2026 St. Jude Fantasy football PPR mock draft 3.0: Chase Brown goes early as a bold WR-heavy build pays off

We held our final mock draft Tuesday as part of our Draft-A-Thon to benefit the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, and it was a lot of fun. There were eight people who made generous donations to St. Jude -- you can still donate by clicking here -- and we are truly grateful for everyone's support during our Draft-A-Thon.

You should study the results below of this 12-team, PPR mock as part of your draft prep. And two things of note that stood out happened with Bentz Deyo from the No. 6 overall pick.

In the first round, Deyo drafted Chase Brown ahead of Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Christian McCaffrey, James Cook and Jonathan Taylor. Most Fantasy managers won't do that -- I actually like Brown more than McCaffrey this season -- but Deyo is bullish on Brown.

"I'm very high on Chase Brown," Deyo said. "How he closed last year, and banking on a healthy Joe Burrow, I think he's set up for a big year. I see JSN going through some regression, and I'm staying away from CMC simply because I don't trust he'll play a full season."

Deyo also drafted MarShawn Lloyd in Round 6, and that's the right spot to target him. Lloyd went after Rhamondre Stevenson and ahead of Jonathon Brooks, and I'm hopeful Lloyd will be a borderline No. 2 Fantasy running back with Josh Jacobs (Commissioner's Exempt List) out.

Deyo is cautiously optimistic for Lloyd this year.

"I wasn't enamored with the Lloyd pick, but I didn't love the wide receivers there," Deyo said. "I guess I'm crossing my fingers with this selection that Jacobs will be out all season, and I get the starting running back on a good offense in the sixth round. Who knows?"

Deyo's roster ended up with Dak Prescott at quarterback, and Brown, Bhayshul Tuten, Lloyd, Woody Marks and Braelon Allen are the running backs. At receiver, Deyo has A.J. Brown, Davante Adams, Quentin Johnston, De'Zhaun Stribling and KC Concepcion. The tight ends are Colston Loveland and Dalton Kincaid.

This is an excellent roster, and Deyo should be in playoff contention this season. I also like my squad from the No. 11 spot.

I've talked a lot about going RB-RB from the back end of Round 1. Here, I went WR-WR-WR with CeeDee Lamb, Justin Jefferson and Ladd McConkey as my first three picks.

I can play all three receivers, with McConkey in the flex, and it worked out well that I still got Travis Etienne in Round 4, David Montgomery in Round 5 and Stevenson in Round 6. You'll need a little luck to get those caliber of running backs after starting WR-WR-WR, but it worked out in this draft.

Justin Herbert is my quarterback, and I added Kyle Monangai, Chris Rodriguez Jr. and Emmett Johnson to round out my backfield. I only selected one other receiver in Brian Thomas Jr., and my tight ends are Mark Andrews and Terrance Ferguson.

This should be a playoff team, but we'll see what happens during the season. Again, thank you to everyone who donated to St. Jude, and good luck with your Fantasy teams this year.

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, 2 WR, TE and a FLEX (RB/WR/TE) with six reserves for a 13-round draft.

Our draft order is as follows:

1. Jack Foster, St. Jude donor
2. Joe Capalbo, St. Jude donor
3. James Ernst, St. Jude donor
4. Thomas Denardo, St. Jude donor
5. Thomas Shafer, FFT Podcast Producer
6. Bentz Deyo, St. Jude donor
7. Evelyn Ernst, St. Jude donor
8. Adam Aizer, FFT Podcast Host
9. Chandan Yadav, St. Jude donor
10. Heath Cummings, Senior Fantasy Writer
11. Jamey Eisenberg, Senior Fantasy Writer
12. Tim Kremin, St. Jude donor