Keep Your Head On A Swivel Leading Up To Week 17 Kickoff
In today's Fantasy Life Newsletter, presented by Xfinity ...
We’re about to put our fantasy pencils down for the final time during this most festive time of year … what a ride it's been. Allow me to dig deep into my Santa sack to extend this heartfelt holiday advice—No retreat, no surrender and definitely no mercy for your Week 17 championship foe. Throat, meet foot. You can apologize over eggnog after it's all over …
Championship week means now or never—and though I’d love to drop some hard-and-fast rules for success, it’s never been more important to understand your league rules first. Make sure you’re well aware of every nook and cranny; it could save your season.
If your league does NOT allow free agency (first-come-first-served) adds on Sunday …
Buck all conventional wisdom and back up everyone, especially your onesie positions (QB/TE). This involves really focusing on lineup decisions beforehand, to ensure you’re not dropping anyone useful this weekend. With that, if there’s a mishap during warmups or some other unforeseen occurrence, you’ll be really glad you have QB Tyler Shough or TE Darren Waller, for example. It could be the difference between victory and defeat.
If your league DOES allow free agency (first-come-first-served) adds on Sunday …
Drop everything not nailed down, including your kicker and defense. Back to that lack of mercy I mentioned—being first to add an outlying handcuff that winds up making a difference may boost your roster, or even better … subtracts from your opponent.
Week 17 provides a bunch of spots to practice exactly what I’m preaching as question marks continue to swirl. Is Josh Jacobs actually hurt, or was he benched for fumbling? I’m not banking on anything from Matt LaFleur’s mouth. Seems plausible to add Emanuel Wilson without waiting to find out.
We know Quinshon Judkins’ season is over. Is Dylan Sampson fully recovered from his recent hand/calf injury? He’s a decent flex play in the pass game as an underdog against the Steelers—but do we trust Raheim Sanders or Trayveon Williams if not? I don’t …
Same goes for Rhamondre Stevenson, who may project as a top-five RB with a full workload against the stinky Jets as a double-digit favorite—but only if TreVeyon Henderson can’t get on the field Sunday. Heads on a swivel until kickoff, people.
Wide receiver’s a barren wasteland, short of a longshot play somewhere in the Steel City. Without DK Metcalf, there isn’t another WR on the team inside the top-75 this season. Is Calvin Austin III healthy enough to play the one? Or will it go to last week’s route leader, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, who reeled in one of three targets for all of six yards? Either way, not sure I’d bother.
Speaking of Pittsburgh, the big beneficiary of Metcalf’s suspension could and should be TE Darnell Washington, who, besides being a joy to watch rumble downfield, is the Steelers’ best pass-catching option. He even ran a season-high six routes from the slot, which would be great for his fantasy floor if he could earn some layup opportunities underneath. The 6-foot-7, 274-pound behemoth is a dark horse play to bring home the championship-flavored bacon.
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Week 17 is underway. Reminder: Friends and family come and go, but fantasy football championship banners hang forever.
This brings us to today's goal: Five mostly fantasy-relevant things to know ahead of Week 17 that ideally will help make you both a better fantasy manager and overall person.
What are the outlier positional matchups to care about in Week 17?
What man-coverage splits can we take advantage of for Week 17?
Week 16 RB Usage Report: Injury-induced upgrades are everywhere
The DST Corner: We're jumping back on the Buccaneers ship
The Mismatch Manifesto: Biggest matchup advantages of the week
As always: It's a great day to be great …
What are the outlier positional matchups to care about in Week 17?
Cardinals QB Jacoby Brissett vs. Bengals (+3.8 Xfinity fantasy boost): Yes, Brissett's ridiculous nine-game streak finishing as a QB1 in fantasy land is over. Also, yes, one less-than-amazing game doesn't automatically erase his status as a quality stat compiler. While you can play the "he almost caught it" game with any QB, Brissett did have separate near-TD end zone incompletions to both Trey McBride and Marvin Harrison Jr. that nearly elevated him to his usual top-12 heights. I'm not shying away from the veteran ahead of Sunday's smashable matchup with the Bengals, who just happen to be one of seven defenses allowing 20-plus fantasy points per game to opposing QBs.
Cardinals RB Michael Carter vs. Bengals (+5.9 Xfinity fantasy boost): Didn't dominate the backfield usage in Week 16 with Emari Demercado more involved in his second game back from injury, but still led the way and is deserving of top-24 treatment in this potential smash spot vs. the Bengals' league-worst scoring defense.
And just like that, our fantasy season has come to a close. Let us just say, thanks for reading. It’s been a ton of fun. And from Coach Gene and yours truly, we extend a joyous and healthy holiday season to you and yours. Be safe. Have fun. Repair a relationship. And Happy New Year!
Now … to the starts and sits …
Currently sitting as fantasy football’s overall WR13, rookie Tetairoa McMillan has posted a heck of a first-year campaign thus far (64-924-7)—truly a supremely talented player. However, there’s always something to be said for availability’s impact on volume-affected totals.
Not to call McMillan a compiler, but he’s logged just one top-10 positional finish in 2025—which happens to be his only 20-plus-fantasy-point game this season. Carolina’s a run-heavy, slow-paced, plodding offense and Bryce Young’s 6.4 yards per attempt ranks second-worst among all starters behind only Cam Ward. Vegas books pegged the Panthers at 16.5 points this weekend for a reason. Expectations should be low.
Lastly, the very obvious College Navy, Action Green and Wolf Grey colored elephant in the room (yes, I researched team color schemes). Ignore last week’s faceplant versus a god-tier Matthew Stafford—Seattle’s defense, anchored by game-wrecker Ernest Jones, is awesome. I especially love the bounceback spot against a pressure-sensitive team like Carolina. McMillan’s +25% cardio route rate (post + go) needs time to develop, something which will likely stay in short order all game.
Touchdowns managed to provide the necessary cologne to keep most from realizing McMillan has reeled in fewer than three receptions per game since Thanksgiving week, and his 4.3 catches per game is the second-fewest among all WRs with at least 100 targets (Emeka Egbuka). There’s a very, very low floor here.
