Fantasy Football draft season is here, and we're full go with our annual effort to raise money for the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Last year, we raised more than $100,000 and hope to do even better in 2024.
You can donate to St. Jude here, and you'll see various Fantasy Football activities we're doing as part of our Draft-A-Thon. That includes taking part in mock drafts with our CBS Sports staff, which will happen through the end of August.
I participated in a 0.5 PPR mock draft with eleven Fantasy Football Today listeners, and we saw their reactions to injuries to Puka Nacua and Jahmyr Gibbs. Nacua fell to 19th overall and this was the first time I saw him be drafted after Cooper Kupp. I personally wouldn't draft Kupp first, but it makes some sense.
Gibbs, meanwhile, was drafted 15th overall just after Travis Etienne. His injury seems minor but this is his second hamstring injury this summer and I do think there is reason to drop him out of the first round. Early in Round 2 seems like the right spot for Gibbs.
I went with a WR/WR start to my team and was able to grab Ken Walker and Alvin Kamara in Rounds 3 and 4, respectively. It's risky to start with two WRs in a league that only requires you to start two WRs, but getting those two RBs made the strategy pay off. You can see the rest of my team below and see if you like this kind of build.
I wanted to highlight Dan Forde's team, particularly his pick of James Cook in Round 2. I know Jamey Eisenberg and Heath Cummings are particularly high on Cook, but Cook has a third-round ADP on multiple websites, so I asked Dan why he took Cook at 2.6.
"Joe Brady clearly made a difference in James Cook's fantasy value when he took over last year," Dan said. "A majority of Cook's production (and TDs) came with Brady as OC. The Bills let their #1 WR go in a trade leaving Josh Allen with an unproven group of pass catchers. To me, that shows the commitment to lean on Cook as their major offensive weapon."
Make sure you check out Dan's team and all the other teams. And thank you to everyone who donated -- and will continue to donate -- to St. Jude.
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 0.5 points for every reception. We feature a starting lineup of QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, TE and FLEX (RB/WR/TE) with six reserves for a 13-round draft.
Our draft order is as follows:
- Michelle Mazzara
- Jon Camburn
- Richard Rosso
- Matthew Parlari
- John Minier
- Seth Grossman
- Dan Forde
- Nick Feldman
- Adam Aizer
- Marlon Maloney
- OJ Webber
- Carl Price