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USATSI

The 2024 Fantasy Football season isn't quite in full swing yet but we're gearing up and the unofficial "OK it's happening" moment for me every offseason is when we have the Fantasy Football Today magazine draft. For those who don't know, the magazine draft takes place in early June, way before training camp, and we draft a full-point PPR team with three receivers and a flex. This draft gets analyzed and has the full results published in the FFT magazine, which you will find in bookstores and airports this summer. 

The fun part is that we also play this league out! The last wrinkle allows us to draft a true roster with enough consideration given to what the benches mean for the season and how to build out each roster.

We'll save the full results and analysis for the magazine, but here are five key takeaways from the draft:

Receivers own Round 1

There was a time in Fantasy Football where even in PPR leagues you would see more running backs selected in the first round of drafts than any other position, but that time has come and gone. There were more wide receivers selected in the first round of this draft than any other position. After seeing Travis Kelce come off the board in almost every first round last summer, this draft also featured no tight ends and no quarterbacks selected in the first round. Most of the wide receivers selected were chalky picks, but we saw Garrett Wilson come off the board all the way up at No. 10 overall. Earlier this week, I broke down why Wilson is one of my most wanted players in 2024. Naturally, I love the pick by producer Thomas!

Where the rookies were drafted

Because this draft took place in early June before training camp, we've yet to experience the rookie bumps due to training camp buzz, highlights and coach speak. I expect just about every rookie selected in this draft to come off the board earlier in August drafts with the exception of Marvin Harrison Jr. Here's a look at where all of the top 12 rookies came off the board:

Zero QB?

It wasn't until the second pick in Round 4 that we saw a quarterback come off the board and it wasn't Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes, but rather Lamar Jackson. Jackson will be entering his second year in Todd Monken's offensive system and should take a step forward from a processing standpoint. A second-year breakout from Zay Flowers and a fully healthy Mark Andrews could also help Jackson take the leap and become the QB1 overall in 2024. After Jackson, Mahomes and Allen were selected within the next five picks. That's what we call a mini-position run. 

Sweet spot for tight ends?

Rounds 5-6 seem to be the sweet spot for drafting one of the last remaining tight ends with TE1 overall upside. Jamey grabbed Dalton Kincaid in the back end of Round 5 and then I followed that up by selecting Kyle Pitts with the last pick in Round 5. Just a few picks later, Brandon Howard grabbed George Kittle to avoid missing out on the position run.

What about Rice?

Rashee Rice was one of the biggest breakouts in Fantasy Football last season and should have been primed for an explosive step in Year 2 as he improves his rapport with Patrick Mahomes and gets more comfortable in Andy Reid's system. The expectation was that Rice would be propped up all the way into the Rounds 2-3 range, but an off-field incident this offseason has left his outlook murky. Rice is expected to be suspended, but there is no clarity on this yet. We don't know if he will definitely be suspended and for how many games. Given the uncertainty surrounding Rice, I was curious to see when he came off the board. Producer Thomas grabbed Rice with the third pick in Round 8. This could ultimately be a make-or-break pick for his roster.