Brock Bowers being ruled out for Week 1 is the kind of news that sends fantasy managers scrambling, and if you drafted him in the second round, I feel for you. The updated rankings for every position are out, courtesy of the MSN rankings update, and the tight end tier took the biggest hit. Bowers was the rare tight end you could plug in and forget about. Now you're guessing again.

Let me tell you what I told a buddy of mine in my league this morning: when your anchor tight end goes down before the season even starts you don't chase the ceiling, you chase the floor. In my book, the usual suspects behind Bowers, your Sam LaPortas and Trey McBrides and George Kittles of the world, just became the whole ballgame at the position, and after that you're digging through the waiver wire hoping somebody's mother told them about opportunity. The names after the top few have always been a coin flip. That was true when Antonio Gates and Tony Gonzalez were carrying fantasy teams and it's true now.

The rest of the rankings shuffle is the usual Week 1 business. Running backs get sorted by touch volume, wide receivers by target projections, and quarterbacks by matchup. And Week 1 is where I'll repeat something I wrote in my draft guide back in August: last year's box scores lie more in September than in any other month. Defenses are vanilla, snaps are managed, and in my experience the guy who scores two touchdowns in the opener is rarely somebody you want to pay a premium for a month later. I've watched that movie since before PPR was a household term.

The smart play with Bowers out is patience. Hold him if you can absorb the zero, stream a cheap tight end against a soft coverage scheme, and let the Raiders' passing game tell you who actually eats the targets in his absence. Somebody has to catch passes in Las Vegas, and finding out who that is before your leaguemates do beats any September panic trade.

One more thing. Check the rankings again Sunday morning before you set your lineup. The inactive lists come out 90 minutes before kickoff for a reason, and the difference between a good Week 1 and a bad one usually comes down to paying attention while everyone else is still eating breakfast.