Like congressional politics, Hollywood producing, Internet dating and the bestowing of National Book Awards, ranking football players for fantasy purposes is equal parts art and science. Don't get me wrong, I crunch numbers with the best of 'em. But this particular calculus comes with a heaping helping of fudge.

Sorry to put the cart before the horse. Let me start over. Hi, my name is Chris, and I'm a rank-o-holic. I'll be writing a weekly positional rankings column for ESPN.com all season, and it won't be my first time.

I've been accused of Michael Vick-loving, Michael Vick-hating and Michael Vick-ignoring in my day, and have received e-mails from fans of all 32 NFL teams asking me why I disrespected their hometown players. In this column, I'm asked to peel back the curtain, as it were, and explain how and why I arrive at my rankings for a given week. By way of overview, what I can tell you is that the method to my particular madness involves a lot of statistics, a lot of Excel, and then some good old-fashioned subjective rejiggering.  
 

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