Fantasy Football Rankings Week 1: 3 Studs Who Will Be Duds on Opening Weekend

Half the fun in fantasy football comes from trying to predict how a host of disparate factors will affect the performance of a particular NFL player on any given Sunday (and no, I'm not talking about adding Willie Beamen to my fantasy team).

Rather, I'm referring to these three stars, who are likely to leave their fantasy owners starved for points by the end of Week 1.  

Michael Vick, QB, Philadelphia Eagles

I love Michael Vick as a fantasy quarterback, just not this week or next week.

Or perhaps even until Week 4 against the San Francisco 49ers.

For now, let's not lose sight of the fact that Philly's offensive line is still very much a work in progress, which, I suppose, is an upgrade over last year's unit. The Eagles O-line in 2010 was a complete and utter failure, giving up 49 sacks and allowing Vick, in particular, to go down on 9.1 out of every 100 snaps.

The guy's got great mobility, but he's only going to be truly successful in Philly if he has a pocket to hang around in for more than, say, 1.5 seconds.

He may be lucky to get even that much time to operate against the young, athletic defensive front of the St. Louis Rams, who, as a team, combined for 43 sacks last season, the seventh-highest total in the NFL.

Marcedes Lewis, TE, Jacksonville Jaguars

The Jaguars' shocking decision to release David Garrard this week will hurt Marcedes Lewis' fantasy value much more than Maurice Jones-Drew's. Luke McCown may be anything but a quality NFL quarterback, but at least the guy knows how to hand the ball off to a running back...right?

Lewis will still be one of Jacksonville's top targets, along with Mike Thomas, but he just won't have a competent quarterback with whom to work.

Unless, of course, you think McCown's career numbers (nine touchdowns, 10 interceptions, 59.2 percent of his passes completed) suggest that Lewis will have another monster year...

Yeah, that's what I thought. 

Ray Rice, RB, Baltimore Ravens

Nobody does well against the Steelers defense, not even (and perhaps especially) Ray Rice. In four full regular-season games against Pittsburgh, Rice has yet to score a single touchdown and has only once eclipsed 100 rushing yards.

With a healthy Troy Polamalu in the lineup, the Steelers will load up against Rice in the box and dare Joe Flacco to throw the ball, whether it be to Anquan Boldin or an injured Lee Evans. What's more, when Rice does get the ball, he'll be left to operate behind a reshuffled offensive line, Michael Oher moving from left tackle to right tackle to accommodate an overweight Bryant McKinnie.

And have I mentioned yet that he'll be up against the Steelers defense, which, in 2010, limited opposing rushers to an NFL-best 3.0 yards per carry?

Follow @J0shMart1n