Fantasy Football Week 17 WR rankings: Stefon Diggs continues to plummet

Weekly rankings are one of the most useful tools to reference when setting fantasy football lineups each week. Unlike season-long rankings that attempt to project how productive a player will be during the course of a season, weekly rankings focus much more on recent trends and individual matchups.

Managers who are still competing in Week 17 of the 2023 fantasy football season are well aware of how important it is to analyze each week separately in order to produce the highest fantasy scores. This is because the 2023 fantasy football playoffs are taking place this week, and in many leagues, Week 17 represents the final round for the championship.

This means that managers must go all in to set the best starting lineup possible, ignoring the need for bench depth and stashing upside players. It's all about this week alone, as it may directly crown a league champion for the 2023 NFL season. In order to set the best lineup, referring to weekly rankings can help managers sort through their options.

Wide receivers may be the most important players to reference when it comes to weekly rankings due to the unmatched depth of the position. While there are more relevant options at this position than any other by a wide margin, finding the most favorable situations contributes to maximizing weekly fantasy football scores.

Trends and matchups are among the most influential factors in creating weekly rankings and why they can drastically differ from season-long rankings. Stefon Diggs is an example of this concept. He ranks among the top-five wide receivers from a season-long perspective but lands far below that in the Week 17 fantasy football receiver rankings.

This is due to his recent struggles with the Buffalo Bills, ranking outside of the top 50 in PPR leagues in four of his past six games. He also has a relatively difficult matchup this week against a solid New England Patriots defense. Further demonstrating this example is Deebo Samuel, who represents the opposite end of the spectrum in Week 17.

Most would agree that Diggs ranks higher than Samuel in terms of season-long value but not in the Week 17 rankings. He has been on fire for the San Francisco 49ers lately, scoring seven touchdowns in his past four games. He also gets an enticing matchup against the Washington Commanders this week, who have arguably been the worst overall defense this season.

This is just one example of the many that can factor into making weekly rankings, as every possible option must be properly analyzed. Taking all of this into consideration, here's how the top 50 wide receivers stack up in Week 17.

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Week 17 fantasy football WR rankings

Week 17 WRs

1. CeeDee Lamb
2. Deebo Samuel
3. Justin Jefferson
4. Tyreek Hill
5. Chris Olave
6. Amon-Ra St. Brown
7. AJ Brown
8. Brandon Aiyuk
9. Mike Evans
10. DK Metcalf
11. Rashee Rice
12. Tee Higgins
13. Puka Nacua
14. Michael Pittman
15. Calvin Ridley
16. Cooper Kupp
17. Nico Collins
18. Stefon Diggs
19. DeAndre Hopkins
20. DJ Moore
21. Davante Adams
22. DeVonta Smith
23. Zay Flowers
24. Amari Cooper
25. Chris Godwin
26. Jerry Jeudy
27. Terry McLaurin
28. George Pickens
29. Tyler Lockett
30. Garrett Wilson
31. Noah Brown
32. Brandin Cooks
33. Drake London
34. Josh Palmer
35. Gabe Davis
36. Diontae Johnson
37. Rashid Shaheed
38. Adam Thielen
39. Jakobi Meyers
40. Odell Beckham Jr.
41. Demario Douglas
42. Jayden Reed
43. Wan'Dale Robinson
44. Tyler Boyd
45. Michael Wilson
46. Curtis Samuel
47. Jaxon Smith-Njigba
48. Josh Downs
49. Jonathan Mingo
50. Jameson Williams