Top 10 Week 17 Fantasy Takeaways

Tom Brady and Mike Evans are league winners. Justin Jefferson? Not so much.

Championship week in the world of fantasy football was much like every other week of this season … wacky and oftentimes unpredictable. A number of “unstartable” fantasy quarterbacks like Jarrett Stidham, Russell Wilson (he’s been unstartable), Deshaun Watson and Sam Darnold were among the top 10 players at the position based on fantasy points. Stidham outscored all but two quarterbacks heading into Sunday night , and he did it against the San Francisco 49ers defense!

The running back position wasn’t better, either, as top 30 picks like Saquon Barkley, Dalvin Cook, Alvin Kamara, Leonard Fournette, Josh Jacobs and Nick Chubb all posted mediocre totals at best. Rhamondre Stevenson, Miles Sanders and David Montgomery didn’t help us, either! At least Christian McCaffrey and Austin Ekeler lived up to expectations! We did see a huge performance from one wide receiver (no one saw it coming), and one of the position’s top superstars did a Houdini act.

With that being said, let’s start our fantasy football whip around Sunday’s action in Tampa Bay, where Tom Brady and Mike Evans gifted many managers a title.

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Tom Brady, Mike Evans end statistical slides vs. Panthers. Heading into fantasy championship week, Brady and Evans had been anything but reliable for managers. Brady had scored fewer than 18 points in nine of his last 10 games, while Evans hadn’t scored a touchdown since Week 4. So much for those stats. Brady went off for four total touchdowns and a season-high 37.7 points, while Evans scored a trio of touchdowns and put up a career-best 48.7 points in a win over Carolina. That total is more than Evans had scored in his previous six games combined. If you kept the faith, chances are you took home a championship.

Justin Jefferson disappears in a bad loss to Green Bay. Jefferson came into this week on absolute fire, scoring 30-plus fantasy points in each of his last three games. Unfortunately, he was invisible in the stat sheets in fantasy championship week. The talented wide receiver caught one pass for 15 yards and scored 2.5 fantasy points in a blowout loss. The performance came after Packers CB Jaire Alexander said that Jefferson’s huge Week 1 numbers against Green Bay were “a fluke.” Whether it was or it wasn’t, it doesn’t change the fact that 79 wide receivers scored more points than Jefferson heading into the Sunday night game. 

Austin Ekeler leads fantasy fans to a championship. Ekeler, the No. 1 running back in fantasy football, led countless managers to a title with two touchdowns and 32.1 points in a win over the Rams. He’s found the end zone 18 times this season, just two fewer than he scored a season ago. In an ironic twist, Mike Inez of Alice in Chains, who drafted Ekeler first overall in the Fabiano Invitational Celebrity League (so Ekeler couldn’t draft himself), rode the Chargers running back to a title. In the Alice in Chains & Friends League, WWE superstar the Miz also rode Ekeler to a title. Inez and Miz both beat me in each league. 

Who needs Derek Carr? Not Davante Adams, apparently. The benching of Derek Carr in Las Vegas had a lot of fantasy managers stressed out about Adams’s chances to post a big stat line in Week 17. Well, he proved he didn’t need his BFF versus the 49ers as he posted a pair of touchdowns and 34.3 fantasy points. That’s more points than Adams had scored in his three previous games combined. We’re not sure what the future holds for Carr (or Adams), but we’ll take D.A.’s points!

Christian McCaffrey scores 31.3 fantasy points in Vegas. McCaffrey might have put up a 13.8-point stinker last week, but those who survived that stat line likely took home a title this week. That’s due in large part to CMC’s 31.3 points in a win over the Raiders. He rushed for 121 yards with one touchdown and caught six passes for 72 yards in the contest, and he’s now produced 25-plus points in four of his last five games. Fantasy fans who trusted McCaffrey to avoid the injury bug that had bitten him in each of the last two seasons were handsomely rewarded.

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Daniel Jones breaks the Colts; Saquon breaks our hearts. Jones was a star in the final two weeks of the fantasy postseason, scoring a combined 57 points. That includes a four-touchdown, 36.2-point performance in a win over the Colts. Two of his scores were on the ground, and he rushed for 91 yards in the contest. His stats and a positive game script made Saquon Barkley an afterthought, unfortunately. He was held to 53 total yards, no touchdowns and 7.3 points. It was the third-fewest points Barkley has scored this season, and it was a real championship killer.

Jerick McKinnon leads fantasy managers to a championship. McKinnon might not be the hero we asked for this season, but he’s the hero we received. He’s gone on an absolute touchdown tear late in the year, scoring a combined eight times in his last five games. That includes two end-zone visits and 22.6 fantasy points in a win over the Broncos. What’s crazy about that stat line is that McKinnon saw just 15.6% of the backfield touches for Kansas City, his lowest total since Week 11. Regardless, fantasy fans who landed McKinnon got themselves a league winner.

Trevor Lawrence goes ice cold in win over the Texans. Lawrence has emerged into a top-10 fantasy quarterback this season, but his recent hot streak ended in championship week. He threw for 152 yards with no touchdowns and scored a mere 4.5 points against Houston, which is his worst stat line of the year. In a meaningless game for the Jaguars, Travis Etienne was the lone bright spot with 23 points. Zay Jones, Christian Kirk and Evan Engram were all held under six points.

D'Andre Swift, Jamaal Williams combine for 50.4 points. The Lions backfield has been enough to drive you insane in the second half of the season, but this duo came up big when we needed them the most. Swift posted 117 scrimmage yards and two touchdowns, which was good enough for 27.7 points, while Williams had 157 total yards, one touchdown and 22.7 points. It was Swift’s best performance of the season, and it’s the best stat line Williams has had since Week 11.

A number of no-name tight ends fill the top 12 … again. Did anyone start Trey McBride this week? How about Brock Wright or Colby Parkinson, Robert Tonyan or Albert Okwuegbunam? What about Tommy Tremble? If you did, you’re brilliant. Those six players were among the 12 best tight ends based on fantasy points as we head into the Sunday night game. It’s been par for the course this season, as tight end has been a virtual landmine for fantasy managers without Travis Kelce or T.J. Hockenson. Look for the position to become devalued in 2023 drafts.

• MMQB: Week 17 Game Balls

Notes

• A number of big-name fantasy wideouts didn’t meet expectations this week, and that cost plenty of managers a title. Aside from Jefferson, we saw the likes of DK Metcalf, Christian Watson, Adam Thielen, Tyler Lockett, JuJu Smith-Schuster, Christian Kirk, Garrett Wilson, Zay Jones and Terry McLaurin were all held to fewer than six fantasy points in PPR formats. No bueno.

• Deshaun Watson had the look of a fantasy star for the first time this season, throwing three touchdown passes in a win over Washington. Two of those scores went to Amari Cooper, who also had 105 yards. Watson, who finished with 21.9 fantasy points, had just nine completions in the entire game.

• Alvin Kamara posted yet another stinker, scoring a mere 9.1 fantasy points in a shocking win over Philadelphia. It was his seventh game with single digits in 14 contests, and he finished the fantasy season with four touchdowns (three of which came in one game). His time as an elite fantasy player ended last season, and his disappointing 2022 totals puts a dagger into his future value.

• Russell Wilson, one of the biggest duds of the fantasy season, scored 23.6 points in a loss to the Chiefs. Strangely, he averaged 24.6 points in his two games against the Kansas City Chiefs … and 12.8 points against everyone else. Wilson also scored 20-plus points against only one other team (Las Vegas Raiders). Wilson will be a ho-hum No. 2 fantasy quarterback in 2023 drafts.

• Rhamondre Stevenson was one of the top running backs in fantasy football for most of the season, but he left us down when we needed him the most. The talented runner scored just 7.1 fantasy points in a win over the Dolphins, and he failed to score more than that total in three of his last four games. He was also held down as a receiver in those four games, catching just eight balls combined. Stevenson will be a top-30 pick in 2023 drafts, but this was a very difficult finish to what was his breakout season in the league.

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Michael Fabiano is an award-winning fantasy football analyst on Sports Illustrated and a member of the Fantasy Sports Writers Association (FSWA) Hall of Fame. Click here to read all his articles here on SI Fantasy. You can follow Michael on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram for your late breaking fantasy news and the best analysis in the business to help you win a fantasy championship!