Matthew Berry, ESPN Senior Writer 10y

The TMR 200: Week 1 rankings

Fantasy NFL

So, there's a very good chance this is all a terrible idea. Just warning you up front.

Hiya kids. Your friendly neighborhood TMR here, welcoming you to the 2014 fantasy football season. I know, some of you haven't drafted yet, some of you don't think the season starts until Thursday and some of you just don't think I'm all that friendly. I hears ya, and I don't disagree.

But, these days, there's some here changes round these parts, not the least of which is that I have decided to write in some sort of weird old-timey Western slang, as if I'm in a bad John Wayne movie. Hmm. Well, that's what you get when you spend a good part of your Labor Day ranking 200 players. For one week.

What?

You heard me. Not just a device for last week's bold prediction column but rather a way to introduce this new thing we are trying. My weekly rankings. Actually, my top 200 weekly rankings. Actually, my top 200 weekly rankings done flex style, with all positions ranked together. Actually, my top 200 weekly rankings done flex style, with all positions ranked together, published on Tuesday every week.

That's what we are doing this year. Unless this turns out to be a huge disaster, in which case I am totally bailing. But in the meantime, I am giving this a go.

The idea was, simply, "Hey, you're not doing baseball anymore ya lout, why don't you earn a paycheck for once?" Er, rather, the idea was that I often get flex questions that could not be answered by the way I did my ranks previously. And the ESPN game does have an option for "OP" or offensive player. Which means you could start two quarterbacks if you wanted. And we have seen an increase in two-QB leagues.

So here is my humble attempt at solving all those issues. It's the first time we are trying this, it's very early in Week 1 and it's on a short week to boot, so this will be a work in progress. Not just the actual rankings, which of course will change as the week goes on, but how we present it, what we offer, etc., etc. But the current plan is that every Tuesday afternoon, my top 200 rankings will appear with a very short intro piece from me. Oh, and a video. We're pushing video this year. Please feel free to support us and click. I couldn't care less if you watch it. We just need the click. Or someone needs the click. I assume it's us. Maybe not. Let me check and get back to you on that.

Some housekeeping: Please read or keep your dumb comments to yourself.

1. These ranks -- like all my ranks and analysis -- are geared specifically toward ESPN standard 10-team leagues, where you get four points per touchdown pass and it is NOT a PPR league.

2. That said, I did 200, which hopefully will help those in deeper leagues, two-QB leagues and potentially help find some good bargains for those of you who play daily fantasy sports. Because quarterbacks score so many points (and have the highest potential to go off on a given week), it's no surprise they dominate the top of the weekly rankings.

3. Part of the reason we are doing these on Tuesday is that we have no interest in me having any free time on Monday whatsoever. Ha! Just kidding! Probably! The benefit to Tuesday is that by seeing the ranks early, this will help inform your free-agent pick-ups before the Wednesday morning deadline on ESPN. For example, this week some defenses that are unowned in a lot of leagues, such as the Jets, Eagles, Bears and Lions, show up fairly high in the ranks. I'll also try to highlight some of those lesser-owned players in this little intro going forward.

4. As I said, this is a work in progress. Just like me. Feel free to send feedback about the format, what you'd like to see, what you don't want. Best way to reach me is Twitter or Facebook.

Thanks for reading. This is still probably a terrible idea.

[Editor's Note: These rankings were updated to remove players from Thursday's Seahawks/Packers game and now contains 198 players]

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