Week 1 Flex Rankings

Week 1 of the 2026 NFL season is officially upon us. The offseason has felt like its own long, arduous journey. The months of forecasting from the NFL Draft through training camp and preseason are finally over. It is time to put what we have learned and what we think we’ve learned into practice. That starts with my Week 1 Flex rankings, which I’ll publish here every Wednesday.

Make sure to check out all of our Week 1 Fantasy Football Rankings and Analysis!

Week 1 is the week where weekly rankings will look most like preseason rankings. That is because players are about as healthy as they’ll be over the next four months. Because of that, you generally want to start your studs. We all know that some players that you drafted in the first few rounds are bound to disappoint us. Meanwhile, at least one player tied to your bench might go off. But I am not benching James Cook just because the Buffalo Bills are facing the Houston Texans on the road. If he struggles on Sunday, so be it. None of us can predict the future, including your favorite AI chatbot. You want to make smart decisions each week. If your process is solid, the results will follow most of the time.

With that caveat out of the way, let’s get to the good stuff. Below are my Week 1 Flex rankings. I have ranked over 250 total players based on Half-PPR scoring. Between the relative health of the player pool and the fact that all 32 NFL teams are in action, this is about as deep as the pool is likely to get. While the exact number of players in my Flex rankings may vary from week to week, I will rank at least 200 players every week. That should be more than enough for fantasy football leagues of all shapes and sizes.

Feel free to adjust these rankings based on your league settings. Because these are not full PPR rankings, starting running backs generally take precedence over wide receivers. I ranked 25 running backs higher than my 20^th overall wide receiver. If your league requires you to start two running backs and two wide receivers, your starting Flex could be a running back or a wideout. But in leagues that start three wide receivers, my Week 1 Flex is almost always going to be a running back. I also rarely start a tight end in my Flex spot. Assuming a 12-team league, my overall TE13 (Juwan Johnson) is barely a top-100 overall Week 1 Flex option based on my rankings.

Week 1 Flex Rankings