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 1.08 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 draft.
More From Our ‘How to Approach’ Series: 1.01 | 1.02 | 1.03 | 1.04 | 1.05 | 1.06 | 1.07
- 2024 Fantasy Football Draft Kit
- 2024 Dynasty Fantasy Football Draft Kit
- 2024 Best Ball Fantasy Football Draft Kit
- Free Fantasy Football Mock Draft Simulator
Fantasy Football Draft Strategy: Pick 1.08
Players to Consider at 1.08 Fantasy Football Draft Pick
Here are players that are likely to be available when you make your selection:
- Bijan Robinson (RB – ATL)
- Breece Hall (RB – NYJ)
- A.J. Brown (WR – PHI)
- Puka Nacua (WR – LAR)
- Jahmyr Gibbs (RB – DET)
Players to Target at 1.08 Fantasy Football Draft Pick
If available, you should target these fantasy football players at the 1.01 draft pick.
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 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 5-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.
Despite playing with a miserable set of quarterbacks and a horrible offensive line, not to mention coming off an ACL injury, Breece 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. Thirty-six 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. Hall has the RB1 overall potential in his outlook.
Before this point in the draft, it might be too much of a risk to draft Puka Nacua, but now if you’re set on a wide receiver, Nacua remains the best option on the board. Nacua broke both the NFL rookie receiving yards and receptions records with 105 receptions and 1,486 receiving yards (fourth in the NFL). He also scored six touchdowns and had a 28.8% target share. Nacua might be at risk of a healthy Cooper Kupp hoovering up more catches this year, or maybe the running game steals work from him now that they’ll have a better backup option in Blake Corum in case Kyren Williams goes down, but Nacua could also take a second-year leap, which wouldn’t be uncommon. If that happens he can be a true league-winner… again.
Players to Avoid at 1.08 Fantasy Football Draft Pick
Here are a few potential fantasy football draft landmines that you should avoid.
In a straight-up choice between Puka Nacua and A.J. Brown, I lean Nacua every time. 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%. Smith continues to ascend and has shown he warrants plenty of targets, which given his age seems fair.
The Lions didn’t receive much praise for the perceived reach of Jahmyr Gibbs in the 2023 NFL Draft, but a little over a year later it’s clear they made a good choice. Unfortunately for Gibbs, though, David Montgomery is still in Detroit and will be capping his upside for the near future. The Lions continue to say they plan on running a committee between Montgomery and Gibbs in 2024, and it makes sense given their abilities mesh well together. Montgomery led the backfield in touches last year with 17.3 per game to Gibbs’s 15.8 and also led the pair with 4.0 evaded tackles per game compared to Gibbs who had 3.5. Gibbs produced explosive runs, with a massive 8.88% big run rate, which dwarfed Montgomery’s 3.83%, but because the Lions preferred Montgomery at the goal line it kept Montgomery very fantasy-relevant. Gibbs deserves to go around the end of the first round, but not this high in drafts.
Roster Constructions to Consider at 1.08 Fantasy Football Draft Pick
When we’re drafting from the 1.08 we are at the back end of a tier of top-talent players, and while the ones coming afterward are also great players, there starts to be a few questions about their ceiling outcomes. Wide receivers dry up very quickly in this year’s drafts. However you build in the first two rounds will dictate how you attack the rest of the draft.
If we select Breece Hall or Bijan Robinson then it’s best to consider a Hero RB approach and take a second running back in round two (likely Saquon Barkley or Jonathan Taylor). By round three, the quality of our WR1 will be quite far behind the rest of our league. If you select a WR in round one, this year’s average draft position (ADP) sets up nicely to wait till round four or later to take your first RB, with Zero RB very much the flavor of 2024.
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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