Last year, if you had the No. 1 overall pick in your Fantasy league, you had an easy choice with Christian McCaffrey. Is that the same thing this season? The answer is yes -- take McCaffrey without hesitation.
While McCaffrey missed the majority of 2020 with ankle and shoulder injuries, he's still the top player coming into this season. Hopefully, he stays healthy for most of the year and has another record-breaking campaign like he had in 2019.
Now, after you draft McCaffrey is when the fun begins. Your job is to put great players on the same Fantasy team with McCaffrey and hopefully build a championship roster.
We'll get to that in a moment. But first, let's explain why you're here at the start of our pick-by-pick series.
What we've done here with this 12-part series on CBS Sports is a four-man, 0.5 PPR mock draft between me, Heath Cummings, Chris Towers and Dave Richard. We each built three of the 12 teams in this 15-round draft to show you a different strategy from each spot.
This is an outline that you can follow if you pick from any of these draft spots in your league. The key is to study the strategy and not necessarily the players to see if this works for you.
Each team is different, and we offer an explanation of how each roster was built. None of these teams are perfect, but the strategy behind them is something you might use on Draft Day.
As a reference point, all touchdowns in this league 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, 3 WR, TE and FLEX (RB/WR/TE).
Here's my team from No. 1 overall:
1.1: Christian McCaffrey, RB, Panthers
2.12: Justin Jefferson, WR, Vikings
3.1: J.K. Dobbins, RB, Ravens
4.12: Mike Evans, WR, Buccaneers
5.1: Darrell Henderson, RB, Rams
6.12: DeVonta Smith, WR, Eagles
7.1: Tyler Boyd, WR, Bengals
8.12: Laviska Shenault, WR, Jaguars
9.1: Latavius Murray, RB, Saints
10.12: Tom Brady, QB, Buccaneers
11.1: Jarvis Landry, WR, Browns
12.12: Logan Thomas, TE, Washington
13.1: Chuba Hubbard, RB, Panthers
14.12: Gerald Everett, TE, Seahawks
15.1: Jamison Crowder, WR, Jets
It's easy to love your Fantasy team at the start of training camp, but I would take this roster in any format. The only weakness on this team is tight end, and I wish we were playing out this league.
I love my depth at running back and receiver -- my flex options are Henderson, Boyd, Shenault, Murray and Landry -- and Brady is a top-10 quarterback. This team is stacked, and you want to feel giddy about your Fantasy roster following the draft. I smile every time I look at this team.
And, to cover myself, in case something happens with McCaffrey, I drafted Hubbard in Round 14. I don't ever want to use him this season, but it's not bad to handcuff McCaffrey after what happened in 2020.
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I have a lot of favorite picks on this team, including Henderson, Smith, Boyd, Murray and Brady. But I chose Shenault for this category because I love his upside in his sophomore campaign. He could emerge as the No. 1 receiver in Jacksonville for Trevor Lawrence, and I drafted Shenault as my No. 5 receiver on this team. That's an amazing value given his potential this year.
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I love Dobbins as a high-end No. 2 running back, but he still has to prove he can be a weekly starter this season and hold off Gus Edwards for the lead job. I drafted Dobbins in the right spot in 0.5 PPR, but I selected him ahead of Patrick Mahomes, Darren Waller and D.K. Metcalf, which could be a mistake.
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Tight end is the only weak spot on this team, but if Thomas can repeat as a top-10 Fantasy option like he was in 2020 then this team is stacked. I took Everett as a flier since he has sleeper potential as the new starter in Seattle, so hopefully, I'm covered. But if both fail then I'll be streaming tight end all season, which isn't ideal.
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