Rest-Of-Season Rankings: Week 1

Rest-of-season fantasy football rankings for QB, RB, WR, and TE; your guide for lineups, waiver claims, and trades, put together weekly by Dave Kluge.

Dave Kluge's Rest-Of-Season Rankings: Week 1 Dave Kluge Published 09/08/2026

Welcome to Week 0! These are the first and last rest-of-season rankings I'll publish before we have actual NFL games to work with. Every week between now and the end of the fantasy football season, I will publish updated Rest-Of-Season Rankings. Along with those rankings, readers will be able to see how much a player moved from the previous week (indicated by a “+” or “-”), additions to the overall set, and write-ups for major movers. To set the table for this season-long project, however, we’ll start with baseline rankings as we head into Week 1.

For those who followed along in the preseason, you may notice that these are the same as the rankings from my Draft Guide. These rankings are how I value players in fantasy drafts, and how I expect them to be valued over the rest of the season. They will, of course, be flipped on their head over the next few weeks as we get an onslaught of new information. Who is acclimating to their new teams, and who isn’t? What rookies are ready for NFL action, and who needs some time? What trusty veterans has Father Time come knocking for? We’ll get clarity on ambiguous backfields and receiver pecking orders. We can speculate all we want throughout the preseason, but we’ll get those answers quickly as the season opens.

After the season does its initial lambasting of my pre-draft rankings, we’ll keep tweaking them in-season. Injuries drive a lot of major movers, changing situations and opening doors for opportunity. Draft-day sleepers who have been snoozing through the first few weeks may start cracking their eyes open. Underperformers may feel their seats heating up as backups push for larger roles. 

And as we get later into the season, the picture becomes much clearer. We can start looking ahead at future matchups, speculating who will finish the season with a bang or a whimper. While injuries and news will still drive major movement, a smaller sample of final games allows for more dramatic shifts in rankings, as we can forecast better over a small remaining sample.

The purpose of this article is to provide a weekly guide to help you get a snapshot of the league’s ever-changing landscape. While it will help readers look forward, it forces me to look back. And it provides more than just numbers. By pairing rankings with context, you should gain a clearer understanding of how and why player values are changing, and what’s essential and what’s not. If one of your rostered players has been slowly dropping down the rankings for a few weeks, it might be time to move on. When you’re searching for players on the waiver wire and notice one of your rostered players well below a handful of available guys, that’s your cue to make a claim. And you can also use this as a trade guide, trying to make moves for players with better rest-of-season value.

Here are the baseline rankings this rest-of-season series requires. For the sake of these articles, assume full PPR. I’ll see you next week!

Rest-Of-Season Rankings

Rest-Of-Season Quarterback Rankings

Along with a big-picture intro and write-ups on major movers every week, I’ll also provide analysis on each position. There isn’t much to write in the preseason, but you can expect that here. Quarterbacks typically only see big shifts from injuries or newly declared starters, but I’ll do my best to read the tea leaves on the latter and anticipate those changes before they happen.

USA TODAY Sports via Reuters Connect rest of season rankings

Rest-Of-Season Running Back Rankings

Running backs are, without a doubt, the most volatile of all positions. They get hurt at a higher rate than other positions. Workloads frequently shift to hot hands. Rookies often make late-season impacts. This is the position you can expect the biggest weekly changes from. It’s good practice to churn the bottom of your roster with running backs who are nearing larger opportunity. Skate to where the puck will be.

IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Rest-Of-Season Wide Receiver Rankings

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