Fantasy Football: Week 17 RB rankings
While most fantasy football leagues conduct their championship game in week 16, some leagues still hold their title game in week 17. That creates the extra challenge of trying to forecast playing time in addition to evaluating matchups.
That said, here are our top five fantasy running backs for week 17:
1. Chris Johnson, Titans (at Seahawks): No player will be more watched in week 17 than "Every Coach's Dream." Johnson is 128 yards shy of 2,000 and 233 yards shy of Eric Dickerson's record of 2,105. With a streak of ten straight games of 100+ yards, 128 seems like a sure thing. With a season-high performance of 228, the single-season record seems like a possible stretch goal. In the past 10 games, Johnson has also scored 11 touchdowns.
2. Ray Rice, Ravens (at Raiders): Rice was one of the guys that I expected to have a breakout year and I suggested you target him in your fantasy football draft in the pre-season. Now in a meaningful win-and-you're-in game against the run-friendly Raiders should allow Rice to cap his breakout season. No team has allowed more rushing touchdowns than the Raiders, who have allowed 21 rushing scores.
3. Maurice Jones-Drew, Jaguars (at Browns): Pocket Hercules has a nose for the endzone reaching pay dirt 16 times this season. Of course, his most famous TD was the one that he didn't score. But only Adrian Peterson has more rushing TDs (17) than Jones-Drew (15) has. Although the Browns have finished strong with their three-game winning streak, they have allowed the second-most fantasy points to opposing running backs this season. Despite the Jaguars chances of making the playoffs being remote due to the need of help/tie-breakers, there is plenty of incentive to give MJD a healthy dose of touches in week 17.
4. Adrian Peterson, Vikings (vs Giants): The Vikings have stumbled to the regular-season finish line losing three of their final four games. With another loss, there's a good chance that the Vikings could enter the playoffs without a bye. In other words, they have incentive to play AD and the rest of the Vikings offensive (and defensive) starters. Peterson leads the NFL with 17 rushing touchdowns and only two teams have allowed more rushing touchdowns than the Giants, who gave up a 206-yard game against Carolina's Jonathan Stewart last week.
5. Frank Gore, 49ers (at Rams): Along with the Raiders, no team has allowed more rushing touchdowns than the Rams (21). And the Rams have allowed the fourth-most fantasy points to opposing running backs this season. In the past three weeks, Gore has 345 rushing yards and two touchdowns. He also has nine receptions for 110 yards during that span. If the one-win Rams fall behind early, Gore should be the recipient of plenty of carries and generate a ton of fantasy points.
Click here to view our full running back rankings for week 17.
