Fantasy football drafters sitting at 1.06 are being asked to make a decision that could define the first round, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba is one of the names forcing it. Training camp has already begun with contract hold-ins and injuries farther down depth charts threatening to shake up the board, and the top end is starting to separate in a way that matters now.
Bijan Robinson and Jahmyr Gibbs are generally expected to be gone by the time that pick comes around. Ja’Marr Chase usually goes no later than 1.04, which leaves a narrow band of elite options for managers who want a player with both ceiling and volume. Smith-Njigba belongs in that group after leading the league with 1,793 receiving yards, 119 receptions, 163 targets and 10 touchdowns last season.
That production gives him a stronger case than a simple name check. At 1.06, the draft is less about finding a safe player than finding the one whose workload can survive the season’s moving parts. Smith-Njigba fits that definition because the path to more targets looks real, and the catch total already shows how heavily the offense leaned on him. For fantasy managers, that kind of usage is hard to walk past when the board starts to thin.
The catch is that the situation around him is not static. Offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak left to become the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, and that raises a fair question about whether Sam Darnold can keep the same level of efficiency. Seattle also brought back Rashid Shaheed and let Kenneth Walker III go while Zach Charbonnet was still recovering from his ACL injury, changes that could shift how the offense distributes work without guaranteeing the same quarterback results. Smith-Njigba may see even more volume, but volume does not always arrive with identical efficiency attached.
That is why the 1.06 choice is so difficult. Christian McCaffrey and Jonathan Taylor are still in the mix, with McCaffrey coming off a season in which he was the RB1 in points per game and Taylor finishing as the fantasy RB4 in points per game despite a sharp drop to RB21 from Week 12 onward. The board offers no perfect answer, only different versions of risk, which is exactly what makes Smith-Njigba such a strong option for managers willing to bet on usage over comfort. If he is there, the decision will come down to whether the drafter wants the broadest path to elite receiving volume or prefers to chase the fading edge of the running back pool.
