Biggest Single-Week Fantasy Performances of 2017

Who Had the Biggest Fantasy Week of 2017?

Julio Jones of the Atlanta Falcons stands alone at the top of the single-week chart for 2017 with a best week of 51 fantasy points. That outburst towers over the rest of the field: Todd Gurley of the Los Angeles Rams is next at 50, and after him the drop to Kareem Hunt at 46 is the sharpest fall anywhere on the board. No other player in this group topped Julio Jones's single-week high of 51.

The chase pack behind those three breaks into pairs. Antonio Brown of the Pittsburgh Steelers topped out at 42 and Ezekiel Elliott of the Dallas Cowboys at 41, while Keenan Allen of the Los Angeles Chargers and Le'Veon Bell of the Pittsburgh Steelers each hit 40. Alex Smith of the Kansas City Chiefs, at 38, and Stefon Diggs of the Minnesota Vikings and Alvin Kamara of the New Orleans Saints, at 37 apiece, close out the top ten best weeks of the year.

The Top 10 Best Weeks of the 2017 Season

Here is the full board, ranked by each player's best single week in 2017, alongside the season-long numbers that give that week its context.

| Rank by season points | Player | Team | Games | Points | Points per game | Best week | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | 1 | Julio Jones | Atlanta Falcons | 16 | 252 | 16 | 51 | | 2 | Todd Gurley | Los Angeles Rams | 16 | 383 | 24 | 50 | | 3 | Kareem Hunt | Kansas City Chiefs | 16 | 295 | 18 | 46 | | 4 | Antonio Brown | Pittsburgh Steelers | 16 | 308 | 19 | 42 | | 5 | Ezekiel Elliott | Dallas Cowboys | 11 | 203 | 18 | 41 | | 6 | Keenan Allen | Los Angeles Chargers | 16 | 278 | 17 | 40 | | 7 | Le'Veon Bell | Pittsburgh Steelers | 16 | 343 | 21 | 40 | | 8 | Alex Smith | Kansas City Chiefs | 16 | 295 | 18 | 38 | | 9 | Stefon Diggs | Minnesota Vikings | 15 | 198 | 13 | 37 | | 10 | Alvin Kamara | New Orleans Saints | 16 | 312 | 20 | 37 |

Why the Best-Week Column Does Not Follow the Scoring Race

The season-long scoring race and the single-week chart disagree in a way that defined 2017. Gurley dominated the total-points race with 383, yet it was Jones, ranked only first among wide receivers on this list but carrying the modest per-game average of 16, who owned the year's highest peak. Gurley paired his 383-point season with the 50-point week, making him the only player who threatened Jones at the top of both boards.

Bell presents the mirror image of Jones. His 343 points rank second among the ten players here and his 21 points per game sit near the front of the pack, but his best week of 40 ties him with Keenan Allen, whose season total of 278 sits far below Bell's. Bell was the steadier week-to-week force; Allen's season contained the taller spike.

Kamara tells a similar story on the season-long side. His 312 points and 20 per game placed him among the top overall scorers of 2017, but his best week of 37 shares the bottom line with Diggs, whose 198 points were the lowest total on the board. Consistency and explosiveness split in different directions all over this list, and the 2017 season captured that split as cleanly as any year.

The Running Back Grip on the 2017 Explosive Weeks

Running backs claimed the three biggest single weeks of 2017 if you measure by career-year peaks, with Gurley at 50, Hunt at 46 and Elliott at 41 — but Jones's 51 sits above them all, making a wide receiver the single most explosive fantasy scorer of the year. Elliott's 41-point best week came within an 11-game season, the shortest on the board, which makes his peak stand out against his reduced sample. Diggs also posted his 37-point week in a 15-game season.

The Los Angeles teams deserve a note here. Gurley's Rams week of 50 and Allen's Chargers week of 40 gave both Los Angeles franchises a place on the board in the same season, a quirk of the 2017 landscape. The Pittsburgh Steelers are the only club with two entries, Brown and Bell, and their best weeks of 42 and 40 landed next to each other in the standings.