The most irritating part of playing Week 17 in Fantasy leagues? Trying to figure out which players on NFL teams locked into a specific playoff seed will play.
Don't bother asking coaches -- most of them are tight-lipped about their team's plans, as if their decisions on who will play or not will give too much of an advantage to their opponent in a meaningless game.
And don't bother asking the players -- most of them don't know because their coaches won't tell them.
Despite these unnecessary obstacles, there's still information out there to help determine an expectation on who will play and who won't. There are plenty of intrepid reporters and histories of coaches to piece together fairly reliable information on what to expect from teams with "nothing to play for."
Who's locked in?
- The Cowboys have the No. 1 seed in the NFC.
- The Giants have the No. 5 seed in the NFC.
- The Steelers have the No. 3 seed in the AFC.
- The Texans have the No. 4 seed in the AFC.
Cowboys
The last time the Cowboys had a meaningless Week 17 game was 2007 when they went 13-3 and earned the No. 1 seed. They played their starters just past halftime (Terrell Owens was inactive) and no one on the team had a good game statistically. Jason Garrett was the offensive coordinator.
This week, Garrett wouldn't admit to resting some of his players, but the writing is on the wall. Garrett announced that left tackle Tyron Smith would miss the game with a knee injury, hurting the blind side for the Cowboys quarterback.
Then NFL Network reported Dak Prescott would start and get "some work" but ultimately take a seat for Mark Sanchez to get "most" of the snaps. With Smith not expected to play at left tackle, this makes tons of sense -- why put Prescott (or Tony Romo) in harm's way?
NFL Network also reported that Darren McFadden, not Ezekiel Elliott, would handle plenty of reps at running back. Again, this makes sense. Why would Zeke play a lot if Prescott wasn't?
What to expect? Figure Prescott, Elliott, Dez Bryant and others to play for the Cowboys, but not nearly a full game. Prescott already admitted that he's not going to be as aggressive this week. McFadden could come up with a decent game based on, say, 15 touches, but even he carries some risk.
Giants
The Giants once famously played all of their starters in a meaningless Week 17 game against an undefeated 2007 Patriots team (and lost before beating them in a Super Bowl rematch about a month later). That's the last time the franchise had such a situation arise, but Ben McAdoo wasn't there then.
McAdoo was part of a Packers coaching staff that rested its starters partially in 2007 (Brett Favre threw two scores in just over one quarter) and entirely in 2011 (Matt Flynn's career-launching six-touchdown game). But McAdoo has never been at the helm of a team when they've had a meaningless Week 17 matchup ... until now.
This week, McAdoo touted that the Giants would "play our players and go win the ball game," adding that it's tough to rest starters knowing only 45 players actually dress on Sundays. But when pressed about Eli Manning playing the whole game, McAdoo only said Manning was "going to play the ball game."
What to expect? Until something more definitive comes out, bank on the Giants' starters playing a decent amount, at least a half. There's no doubt their offense needs to build momentum, just as it did in 2007 when it tried to knock off the Patriots. But there's also no doubt that McAdoo has thought about holding his starters back from playing four quarters. It's a risk to use Manning, Odell Beckham, Sterling Shepard and Rashad Jennings.
Texans
This is only Houston's fourth playoff trip, the second under Bill O'Brien and the first in which O'Brien has even had the chance to consider resting his starters.
And it doesn't sound like he's going to hold back much.
"We'll be smart about it," he said this week. "We're going to go out there and do everything we can against a difficult opponent. We're going to go out there and play to win the game."
O'Brien has been part of Bill Belichick's staff when the Patriots had meaningless Week 17 games, including the infamous 2009 game when Wes Welker tore his ACL and MCL playing at Houston.
What to expect? Under normal circumstances you might expect O'Brien to rest a number of his key starters, but the Texans are still looking to build momentum on offense with Tom Savage under center. He has yet to throw a regular-season touchdown, for instance. Once Savage shows he has full command of the offense, we could see O'Brien pull his starters back.
Don't expect Lamar Miller to play at all and don't feel so secure about DeAndre Hopkins and Alfred Blue playing all of four quarters.
Steelers
Mike Tomlin did us all a solid and told reporters that he's planning on keeping Ben Roethlisberger, Le'Veon Bell and Antonio Brown off the field. Finally, a coach willing to share his gameplan in a meaningless game!
This is actually very different from Steelers teams in the past, even those under Tomlin. Those squads would play their starters into at least the second quarter, if not the fourth. But that doesn't seem like the plan this year.
What to expect? Landry Jones will start for the Steelers and probably run a vanilla game plan against the Browns. And if Tomlin is going to hold his "big three" out of the matchup then chances are he'll follow suit with other key starters on both sides of the ball.
The big question is who will line up at running back for the Steelers in a favorable matchup. DeAngelo Williams appears to be the first man up, according to ESPN. That would make sense since Williams has taken exactly one handoff in just over two months. He'll likely start and give way to Fitzgerald Toussaint at some point in the second half.