FantasyPros Staff | Sat, Aug 31st 2024, 7:15am EDT

Fantasy Football Draft Advice for Every First-Round Pick (2024)

When preparing for your fantasy football drafts, knowing which players to target and others to avoid is important. The amount of information available can be overwhelming, so a great way to condense the data and determine players to draft and others to leave for your leaguemates is to use our expert consensus fantasy football rankings compared to fantasy football average draft position (ADP). In this way, you can identify players the experts are willing to reach for at ADP and others they are not drafting until much later than average. Let’s dive into a few notable fantasy football players below.

2024 Fantasy Football Draft Advice

Early-Round Fantasy Football Draft Pick Advice

Players to Target at 1.01 Fantasy Football Draft Pick

With the 1.01 pick, you’ll have your choice of the very best studs in this year’s draft, and while there aren’t many wrong answers, there are some stronger bets than others.

Christian McCaffrey (RB – SF)

It’s fair to consider that Christian McCaffrey has run pure since joining the 49ers and barely missed any time at all, which is unusual for any running back. Perhaps as he enters his age 28 season, that luck will run out, but McCaffrey’s upside is also undeniable.

Across his six-year NFL career, McCaffrey has played in 75 games, finishing as a top-12 back in 50 of those 75 (66.6%). That number dwarfs many of the other top running back options, with Jonathan Taylor finishing top-12 after 51.6% of games, Saquon Barkley in 46.6% of games, and Austin Ekeler with 40.45%. McCaffrey has stayed incredibly healthy until now, when he is currently missing a couple of weeks of training camp due to a calf strain. All reports suggest that McCaffrey should be fine and this won’t linger, but you’ll have to weigh that and decide how much risk you want to embrace; do you want someone who has been one of the largest difference-makers at the position, or would you rather not draft a player that is currently injured?

CeeDee Lamb (WR – DAL)

The Cowboys were sluggish and discombobulated to start the 2023 season, but everything changed after their bye in Week 7. Lamb was the PPR WR24 during Weeks 1-7, scoring 14.9 points per game (PPG), but then dominated across the back half of the season by scoring 28.0 PPG, which was an average of 6.9 points more than the next-closest receiver. Lamb was a certified league-winner.

Since then, the Cowboys have done absolutely nothing to upgrade their pass-catchers, and the running back movement only got as far as bringing back Ezekiel Elliott, despite him posting career-lows in success rate and long runs in 2023. Meanwhile, Lamb could be even better in 2024 if he’s consistently used as he was for the second half of the 2023 season. He looks like the closest challenger for McCaffrey’s crown of “Most Valuable Skill Position Player.”

Lamb continues to hold out during training camp while waiting for a new contract, but despite the Cowboys’ many decisions, it feels inevitable that he will get paid sooner rather than later. Owner and GM Jerry Jones tends to be content with these situations because it keeps the Cowboys in the news cycle.

Middle-Round Fantasy Football Draft Pick Advice

Players to Consider at 1.06 Fantasy Football Draft Pick

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

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:

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 frequently 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 ineptitude 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.

Late-Round Fantasy Football Draft Pick Advice

Players to Consider at 1.12 Fantasy Football Draft Pick

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

Players to Target at 1.12 Fantasy Football Draft Pick

If available, you should target these fantasy football players at the 1.12 draft pick.

A.J. Brown (WR – PHI)

This past year was a tale of two halves for A.J. Brown, who scored 22.6 points per game in Weeks 1-9 before falling 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 but was rumored to be a bone bruise – an injury known to hamper dual-threat quarterbacks.

Brown might come with some risk, but if the Eagles can stay more consistent in 2024, having a player who can average over 22 points a game is a massive advantage in fantasy football.

Garrett Wilson (WR – NYJ)

So far through Garrett Wilson’s young NFL career, he’s caught passes or at least been targeted by quarterbacks like Zach Wilson, Joe Flacco, Mike White, Chris Streveler, Trevor Siemian, Tim Boyle and briefly took the field with Aaron Rodgers. Even at 40 years of age and coming off an Achilles injury, Rodgers is still by far the best quarterback Wilson will have played with. Wilson has posted an identical 56.5% catch rate in both of his seasons in the NFL and it shouldn’t be surprising to see that number jump a good amount this year. The biggest concern will be whether the Jets play slowly and their defense keeps the games low-scoring. Rodgers has always had his favorites in the red zone and Wilson can thrive as long as someone keeps Nathaniel Hackett from being too involved.

Drake London (WR – ATL)

Perhaps no player improved their fortunes this offseason quite as much as Drake London did with the addition of quarterback Kirk Cousins. Desmond Ridder ranked 66 out of 68 quarterbacks in Pro Football Focus (PFF) passing grade in 2023 and averaged 10 fewer catchable passes per game than Cousins did. Going from a low-volume inaccurate quarterback to a highly accurate, pass-first offense could do wonders for London, who has averaged a miserable 4.27 receptions per game through 33 NFL games. It’s not outlandish to think that number will double in 2024.

Yes, you are paying a premium for a player who hasn’t ‘done it’ yet, but London is a player who deserved to be picked eighth overall in the 2022 NFL Draft. The only thing that’s held him back is no longer a factor in his outlook.

Draft Advice for Every First-Round Pick

Fantasy Football Draft Rankings

Check out the consensus 2024 fantasy football draft rankings from our experts.

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