Fantasy Football Week 17 Running Back Preview: Injuries we are watching, DFS plays, and more
Everything you need to know about the running back position for Fantasy Football in Week 17
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2 min read
Welcome to Fantasy Football Championship Week. Congratulations if you are still alive. This will be the last week of my position preview. Let's go get a championship! While there will be plenty of content for those trying to win it all this week, I look to also take a look ahead this time of year to 2026. So you'll still find waiver wire adds, numbers to know, and Week 17 DFS plays below like normal. But to start, I would like to offer a short overview as to what the position might look like in 2026.
Running back is the position with the most annual turnover, so we won't get too far ahead of ourselves, but there are a few sure things at the top. Jahmyr Gibbs, Bijan Robinson, De'Von Achane, Jonathan Taylor, and James Cook will all be at the top of the rankings. Chrsitian McCaffrey, even in his Age 30 season, likely will be too. Josh Jacobs won't be top six, but he's the next best bet to be top 12. Then it gets pretty hairy.
Will the Raiders do enough to improve their line so that Ashton Jeanry is a top 12 back again? Can fellow rookies TreVeyon Henderson, Omarion Hampton, or RJ Harvey crack the first two rounds? Where are Travis Etienne and Javonte Williams playing? If they stay put they could be top 12. Chase Brown probably will be as well.
After those guys, expect a bit of a free-for-all. Free agency and the NFL Draft will help sort things out, but aging veterans like Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry will be tough to rank no matter what happens around them.
Now let's get to the rest of the Week 17 RB Preview:
Week 17 RB Preview
RB Preview
Numbers to know
- 1,154 -- Ashton Jeanty leads all rookies with 1,154 yards from scrimmage. He hasn't met expectations, but he's done well considering the circumstances.
- 372 -- Christian McCaffrey leads the NFL with 372 touches. So much for injury risk.
- 55.9% -- Kimani Vidal played 55.9% of the offensive snaps the last three weeks. If he is out, Omarion Hampton is a must-start running back.
- 39 -- Kenneth Gainwell has 39 catches since Week 9. Jahmyr Gibbs is the only running back with more catches in that stretch, Start Gainwell.
- 33.7% -- More than a third of Shedeur Sanders' passes have gone to running backs. With Quinshon Judkins, Dylan Sampson, and Jerome Ford all currently out, both Raheim Sanders and Trayveon Williams could be in play as flexes.
- 0 -- Week 16 was the first time this season that Bucky Irving did not see a target. He has lost passing downs to Rachaad White and short yardage to Sean Tucker. Irving is a trap back and a flex.
RB Preview
Waiver Wire Targets
Week 17 Adds (RB Preview)
Carter is still just 60% rostered and is the highest ranked waiver wire running back in our consensus rankings this week. He ran well last week but his receiving production disappeared. I would expect a bounce back in Week 17 for this entire offense and would expect around 15 touches for Carter. Part of the reason for his low volume was that the team only ran 56 offensive plays. They should have the ball longer against the Bengals.
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Sanders wil handle the early down work in place of Quinshon Judkins and is the most likely Browns running back to score a touchdown. The Steelers were very good against the run last week but have been mostly mediocre this season, giving up 4.3 yards per carry to running backs. Sanders is a high end flex in non-PPR and a midrange flex in full PPR.
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If you miss Sanders, Williams is a sneaky backup plan who could actually be the best Browns' back in full PPR. Williams had a 25% target share in the second half of Week 16 and could be in line to catch five passes. The Steelers have allowed 27 catches to running backs in their last four games.
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RB Preview
DFS Plays
Top DFS Play
Projections powered by
Sportsline
Gibbs is the clear top back on the Christmas slate. I project him to score eight more points than any other running back on the slate. I don't know how you make that up on a three-game slate. Find values somewhere else.
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Jeanty just had 25 touches and produced 188 yards and two touchdowns. You would be forgiven if you accused me of chasing points. But this is not that. In Week 17 he gets his first good matchup since before Christmas.The Giants are giving up 26.47 PPR FPPG to opposing running backs and 5.71 yards per carry to the position on the year. Jeanty could be the RB1 this week.
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Contrarian DFS Play
Projections powered by
Sportsline
Assuming TreVeyon Henderson is out this week, Rhamondre Stevenson could be looking at 20 touches against the New York Jets. I still don't think he'll be a popular play because we have spent the whole season begging him to get out of Henderson's way. While Stevenson has been bad as a rusher he has actually been awesome as a pass catcher and should handle most of those duties on Sunday, at least until the game gets out of hand.
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RB Preview
Heath's Projections
My full set of Week 17 Fantasy football projections for every position are now available on SportsLine. Find out which of my favorite plays are projected to score higher than consensus rankings and which don't live up to their draft hype, at least in Week 17. Projected stats for all starting running backs are available, so be sure to check out the full set of projections at SportsLine.
