhaps with an improving defense, the Rams don’t go quite as pass-heavy this year, but Sean McVay has nearly always been aggressive, and Nacua deserves to be a top-five pick while Matthew Stafford is healthy.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba (WR – SEA)

It was a truly special year for Jaxon Smith-Njigba, leading the league in receiving yards (1,794), catching 119 passes on 163 targets for 10 touchdowns, and helping the Seahawks to a Super Bowl.

The only cause for concern is Klint Kubiak leaving to become the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, which could lead to a dip in Sam Darnold‘s efficiency. The positive side, though, is that the team didn’t make any major additions at receiver, aside from bringing back Rashid Shaheed.

If Zach Charbonnet isn’t back and rookie Jadarian Price can’t adapt to the NFL quickly, could we see even more volume from Smith-Njigba?

Christian McCaffrey (RB – SF)

It’s true that Christian McCaffrey is coming off quite a poor year by his standards in the ground game, rushing for 3.9 yards per carry, his lowest mark since 2020 in Carolina. This ranked 48th among running backs with 50+ rush attempts, while also ranking 47th in yards after contact per attempt and 29th in missed tackles forced.

But for fantasy purposes, that simply didn’t matter, as McCaffrey saw 129 targets, more than A.J. Brown, Courtland Sutton, Keenan Allen or Zay Flowers had. McCaffrey was the RB1 in points per game, scoring 2.5 points more than the RB2.

Once again, the 49ers did very little to persuade us that they don’t believe in McCaffrey’s ability to be a workhorse, instead continuing their habit of talking up a later-round dart throw at the position, who’ll likely struggle to see any involvement.

McCaffrey is 30 years old, but like Derrick Henry, he seems as committed as anyone to working hard year-round. If he can PPR scam his way to another dominant receiving role, it’s hard not to argue in his favor if you’re OK with some risk.

Jonathan Taylor (RB – IND)

Jonathan Taylor was absolutely dominant for the first half of last season. Had Daniel Jones not gotten injured, Taylor most likely could have stayed effective throughout the whole season.

According to teams synced with our FantasyPros tools, the Colts back led all players in playoff advance rate at 66.8%. Simply drafting Taylor gave you a two-in-three chance of making the playoffs. Sadly, though, that wasn’t the whole story.

Taylor was the fantasy RB4 in points per game, but from Week 12 onwards, he was the RB21, with an explosive run rate of 0.7% (41st). He ranked 36th in yards after contact and scored only three rushing touchdowns.

Taylor is heading into a contract year, likely his last massive one, after turning 27 this offseason. He’ll be motivated, have his quarterback returning, who might need to lean on the run game more, and once again has virtually no competition for touches. There’s a very real world where Taylor is a top-two back this season.

CeeDee Lamb (WR – DAL)

It was a really disappointing 2025 for CeeDee Lamb, posting the second-lowest numbers of his career in targets (117), receptions (75) and receiving yards (1,077), with only his rookie season in 2020 worse. He also had a career-low three touchdowns.

The newly arrived George Pickens recorded a 22.1% target share in the red zone compared to Lamb’s 18.6%, which was also behind Jake Ferguson, who led the team with 23.1%. Contrast this to 2024, when Lamb had a 27.7% red-zone target share and led the team by 10%. In 2023, it was 28.8% and also led the team by 10%.

If you’re happy to believe 2025 was a blip rather than the new normal, it becomes easier to see Lamb as a value pick in this range. Betting on Lamb’s well-established connection with Dak Prescott and this team as a whole to bounce back isn’t the worst bet in the world.

Amon-Ra St. Brown (WR – DET)

When you draft Amon-Ra St. Brown, you have a pretty solid idea of what you’re getting. He has recorded over 119 targets in every one of the five seasons he’s played in the NFL and scored double-digit touchdowns in each of the last three.

Perhaps the ceiling gets capped slightly if Jameson Williams trends upwards and Sam LaPorta is healthier, but the Lions were bad last season, and the most important thing is that they might have a competent play-caller once again in Drew Petzing.

The team has said they want to lean into what Jared Goff does best by using play-action passes heavily. That would be a bonus for St. Brown, who has consistently led the team in first-read target share on such plays.

From must-have players to players to avoid, and everything in between, our Fantasy Football Draft Guide delivers the insight you need to build a championship roster.

Players to Avoid at 1.06 Fantasy Football Draft Pick

Justin Jefferson (WR – MIN)

We used to say the Vikings’ offensive scheme was quarterback-proof. We’ve seen the likes of Josh Dobbs and Sam Darnold thrive in Kevin O’Connell’s offense, but then J.J. McCarthy came in and blew all that out of the water. He was so impressively bad that the coaching staff had to take middle-of-the-field passes out of the playbook because he couldn’t read the field.

Perhaps McCarthy has enough talent to turn things around, or maybe Kyler Murray is the answer. So far, camp reports don’t suggest either player is distancing themselves from the other. This could turn into an annoying back-and-forth during the season, impacting the rest of the team’s play.

Justin Jefferson had fewer receiving yards in 2025 (1,048) than he did in 2023, when he only played 10 games (1,074). Jefferson also had a career-low 12.5 yards per reception and a career-low two receiving touchdowns. Among receivers with 50+ targets, Jefferson ranked 58th in catchable target rate (71%). He may bounce back, but it’s hard to take Jefferson at his ADP.

James Cook (RB – BUF)

In 2024, James Cook dominated, scoring 16 touchdowns and rushing for 1,009 yards. That production seemed unsustainable. In 2025, he recorded 1,621 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns, and gave us even more reason to be confident.

The counter to this would be that Josh Allen is coming off his lowest passing yardage total since 2019 (3,668), and hasn’t thrown for more than 30 touchdowns in the last three seasons. However, the Bills seem positive their offense will take a step forward this year with the addition of DJ Moore under new head coach Joe Brady.

That remains to be seen. If it does happen, and the team scores more passing touchdowns and moves the ball better, could it come at the expense of Cook’s ceiling?

Roster Constructions to Consider at 1.06 Fantasy Football Draft Pick

This part of the draft allows us to start with either a wide receiver or a running back. A WR/WR start could let you lean into Zero RB with an elite tight end such as Brock Bowers or Trey McBride available in the second or third round. You could also add your first running back out of Saquon Barkley, Kenneth Walker or Omarion Hampton.

If you tilt towards a running back here, your wide receiver options will likely be Rashee Rice, A.J. Brown and Nico Collins.

Running back tends to dry up quicker than usual this year, but only having one wide receiver through three rounds can leave your wide receiver room struggling to catch up.

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.

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