Fantasy Football St. Jude PPR Mock Draft Recap: Two quarterbacks come off the board earlier than expected

Training camp is underway, 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 we 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.

In this 12-team, PPR mock draft, one thing that stood out was two quarterbacks being selected in Round 2 with Jalen Hurts at No. 18 overall and Josh Allen at No. 23. In most of our analyst mock drafts, quarterbacks go later, but I’m expecting potentially four quarterbacks (Hurts, Allen, Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson) to have an Average Draft Position in Round 2 this season.

Zac Ruzycki, who had the No. 2 overall pick, drafted Allen. He also started his team with two running backs (Breece Hall and De’Von Achane) and a tight end (Mark Andrews) before selecting his first receiver in Round 5, which was Zay Flowers.

I was curious about his strategy since we start three receivers in this league, and here’s what Zac said about his plan for this mock draft.

“I focused on two, high potential PPR running backs in the first three rounds and took Allen to lock up an elite quarterback,” Zac said. “I knew there would be tons of wide receiver depth later in this draft, so I consciously waited and made sure I also had a top-three tight end. After that, five of my next six picks were wide receivers, knowing a few would hit. This draft strategy was about PPR running backs, best positional advantage at tight end and quarterback, and loading up on mid-round wide receivers.”

Make sure you check out Zac’s team, as well as everyone else in this mock draft. 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 one point for every reception. We feature a starting lineup of QB, 2 RB, 3 WR, TE and FLEX (RB/WR/TE) with six reserves for a 14-round draft.

Our draft order is as follows:

1. Ryan Walsh
2. Zac Ruzycki
3. Dinesh Kalyanasundaram
4. OJ Webber
5. Tim Morrison
6. Dave Fisher
7. Joe Lynn
8. Josh Robertson
9. Jamey Eisenberg
10. Tim Cook
11. Brad Denbo
12. David Schwartz