Week 17 Fantasy Football Sneaky Starts

Welcome to Week 17! Whether you’re here for help with your Fantasy Football Championship matchup, looking for some low-cost weekly options, or just here for a good time, I’m happy to have you. This could be the most important article of the season, so let’s get to our Week 17 Sneaky Starts!

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Week 16 Recap

I’m sorry to say, Week 16 was our worst set of calls all season. I took some bigger swings than normal and ended up 0-4. Just a reminder that even the soundest calls don’t always pan out.

Adonai Mitchell had a fine game given what he had to work with (Brady Cook), but he still only managed about 7 fantasy points. Even still, he may have been our best call.

Michael Carter had one of his most efficient games on the ground, contrary to our biggest worry about him. Unfortunately, he got nothing in the passing game. The Cardinals look to have finally phoned it in, so you probably can’t trust any of them moving forward.

Audric Estime was the clear lead running back, but the Saints had another trick up their sleeves in Taysom Hill. He got a crazy amount of work and could be a cheat code at TE (more about that later) if Alvin Kamara is done for the season.

Finally, Colby Parkinson was a major dud in the Thursday night game. With that many points scored, it was a huge letdown to start the week. He could still be useful, but it will be hard to trust him after that.

Sneaky Start Season Tally: 29-31

Now let’s see if we can turn things around and get back to .500 with our Week 17 Sneaky Starts!

Check out all of our Week 17 Rankings: Flex Rankings | QB Rankings | RB Rankings | WR Rankings | TE Rankings

Week 17 Sneaky Starts

Rhamondre Stevenson, New England RB vs. New York Jets

Rhamondre has just about everything going for him in Week 17. Henderson is likely to be out with a concussion, which should afford him the bulk of the carries. He’ll get to go up against the abysmal Jets defense, and the weather should be cold enough that the team leans on the run.

I get that Stevenson doesn’t have the best fantasy track record, but the Patriots seem to trust him plenty, so maybe you should too.

He’s not known to be the most efficient runner, but over the past two weeks, he’s averaging 7.2 yards per carry on 14 attempts. He’s also had three targets in each of the past three games. Even with Henderson as the starter, Rhamondre has averaged nearly 9 rushing attempts in each of those games as well.

Then there’s the Jets’ defense, which currently gives up the fifth-most rushing yards per game. They are apparently starting Brady Cook again, which means the Patriots will have the ball for the vast majority of the game. I wouldn’t be surprised if Rhamondre gets 25 rushes in this game as the Pats milk the clock.

At this point in the season, playing a healthy starter against a bad defense is about as good a lock as you can hope for. It might only be a one-week thing, but one week is all you need.

Tony Pollard, Tennessee RB @ New Orleans Saints

If you’re like me, you took Pollard in the back of your draft, assuming he would be a volume-based value. If you’re also like me, you dropped him midseason when you saw that meaningless volume couldn’t really amount to much. So, I’ll forgive you if you closed the door on him and haven’t been paying attention to his most recent games.

I won’t keep you guessing. He’s had three straight hundred-yard rushing games, starting with a 161-yard effort in Week 14. These weren’t against scrub defenses either. He played the Browns, 49ers, and Chiefs.

In that span, he’s scored three touchdowns and averaged 20 attempts per game. Coincidentally, he got zero targets in two of those games, something that hadn’t happened all season up until that point.

So, the volume on the ground is certainly there, as is the production, and there’s room for improvement in the passing game. The Titans are also playing much better as of late, almost looking like a professional football team.

They’ll get a meaningless game against the Saints in Week 17. While the Saints have been a surprisingly good defense, and are playing much harder than a team with their record should, they give up yardage. Both teams play surprisingly fast, and this could turn into a game with a lot of output for key players.

I get having written off Pollard already, and not really trusting him with your season on the line. Odds are, you will have an injury to replace this week, though. If it were me, I would want someone with a known workload, who’s been playing well, just like Tony Pollard.

Troy Franklin, Denver WR @ Kansas City Chiefs

One of the most important considerations at this point in the season is whether the game is important for the team. The Broncos have a very important game this week as they try to stay in first place and win the bye week.

It’s also important to make sure that your players have a role in that game. While Franklin has seen his production dwindle recently, he could be in line for more playing time with Pat Bryant expected to miss time.

Even as a part-time player, Franklin had only one game this year with fewer than four targets. He has seven games with at least eight. He has the trust of Bo Nix, whom he also played with in college, and serves as an important possession receiver for the team. Franklin had been ceding snaps to Pat Bryant as of late, but as I’ve already mentioned, that won’t be a concern this week.

The Chiefs have absolutely nothing to play for. They just gave up 26 points and 376 total yards to the Tennessee Titans. They will also be playing their third-string QB. The Broncos’ defense is elite and should give their offense plenty of time to work with.

Franklin has been one of the sneakiest players all season. He’s currently just outside the Top-25 at the position and averages double-digit fantasy points. In a game where he should be counted on to do more, you can feel comfortable with him as a starter.

Taysom Hill, New Orleans TE @ Tennessee Titans

This is not a drill, folks! Taysom Hill is (hopefully) back!

I can’t believe that in championship week of the 2025 season, I get to talk about Taysom Hill. Fantasy football truly is a wild game.

While I was bullish on Audric Estime last week, that was because I was expecting a more traditional fill-in for the Saints. We hadn’t seen Hill get used like that all year, but when the team needed him, they resorted to using him in all of his old ways.

Not only did he fill in at RB, where he recorded a team-high 12 attempts, but he also got six targets and threw once for a 38-yard touchdown.

He gets a prime opportunity against a Titans defense that struggles just about everywhere. Plugging that type of opportunity and production into your TE slot is the ultimate cheat code for fantasy.

Now, it’s hard to determine if that was just a one-week game plan for an unsuspecting defense or if this is what we can expect for the final two games of the season. Either way, it’s a bet I would be willing to make for that position.

We’ve seen the top tight ends struggle at various points this season. There is no real security for any of them. In a week where I have to score the most points no matter what, I’m going to go with the biggest lottery ticket. That’s Taysom Hill.

Make sure to check out all of our Week 17 Fantasy Football Rankings and Analysis!