2021 Fantasy Football Week 17 PPR Rankings

We have reached the final week of the fantasy football season; it’s time to bring home the final prize and win the championship! Every decision you make could be the difference between winning it all and coming away empty-handed. The best resource to make those tough sit/start decisions? Well, I am glad you asked; my Week 17 PPR Rankings! Every week, I’ll be providing you with my personal rankings for every position, excluding defense and kicker, who will be ranked later in the week. Who’s positioned to do some damage this week? Who might not be the ideal player to start this week? We’ll answer all of that in the paragraphs ahead.

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Week 17 Positional Notes

Quarterback

• Make sure to monitor Lamar Jackson’s ankle injury this week. You’re starting him if he plays, but if he cannot play, you’ll want to have a backup plan, similar to what you did last week.
• In terms of backup plans, Trey Lance gets the start this week if Jimmy Garoppolo misses time with a thumb inury, while Justin Fields, Taysom Hill, and Tyler Huntley (if Jackson doesn’t play) should all be back in action. All of these quarterbacks present top-ten upside with their rushing production.
• Joe Burrow was awesome last week with 525 passing yards, but can we count on the Bengals to continue to be a pass-heavy offense? Their top-two games in terms of early-down passing have come against the Ravens, so we’ll need to see continued commitment against the Chiefs this week. Unfortunately, I’m a bit skeptical, keeping him outside the top-ten in my Week 17 PPR Rankings.

The Bengals had their highest neutral pass rate of the year in Week 16. pic.twitter.com/reoubYXF4E

— Hayden Winks (@HaydenWinks) December 27, 2021

Running Back

• Facing a Jets defense allowing the most rush attempts and fantasy points to running backs, Ronald Jones is a fringe top-five running back in my Week 17 PPR Rankings.
• Assuming Elijah Mitchell returns, he’ll be a potential league winner this week against the Texans, who are allowing the fourth-most fantasy points to running backs. It’ll likely be a very run-heavy game script with Trey Lance under center, though there is always the concern of Lance or Deebo Samuel taking away red-zone carries.
• With Clyde-Edwards Helaire out for Week 17 with a collarbone injury, fire up Darrel Williams as a high-end RB2. The Bengals have some warts against running backs as is, and Williams was receiving 20 touches when Edwards-Helaire was out previously.
• Devin Singletary (Falcons) and Rashaad Penny (Lions) each have cemented themselves as the clear lead back on their respective offenses, and with money matchups this week, are inside the top-20 of my Week 17 PPR Rankings.
• Jordan Howard and Boston Scott will presumably split touches with Miles Sanders out for this week with a hand injury.

Wide Receivers

• With target shares of 50% or higher last week, Antonio Brown and AJ Brown are top-ten wide receivers in my Week 17 PPR Rankings.
• We finally saw Deebo Samuel get back to his usual role with ten targets or more usage as a typical wide receiver. Transitioning to Trey Lance adds some extra risk, but it’s hard to not view him as a WR1 this week.
• With Carson Wentz going on the COVID-19 list, I’d recommend sitting Michael Pittman Jr., who already can be volatile on a week-to-week basis in a run-heavy offense.
• After playing 88% of the snaps and demonstrating his prowess as a receiver with 11 receptions on 12 targets for 125 receiving yards, it’s hard to not view Isaiah McKenzie as a low-end WR2 at the very least. That is, however, only the case if Cole Beasley and Gabriel Davis remain on the COVID-19 list.

Tight End

• Facing a struggling defense allowing the fifth-most points to tight ends and still seeing excellent utilization, Tyler Higbee is a tight end I would look to start this week.
• Gerald Everett and Noah Fant each saw near full-time roles last week and have strong matchups this week.
• Mo Allie-Cox will be filling in for the injured Jack Doyle as the sole tight end in this offense. Having no Carson Wentz hurts, but the Raiders are allowing the fourth-most points to tight ends and few waiver-wire tight ends will see the utilization Allie-Cox may see.

Week 17 PPR Rankings

More of our Week 17 Rankings: QB | RB | WR | TE | PPR |

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