Picking sixth overall brings good news on several fronts. For one, you're guaranteed a top-eight player, and there appears to be a consensus on who those top-eight are. Secondly, you're likely to like your second-round pick because there's an additional consensus of who should be a top-20 pick and one of them is guaranteed to fall to you at 19th overall. And there's also this gross pool of players once you get to 45th overall -- you'll have four players on your team before that happens.
So don't be unhappy that you don't have a top-five choice. It could be worse.
For this pick-by-pick series, we're asked to draft a team that starts three wide receivers and a flex, so the wideout position is pretty significant. That made taking Ja'Marr Chase easy, but it also helped that I didn't have to debate Chase versus Breece Hall (who went fourth) or Bijan Robinson (who went fifth).
I love those running backs and there's no question I'd want them on my team, but if you're committed to taking at least one receiver with your first two picks, you won't LOVE who's left when you're up in Round 2.
In this draft, the best available receivers when I was up in Round 2 included Davante Adams, Nico Collins, the 49ers studs, Jaylen Waddle, and Mike Evans. It feels a little too soon to take any of them with the 19th overall pick.
Compare those names to Travis Etienne, Isiah Pacheco, Rachaad White, and James Cook. Those running backs are much more palatable in Round 2. I think at least two if not all four of those names (and maybe others like Saquon Barkley or Kyren Williams) will be at your service at 19th overall. Knowing the types of running backs that will be there in Round 2, you could easily "plan ahead" and take the stud receiver first knowing you'll get a real good RB with your next pick.
I opted for a balanced approach where I waited for a quarterback and really, REALLY waited for a tight end. That's the downside of racking up lots of rushers and wideouts with 10 of my first 11 picks.
Here's my squad from the sixth pick:
1.06 Justin Jefferson, WR, MIN
2.07 Travis Etienne, RB, JAC
3.06 Brandon Aiyuk, WR, SF
4.07 Josh Jacobs, RB, GB
5.06 Tank Dell, WR, HOU
6.07 Zamir White, RB, LV
7.06 Christian Watson, WR, GB
8.07 Jordan Love, QB, GB
9.06 Austin Ekeler, RB, WAS
10.07 Dontayvion Wicks, WR, GB
11.06 MarShawn Lloyd, RB, GB
12.07 Dallas Goedert, TE, PHI
13.06 Audric Estime, RB, DEN
14.07 Hunter Henry, TE, NE
Can you tell I'm in on the Packers offense?!
You already know how I got Chase and Etienne. Having one RB and one WR gave me the flexibility to pick anyone without much pressure moving forward. But knowing that it's a three-receiver one-flex league, and knowing that I'm drafting with people who love to draft receivers, it was an easy call to take my highest-ranked wideout, Aiyuk, in Round 3. I did not follow my board here -- Rachaad White, Josh Jacobs, and Sam LaPorta were still there to take, but I leaned into my league's tendencies and my league's roster requirements instead.
Much to my surprise, Jacobs fell to me in Round 4. I didn't plan it this way, and I might have taken DK Metcalf over Jacobs had the team at Pick 7 not sniped me on Metcalf. But a volume runner with a consistent Fantasy floor over his career in a better offense than he's used to sure seemed like a deal at 43rd overall. And I made it a point to get rookie RB MarShawn Lloyd later in the draft as well.
The league's roster rules pushed me toward taking a receiver again in Round 5, but it wasn't easy. I went into the draft with Stefon Diggs one spot ahead of Tank Dell, and in this moment I opted to make a switch. I thought about Dell's upside versus Diggs in a new role. I considered the target volume for both of them and determined that it's far more likely for Dell to have a number closer to what he had as a rookie than what Diggs had last year. And I just can't stop thinking about the chemistry already built between Dell and C.J. Stroud. We saw it last season! So in the name of upside, excitement, and Fantasy site content, I took Dell. And you know what? I don't regret having him as my No. 3 WR instead of Diggs.
So with most of my roster requirements filled, I spent my sixth-round pick on ... another running back. I chose Zamir White of the Raiders not because of his immense upside based on last season or to have a stranglehold on the running back depth, but because he simply was the best player available in my rankings. I had already done enough kowtowing to the receiver rules and could afford to splurge on a back who proved to be a good runner in a mediocre offense last year but also has some underrated upside as a receiver (13 targets and nine catches in his last four games).
The plan was to get a quarterback in Round 7, but Christian Watson sliding to the middle of the round changed that. So I went with Jordan Love in Round 8 instead at what I consider a steal of a value. And I did the Watson pick one better when I chose Dontayvion Wicks in Round 10 -- whenever Watson misses time, Wicks is a candidate to pick up the slack. Taking two receivers from the same team is a bad idea if it means spending early picks, but not if it means spending mid- to late-round picks.
Lastly, my exuberance for focusing on receivers and running backs with 10 of my first 11 picks meant beginning the season streaming tight ends. That's what I'll do with Dallas Goedert and Hunter Henry, leaving me an ugly spot at tight end, but one I can probably improve on as the season marches forward.
Love averaged 25 Fantasy points per game in his final nine last year and led the Packers to a surprise playoff win and nearly a second one. He played well with his top receivers in and out of the lineup. I think he's got a great chance to continue posting numbers, certainly better than anyone else I could have taken at 91st overall.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
I don't regret taking Jacobs in Round 4 at all. I think he's good in Round 3 in a two-receiver setting. But he was the first of 17 Packers players I took. Okay, not 17, just five, but still five is A LOT from the same team. How many weeks will Jacobs and Love and Watson ALL have good numbers? Probably not very many -- last year Love, a Packers RB, and at least one Packers WR all had good Fantasy totals four times. SOME of that had to do with a run game that just didn't do a whole lot until late in the season. Had I known I was going to be so heavy on Cheeseheads, I probably would have passed on Jacobs for Alvin Kamara.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Jacobs is a good candidate, but the talk of Travis Etienne losing some high-value snaps to other backs definitely puts him in the high-risk, high-reward category. So much went right for Etienne last season, from his touches to his reception total to his touchdowns. No question, he can be that good again this year, especially since Jacksonville's offensive line has been improved upon. But if he loses even as many as four touchdowns to a teammate and takes a step back in any way, this pick will feel like a let-down.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
