Fantasy Football Week 17 Quarterback Preview: Starts, Sits, Streamers, DFS plays, and more
Everything you need to know about quarterback for Fantasy Football in Week 17
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3 min read
Welcome to Fantasy Football Championship Week. Congratulations if you are still alive. This will be the last week of my position preview; let's go get a championship! While there will be plenty of content for those trying to win it all this week, I look to also take a look ahead this time of year to 2026. So you'll still find waiver wire adds, numbers to know, and Week 17 DFS plays below like normal. But to start, I would like to offer a short overview as to what the position might look like in 2026.
The quarterback position looks absolutely stacked for next year. Expect the top 12 to include Josh Allen, Drake Maye, Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, Dak Prescott, Jared Goff, Joe Burrow, Caleb Williams, and Brock Purdy. The last three spots? Your guess is as good as mine right now. Thinking about it leads to some of the biggest questions I have going into the offseason:
Does Matthew Stafford come back, and can he come anywhere close to this year's production? Stafford turns 38 in February and has flirted with the idea of retirement for a while. He's obviously at the top of his game, but Father Time is also still undefeated. If Stafford returns, the biggest question is how much his 7.7% touchdown rate regresses. Stafford's career rate is 4.8%, and he has never posted two full seasons above 6% consecutively. If he returns, he is probably a low-end top-12 guy and a regression candidate.
How soon does Patrick Mahomes return, and how good is he? Mahomes has already started rehab after his ACL surgery, but his timeline pushes right up against Week 1. He just set a career high with 422 rushing yards in just 14 games, and that is the one thing we should expect to go down in his first year after an ACL. Expect him to be ranked close to 12, depending on offseason reports.
What do we get from Jayden Daniels and Jaxson Dart? Daniels was awesome as a rookie and couldn't stay healthy this year, playing just seven games and only producing starter numbers in three of them. Dart was awesome as soon as he took over, but he has injury concerns of his own and has struggled mightily as a passer down the stretch. He should have Malik Nabers back, which should help. I will have Daniels higher, but both of these QBs carry high ceilings and low floors into 2026. I will want a solid backup if I draft them.
Let's get to the rest of the Week 17 preview:
Week 17 QB Preview
QB Preview
Numbers to know
- 18 -- The Bengals have only allowed one quarterback to score more than 18 Fantasy points against them since Week 9. Jacoby Brissett should bounce back, but this defense has been much better than it was in the first half of the season.
- 34.6 -- Trevor Lawrence is the QB1 since Week 13, with an average of 34.6 FPPG. He is a start in Week 17 against the Colts.
- 5.7 -- Jaxson Dart has only averaged 5.7 yards per pass attempt in his last three starts. You can hopefully do better if you survived his stinker last week.
- 0.23 -- Brock Purdy and Drake Maye are tied for the league lead in EPA/DB at 0.23.
- 10.1 -- Malik Willis has averaged 10.1 yards per attempt on 68 passes over the last two seasons. If Jordan Love is out with a concussion, Willis is not a bad replacement at all.
- 25 -- Matthew Stafford has thrown 25 touchdown passes inside the 10-yard line this season. Dak Prescott is second with 16.
QB Preview
Waiver Wire Targets
Adds/Streamers (QB Preview)
Last week Willis played a little over half the game, completed nine of 11 passes for 121 yards and a touchdown, and ran for 44 yards. Last year he started two games and averaged 21.1 Fantasy points despite throwing just 33 passes in the two games combined. If Love is out I would expect Willis to be a high-end QB2 with QB1 upside.
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Mariota is banged up and hasn't been playing great, but he's facing the Cowboys, so we can't totally ignore him. They have given up a league-worst 27.6 FPPG to QBs this year. Four of the last five QBs they have faced have scored at least 27 Fantasy points and 13 out of 15 QBs have scored at least 22 points against them this year. If Mariota is healthy, he is in consideration for those teams that lost a QB last week.
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QB Preview
DFS Plays
Top DFS Play
Projections powered by
Sportsline
This week, I will offer a top DFS play for both the Christmas slate and the main slate. On Christmas Day, Dak Prescott is the highest-priced QB and also clearly my favorite option. This is a bad Commanders defense, and Prescott threw three TDs the last time he faced them. There are other places to save money on this three-game slate.
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Burrow is the top QB on the main slate, with a higher projection than Josh Allen but a slightly lower price. When he has both Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins healthy, he has proven unstoppable, throwing for four touchdowns in two of his last three games. This game has shootout written all over it, and I like the other QB, Jacoby Brissett, as my top contrarian play.
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Contrarian DFS Play
Projections powered by
Sportsline
Brissett was consistently awesome until Week 16 and I am not letting one bad start deter me from going right back to him in Week 17 against the Bengals. Since he became the starter in Week 16, Brissett leads the NFL with 46.8 drop backs per game. His Cardinals are touchdown underdogs in a game with an over/under of 53.5. That might be a good over/under for his drop backs in this game as well.
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QB Preview
Heath's projections
My full set of Week 17 Fantasy football projections for every position is now available on SportsLine. Find out which of my favorite plays are projected to score higher than consensus rankings and which don't live up to their draft hype, at least in Week 17. Projected stats for all starting quarterbacks are available, so be sure to check out the full set of projections at SportsLine.
