2026 St. Jude Fantasy football PPR mock draft 2.0: Jahmyr Gibbs goes No. 1 as RBs set the early tone

The more drafts that I do, the more I see a pattern unfolding in the first three rounds. And it happened again in our latest 12-team, PPR mock draft to benefit the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital as part of our Draft-A-Thon.

We will be doing these mock drafts throughout August, and you can participate by donating to St. Jude. There are other ways you can support our Draft-A-Thon as well, and you can find all the information by clicking here.

In this draft, and many others that I've done, two running backs were selected with the first two overall picks in Jahmyr Gibbs and Bijan Robinson. The next four picks were receivers, in some order, of Ja'Marr Chase, Puka Nacua, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Amon-Ra St. Brown.

Here, Nacua fell to No. 6 overall, and Ian Maguire felt that was a steal. Nacua (groin) has missed practice time recently, which might concern some Fantasy managers, but he was the No. 1 Fantasy receiver in 2025 and should be ready for Week 1.

Maguire said that if Nacua needs any time to "ramp up" in the regular season, he has other receivers who "can fill in for the short-term," including Zay Flowers, Luther Burden III and Jakobi Meyers. I'm still planning to draft Nacua as early as No. 4 overall.

When you get to No. 7 overall in Round 1, the focus shifts back to the running backs. Jonathan Taylor, Christian McCaffrey, James Cook, Chase Brown, De'Von Achane and Ashton Jeanty finished out the round here, but I have also seen Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry get selected in the top 12.

The early to middle part of Round 2 is usually populated by running backs, and here we had Kenneth Walker III go at No. 13 overall, Barkley at No. 16 overall, Henry at No. 18 overall and Omarion Hampton at No. 19 overall. Three managers started RB-RB with Gary Miller (Taylor and Henry), Ken Kraus (Cook and Barkley) and me (Jeanty and Walker). I'll get back to my team shortly.

The only receivers typically selected toward the end of Round 1 or beginning of Round 2 are CeeDee Lamb and Justin Jefferson. Lamb fell here to No. 17 overall, and Drake London went a little early at No. 14. In most drafts, London goes toward the middle or end of Round 2.

I feel like Maguire was lucky to get Hampton in Round 2 to pair him with Nacua. He didn't select his second running back until Round 6 with TreVeyon Henderson, but I like his Hero-RB approach. His backfield features Hampton, Henderson, RJ Harvey, Blake Corum, Tank Bigsby and James Conner.

"I messed up waiting for a second running back and was chasing it all (draft)," Maguire said. "Hopefully, at least one will emerge out of Henderson, Corum, etc."

When you get to the middle of Round 2, Fantasy managers should expect a run on pass catchers. That happened here with A.J. Brown (No. 20 overall), Malik Nabers (No. 21), Brock Bowers (No. 22), Nico Collins (No. 23), Rashee Rice (No. 24), Trey McBride (No. 25) and George Pickens (No. 26).

Kyren Williams was a little bit of a surprise selection at No. 27 overall, but then it was back to receivers with Chris Olave (No. 28), DeVonta Smith (No. 29), Flowers (No. 30) and Tee Higgins (No. 31). Two managers started WR-WR-WR with OJ Webber (Smith-Njigba, Nabers and Olave) and Frank Addeo (St. Brown, Brown and Smith).

I don't mind that strategy if you're picking in the middle of Round 1, especially in this format. You get three stud receivers and then start throwing draft capital into your backfield. Webber ended up with Breece Hall, David Montgomery, Jonah Coleman and Jordan James, and Addeo has Jeremiyah Love, Bucky Irving, Jaylen Warren and Tyrone Tracy Jr.

You can almost map out your strategy depending on your draft slot. If I have the first two overall picks, I'm probably going Hero-RB with Gibbs and Robinson at the top.

With a draft slot of No. 3-6, I expect to take three pass catchers with two receivers and either Bowers or McBride or three receivers in a row -- unless a top-12 running back falls. That's if I start my team with Chase, Nacua, Smith-Njigba or St. Brown.

From picks No. 7-12, I'm looking at a RB-WR build or RB-RB. And I wanted to go RB-RB with Jeanty and Walker here.

The wide receiver talent you should find from the end of Round 3 into early Round 4 is fantastic, and it could include Higgins, Ladd McConkey, Emeka Egbuka, Garrett Wilson, Jaylen Waddle, D.J. Moore, Burden and Terry McLaurin. You also could have the option to select Colston Loveland or the majority of the quarterbacks, including Josh Allen if he falls.

I opted to draft Loveland in Round 3, and then I took Wilson in Round 4. I didn't know what my receiving corps would look like at this point, but I was thrilled to get Mike Evans in Round 5 and Parker Washington in Round 6.

I drafted another receiver in Round 7 with Carnell Tate, and this worked out well to start RB-RB with a solid group of pass catchers on this roster. I also added Jordan Addison and Keenan Allen, and I like this receiving corps a lot.

The rest of my backfield features Chris Rodriguez Jr., Mike Washington Jr., Emmett Johnson and George Holani. I don't usually target my own handcuffs, but it made sense in this draft to lock up the backups for Jeanty and Walker.

It's fun that we're starting to see a pattern emerge of what might happen in the first three rounds. But make sure you remain flexible on Draft Day. Something that you don't expect to happen could alter your plan, and you should adjust accordingly.

That's why doing mock drafts is important. The more prepared you are, the better off you'll be when the draft is real.

As a reference point for this mock draft, all touchdowns are worth six points, and we award one point for every 10 yards rushing and receiving and one point for every 25 yards passing. We also award one point for every reception. We feature a starting lineup of QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, TE and 2 FLEX (RB/WR/TE) with six reserves for a 14-round draft.

Our draft order is as follows:

1. Erik Guenther, St. Jude donor
2. Ben Mills, St. Jude donor
3. Mitch Robichaud, St. Jude donor
4. OJ Webber, St. Jude donor
5. Frank Addeo, St. Jude donor
6. Ian Maguire, St. Jude donor
7. Gary Miller, St. Jude donor
8. Pablo Giron, St. Jude donor
9. Ken Kraus, St. Jude donor
10. James Leonard, St. Jude donor
11. Art Thomas, St. Jude donor
12. Jamey Eisenberg, Senior Fantasy Writer