Ranking Every Week 17 WR and RB as a Start or Sit

Good morning, friends and enemies. Welcome back for our very final last video of the 2025 fantasy football season, in which I will be ranking both running backs and wide receivers. All of them in this single video for your week 17 fantasy football matchups. We'll go game by game, breaking it down, labeling every player as a sit, a start, or a flex for your fantasy football championship matchup. This is going to be a long one, so let's tuck our shirts in. Buckle your seat belts, grab some caffeine, do whatever you got to do, and let us begin.

So, as you guys know, we've got a Christmas Day slate of just the most horrific games possibly. You know, we got the best slate ever for Thanksgiving. So, naturally, it had to balance the karma scale here. We've got three games on Thursday on Christmas Day. We've got two games on Saturday, the rest on Sunday, and then a Monday game. So, obviously, if you're not new to fantasy football, you should know this already. But any player playing earlier than the Sunday slate, make sure they are in the positional spot of your lineups. If they are playing earlier, do not leave them in the flex. And I know it feels like something that people say and like it never actually impacts things, but in my biggest league, that's actually impacted multiple matchups this year. So again, if you've got like Javonte Williams in your lineup and he's in the flex right now, he's playing on Thursday, throw him into your running back slot because if something happens to the other player that is sitting in that slot, you now over the next three days they get injured or something, you now have fewer options. You don't have that other position to throw him in over the flex option if he were to get hurt over the next days. You need to replace him with the running back. And and it's made a difference a few times in leagues that I've been in this year.

So, we'll start there and we'll start with Dallas at Washington. A 50.5 point total here. Dallas 7-point favorites. That spread is not high enough. Dallas is likely going to beat the [ __ ] out of Washington here. The reason being when we look at the practice reports, Jalen Daniels obviously shut down for the year, but their backup quarterback Marcus Mariota dealing with both a hand and I think it's a quad injury. He's been double DNPed up. I would be surprised if he played at this point, which means they're going to go to their third string Josh Johnson at quarterback. No, that's just a no for me. It's it's going to be bad for the Washington side of things. The only other injury that I do sort of want to point out, and it won't really affect your sit starts, but Ryan Fenoi was limited on Monday and then downgraded to a DNP on Tuesday. It just gives me a little bit more confidence if he does not play in the CD Lamb in the George Pickens. But the Dallas side of things, in my opinion, is very, very, very, very simple here. If you've got Javonte, if you've got CeeDee, if you've got George Pickens, they are in your lineups. There is no questions about it as must-start players. I know Javante has been a little bit up and down here. But uh we also saw Daron Payne, their other interior defensive lineman, I should point out, who left last week's game early with an injury, has been double DNPed and is trending towards not playing. So I think the only scary part about this Dallas team right now, as George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb are concerned, is like, do they even get a second half? Are they winning by so many points that they only throw five pass attempts in the second half? Like that is my biggest concern from the Dallas side of things. Obviously, you're not going to sit George Pickens or CeeDee Lamb at this point. The matchup is so so so good. But I do have a concern. What we need to hope for if you're a person with Pickens or Lamb is that Dallas does not have any defensive touchdowns, is that we don't have like a random big play score from like a Jalen Turpin or a special like a return touchdown or anything like that. Like we need that not to happen. We need normal prolonged sustained drives from Dallas. We need like some lucky touchdowns from maybe like a return touchdown from Washington. Let's go with Jalen Lane. Let's bring one back so we don't get ahead by 30 points. That's my only concern. Other than that, on the flip side, I don't want anyone from Washington in my lineup for week 17 if Josh Johnson is the quarterback. That goes for Terry McLaurin. He's going into the shaky flex tier. I know the matchup is great on paper. A lot of green across the board. I I'm not relying on Josh Johnson feeding my players. Like I know there are going to be teams that are desperate enough where you need a guy like Terry McLaurin. I do think Chris Rodriguez can go into the shaky flex category as well because it is the Dallas defense who will be getting Quinton Williams back I believe for this game, which makes it a much tougher matchup against defense. But they're going to have to lean on the run with Josh Johnson and the matchup just kind of says it. Debo Samuel is a guy that I don't want in my lineup as well. Like nothing. There's no one in this game that I want in my lineup from the Washington side of things. You might be forced to get Terry in there, but listen, if Josh Johnson is the quarterback, I just don't want to go in that direction.

The next game is Detroit at Minnesota and we've got Max Bromer starting for the Minnesota Vikings. Uh, JJ McCarthy is obviously going to be out with the hand injury. Amon-Ra St. Brown dealing with a little bit of a knee ailment. DNP on Monday, but returned to a limited practice on Tuesday. He's as tough as they come. I uh I'm not expecting him to miss any time there. And then Jordan Mason is the only other notable call out here. Two DNPs with the ankle injury. It is trending towards him not playing here. Jahmyr Gibbs, of course, is going to be in your lineup. Uh, I think this makes Aaron Jones like a great great start. Detroit has been okay. They've been a little bit more suspect against the run and just as a defense overall. I just think Max Bromer is gonna have such a tough time moving the ball. You know, they they're down a lot of DBs, obviously on the Detroit side of things as they've been, you know, the second half of the entirety of the year here, but I just think Aaron Jones is probably going to have a massive workload, probably a few screen plays. I really like the over two and a half receptions for him. I think they're going to do a lot of checkdowns. So, as this video progresses, I'm going to be throwing out a lot of plays that I like and maybe we can just have one we can have one massive Christmas Day parlay that pays for the gifts. So, we're going to take Dallas minus 7 in that first game. If you want to throw in a Javonte Williams anytime touchdown, that feels free as well, but it's minus 170. So, we don't get a ton of great value there. And then we get Aaron Jones over two and a half receptions here. We're going to throw him into the dub flex category. I know the yardage total is high there at 81, but like I don't really trust Bromer to be able to push an offense enough where like a player is going to have a big game here. Amon-Ra St. Brown is going to go into the must-start category. This is a crazy stat. The Vikings pass defense has not allowed a passing touchdown in the last six weeks. Six games and they've not allowed a single passing touchdown. And Jaren Hall is like the worst quarterback they've played in that span. It's Jaren Hall. It's Caleb Williams. It's Jordan Love. It's Jalen Daniels. Some other good quarterbacks. Like no one worse than that list. It's not like a bunch of second string or backup quarterbacks playing. Their pass defense is legitimately awesome. I will say a guy like Jared Goff, experienced pocket passer like Brian Flores is a coordinator that can put insane def insane pressure on younger, more inexperienced quarterbacks. But a guy like Jared Goff has seen a lot. He can check the line. He could probably have some decent progress. Would be shocked if he does not break that passing touchdown streak. And the other part about it is like no matter how good the defense is, eventually you're going to break when your offense cannot stay on the field with Max Bromer riding the ship here. So ultimately, Jameson Williams kind of falls in. He's like a George Pickens light where it's like, yeah, he could have a down game just because like you never really know with these types of boomer players, but you're going to have to have him in your lineup here. The other side of things is where it gets trickier. And I'm going to be honest with you, like Justin Jefferson coming off of a pretty good game line at 61 and a half for me, he's a shaky flex. Like Bromer, I think the last time they played he had about four receiving yards, two targets, four receiving yards. So yeah, just don't trust the offense. Don't care. Jordan Addison. Uh, I mean, he's going to go into the rather not category for me with Bromer under center. David Montgomery, I do think there might be a world where, you know, they're beating the [ __ ] out of Minnesota. They do try to lean on the run game a lot more. So, I'm going to throw David Montgomery into the shaky flex category here. You know, he's complaining on Instagram a little bit. And I do think maybe their ground game needs a little bit of David Montgomery. They need a little bit of thunder going on to the lightning of Jahmyr Gibbs, who we've seen struggle a little bit on the on the ground in decent times. But outside of that, I think we can move on to Denver at Kansas City.

We have Denver as a 13 and 12 point favorite here in Arrowhead. A 36.5 point game total here. Obviously, Kansas City will be playing without Patrick Mahomes, without Gardner Minshew, and they will have the third string Aludicon, I think his name is Chris Alududicon, who it's like, God, this slate of games is so so terrible. I'm kind of gassed that like my only player going in these games is George Pickens in my big money league and I don't think I'm playing against anyone in that championship game. So, I'm not like forced to have to watch these games, which is a blessing. So, with the total being 36.5, it does feel like a game where Denver's not really going to have to push the offense much. I think you play the guys that have been good. That's RJ Harvey. That's Courtland Sutton. The matchup's not great. We do have Trent McDuffie still DNPed for the Kansas City Chiefs side of things, which makes life easier for Courtland Sutton. I'm going to put Courtland Sutton in, feels good. I'm going to put R.J. Harvey there too just because he scores so many damn touchdowns. There is nobody really on the other side of the ball. Isaiah Pacheco at 50 total yards. He is taking a majority of the snaps now and getting a majority of the touches, but that feels like a line that's a little bit high for an offense that I have zero zero trust in this week playing against an extremely tough defense. So Isaiah Pacheco is going to be a rather not. I think Troy Franklin's a little bit interesting because we did see with Pat Bryant out last week for the first time or getting hurt and him looking like he's not going to play this week either. Troy Franklin kind of getting back into that like wide receiver two role where I I think you could throw him into the shaky flex category if you are desperate enough. And then the receiver side of things for the Chiefs. Uh, Rashee Rice is still not out of the concussion protocol, which almost definitely I believe pushes him towards missing a second game here because they play early on the Thursday uh slate obviously. So it does look like Kansas City is going to be without Rashee Rice. Now, you know, originally last week it was like, okay, Xavier Worthy's in a good spot to kind of blow up. Didn't happen. And now with the backup backup quarterback, Xavier Worthy is going to fall into the rather not category. I just think overall these games are kind of simple. It's like with these backup quarterbacks and these backup backup quarterbacks, you're actually looking at games where you have all three of these other teams playing with their third string quarterback. Like, you just don't want weapons attached to those players at the end of the day.

Now we can move into Saturday's slate of games. We've got Houston at the Los Angeles Chargers. The Chargers are two and a half point favorites at home, a 39.5 point total. We do have practice reports for the first day of the week on Tuesday. There's a few that stick out to me here. We have the interior of the defensive line for Houston. Houston kind of got torn up by A.S.H.E.N. Gentry last week. Sheldon Rankins with the DNP. We got Denico Autry with the DNP. Obviously, those are not like the stud guys, but they're they're kind of like the interior that make the the motor go a little bit against the run defense. So, they're without some interior players. I do think I I feel better about Amari Cooper and Jalen Hurd and Kamari Lacer with DNPs to start off, but again, the first DNP of the week is not really that big of a deal. So, we'll kind of just keep an eye on that. Tart on the Charger side of things in the interior has also been a stud this year. So, him starting off with the DNP is notable. And then Kamani Vidal is really the other player that needs to be noted here. He's dealing with a neck injury, but reportedly is day-to-day. So, there's a real chance that he could suit up in this game. Regardless, I think I've seen enough from Amari and Hurd over the last two weeks uh that I feel good about him. Vegas has his lineup at 74 total yards. Uh so, Hurd's a dude that I'm going to feel pretty good about having in my lineup. He's the first one. Nico Collins, very tough matchup against the Charger secondary who has been very, very good all year. But if you got Nico, he's going to be in your lineup. The rest of the game is pretty sloppy, man. I don't know that I want any of these guys in my lineup. You got Woody Marks coming off of the missed games. It does look like he's going to be returning to practice or returning to the game this week. I believe he got in a full practice yesterday. Yep, full practice for Woody Marks there. So, he'll return. I do wonder if there's just going to be more of a committee between him and Nick Chubb or do they send Jar Jordan back to Jar Jordan who's led the backfield in touches each of the last two weeks if they send him back to the practice squad or they want to see a little bit more of what he has there for maybe future purposes as like a backup running back or the RB3 for next year or something like that. So when I look at the matchup when I look at the state of that offense like Woody Marks is going to be a shaky flex to me. Lad McConkey is the one where it's like he's been the most consistent pass catcher in the offense. But again, this is a Houston Texans defense that when I look at the defensive line versus the offensive line, the D-line of the Texans, their pass rush versus the O-line of the Chargers, that is such a mismatch right now. Like not having the tackles versus having two of the biggest stud defensive ends in the NFL is going to be a nightmare for Justin Herbert. So, I think more often than not, you're probably going to have to play Lad McConkey. Uh, I don't feel good about it at all, but I think I prefer him like you got Herbert as opposed to attaching him to Max Bromer, attaching him to Josh Johnson, attaching him to those types of players. So, like he's a dub flex, I suppose, even though his yardage line is 20 yards lower than a Justin Jefferson, but I'm not buying that gap there. Quentin Johnston is going to go into the shaky flex. Keenan Allen at this point, he's running the same amount of routes as Trey Harris is, so he's going to go into the rather not. I think Jalen Higgins is also a rather not. He can have a touchdown, but I'm not banking on it. And uh yeah, I think we could just move on from this game.

Got the last game of Saturday. It is Baltimore at Green Bay. We are still waiting on word for all the quarterbacks in this game. Lamar Jackson started off the week. He's got the back contusion here. He was a DNP on Tuesday. Uh, I definitely wouldn't put it as a guarantee that he misses this game. You've got Jordan Love in the concussion protocol. You've got Malik Willis dealing with the shoulder injury, but he was limited. So, at worst, I do think we'll get Malik Willis as the quarterback for the Green Bay Packers here. The back contusion is a little bit weird because it feels like, okay, it's just like a bruise. You can usually play through something like that, but like he didn't get back into the game Lamar Jackson last week and then he's starting off with the DNP. So, it's it's probably pretty painful and pretty severe. You'd like to think that he probably suits up and games it through because obviously their season is on the line at this point, but I I don't think it's a guarantee. Derrick Henry, I think they're going to have to lean on him regardless of who is under center. He's going to go into the feels good category. His rushing yard prop is at 80.5 right now and the books feel pretty good about having that out there regardless of whether or not it's Lamar or Snoop Huntley at quarterback. Zay Flowers, I mean, this is a good Green Bay pass defense. Though, without their elite pass rusher, it becomes a little bit easier to throw the ball. Again, I just I think Zay Flowers has been inconsistent all year. So, if Lamar's out there, he's going to go into the dub flex category. But if Lamar's not out there, he's going to move into this shaky flex category where, you know, I'm starting him probably over like the Troy Franklin's and the David Montgomery's of the world. But I do think it's a conversation to be had between Terry, Justin Jefferson, and and and those guys for sure.

On the flip side for Green Bay, I mean, this this is really really tough. Like, let's assume Malik Willis is the quarterback for this one. We also don't have word on Josh Jacobs, though. He did get in a limited practice on Tuesday, which does put him in the trending direction because last week he was DNPed across the board and ended up playing and then it seemed like he reaggravated his knee. But now the fact that he's getting in practices already this early in the week tells us that he's probably going to play in this one, which makes it really difficult to choose between him and Emanuel Wilson. Emanuel Wilson got more snaps, got more touches last week, but I I man, it's like, okay, we'll we'll do it this way. If Josh Jacobs is out, then Emanuel Wilson has to be in your lineup, right? He's he's as much of a must-start without being in the elite tier as as I think you're going to find. Last time that he played without Jacobs, it was 120, 130 yards from scrimmage, two touchdowns. So, he would be on the borderline, you know, top of the field's good, but like probably more bottom of the must-start category. Josh Jacobs, if he's if he plays, man, I don't know that I feel that good about him with the injury right now. Um, I think I'd put him into the dub flex category. And he's almost definitely going to have to be in your lineup, unfortunately, if he is playing. But I'd put him in the dub flex category and I would put Emanuel Wilson down into the shaky flex category or probably closer to the rather not category. I think the tougher decipher here is almost the the receiver room where Christian Watson was great throughout the middle part of the year. He comes back last week, has a dud game. You'd have to think he's dealing with some injuries. Jayden Reed ends up running the most routes on the team for like the first time I feel like in his entire career. Doesn't have a good game whatsoever. Romeo Doubs has a good game against Chicago, but he's been untrustworthy all year. And I I also think if Malik Willis is the quarterback, while he's shown to be, you know, very very competent as a backup, I still think more often than not your game plan is going to be 35 to 40 carries, 25 pass attempts at the most. And when you're already split up into Christian Watson, Jayden Reed, Dontayvion Wicks, Romeo Doubs, Matthew Golden, Luke Musgrave, the running backs, I can't confidently predict anyone to have more than like four targets in that offense. Not to mention the fact that Malik Willis himself had 10 carries last week. And normally when he starts, he's getting between six and 10 carries. So if you take that out of the pass attempt numbers that maybe should be there, it makes it even tougher to decipher. So honestly, listen, if I have Christian Watson, he's a shaky flex to me. If I have Jayden Reed, he's a shaky flex to me. If I have Romeo Doubs, he's a shaky flex to me. And everybody else is going to be a rather not. Same thing with Keaton Mitchell. As cool as he is and explosive as a player as he is, he's still a rather not for me.

All right, let's move into Arizona and Cincinnati. That starts off the 1:00 PM slates. And just real quickly before we move into the Sunday slate here, I just wanted to give a thank you to everybody who's been watching all year. Uh, anyone who started in the summer when we started making content for your draft prep all the way through now, this has been by far and away our best year just in terms of I for me, I I felt like the quality of content was there, the consistency. It's been my personal best year in terms of making content for fantasy by far and away. I think it's reflected in the numbers, just the engagement and you guys consistently coming back for the videos and watching it throughout the year. So, just a sincere sincere thank you guys for making this year awesome for us internally. And this will be my last fantasy video for the redraft season for 2025. Obviously, got the Christmas holidays and whatnot and week 18 is I'm sorry that's on you if you're continuing to play into that. But we do have some other stuff throughout the playoffs and whatnot. Like obviously, if you're following the big fantasy league that we have in the office between BDGE and Snapback and all those guys, that's still live and going. We'll be making videos about that and like more vlog style stuff on the Your Idiot League Mates YouTube channel. We'll be doing a ton of NFL trivia stuff throughout the entire year. That's year-round. Uh, that's on our NFL trivia YouTube channel. And then we'll be doing just pure betting content throughout all the playoffs, week 18 and all that stuff on the BDG Bets channel. So if you only watch our fantasy channel, that's great. But we do have three other YouTube channels that we're posting almost daily content on that if you're interested in any of that. Betting, following a fantasy league that's high stakes and very intense, or uh just trivia content that's more like relaxing, entertaining for you. We will link all three of those YouTube channels down below. And again, if this is more content that you want, you know, this stuff stops this week, but you can always go follow that stuff for year-round content.

So, Arizona at Cincinnati. Cincinnati coming off a huge game against Miami. They are in Cincinnati. 7-point favorites, 52.5 point total in this game. Love having players in this game. Ja'Marr Chase is of course a must-start. Chase Brown is also a must-start. Michael Carter is an interesting one because it's like he's sharing the backfield with De'Von Achane and now Corey Clement, but he is the starting running back. Vegas has his uh total yards up at 64. It's an incredible matchup against the Bengals. He he was efficient last week and I also think I'm throwing him into the dub flex category. All that stuff said, I think it's fine to go back to him based on the matchup and it feels like he was kind of a shitty fantasy player last week because he didn't catch any passes. But that to me was more noise than signal because he ran a lot of routes still like when you're on the field when Jacoby Brissett is dropping back and Jacoby had like his first bad game of the season statistically. But for him to run, you know, 25 routes in this game and catch no passes doesn't feel like a repeatable thing. Like Vegas has his receiving yardage total up at 17.5, which is a pretty uh significant number for a running back. It's actually above a guy like R.J. Harvey here. So just take that into mind when you were thinking about a Michael Carter [ __ ] start. Don't go so heavily into recency bias of what happened last week. Look at the underlying numbers for that. T. Higgins is going to go into the feels good category for me. Again, Joe Burrow is playing well. He's healthy. I'm good with that. The Cardinals also lost multiple players on the defensive side of the ball last week to IR. Their second best quarterback on the team. Walter Nolan, their stud defensive line rookie is on IR as well. So, the Cardinals are going to be as bad of a defense as they've been all year. So, you are starting your Bengals against the Cardinals. Obviously, the tough part is do we start our Cardinals against the Bengals? Now, the Bengals have been historically historically bad against tight ends. So, I'm imagining Trey McBride is going to have a 35-point game here. Elijah Higgins, who kind of popped off last week randomly, will probably have some run as well. What do we do with the receivers? I am again going back to Michael Wilson over Marvin Harrison Jr. Marvin Harrison Jr. still coming back from that heel injury. Only played about 50% of the snaps in week 16. So, I still think he's going to be limited. The tough part here to decipher is like as you could see the Bengals have been good against fantasy wide receivers, the fourth fewest fantasy points allowed to the wide receiver position. They're by no means a good passing defense, but to have DJ Turner who is pretty much a stud lockdown cornerback one. And that's about it here. It's like who does he end up lining up against? Is it Michael Wilson? Is it Marvin Harrison Jr.? I don't know. Here's what I'll tell you. When I'm looking at the players in the dub flex tier, I would start Michael Wilson over him for sure. I like the game environment. I like Jacoby to bounce back. I just think Michael Wilson has proven himself to be a great player at this point. And then Marvin Harrison Jr. definitely not a dub flex for me. I think you're still going to get limited snaps. I just honestly I feel like he has no ceiling right now. So I'm off him. Um and then Sam LaPorta, I honestly don't even think is that [ __ ] terrible of a play. He's definitely like rather not for me, but like, you know, but like in just in case, just in case. I'll throw him out there if someone's really desperate in a league and you're like, "Oh, Sam LaPorta didn't really think about him getting touches. He's getting snaps and this Arizona defense is terrible."

Jacksonville at Indianapolis. All right, we've got Jacksonville 6 and a half point favorites, 48.5 point total here. Uncle Phil likely getting another start at quarterback because they are not completely eliminated from the playoffs yet, although it is close. You got the two running backs, ETN and Jonathan Taylor, are going to go into must-start categories right away. As well as Philip Rivers played last week, quote unquote, against the Niners terrible pass rush and just terrible pass defense. This is a tough matchup against Jacksonville and I don't expect success from Philip Rivers in this one like we saw last week and I think every receiver despite Alec Pierce having a great game is going into the shaky flex category immediately. You know, I I do think Rivers likes Josh Downs. He's obviously not afraid to throw it to Alec Pierce, but I am not betting on any of them having good games. If I had to rank them, it probably would be Josh Downs, Alec Pierce, Michael Pittman at this point, though. But the other side of things for me is going to come down to whether or not Sauce Gardner plays. So, I feel really good about Jakobi Meyers despite kind of a lackluster game last week. What I think ended up happening was Brian Thomas Jr. basically got shadowed by Patrick Surtain and saw a ton of coverage from him. So, I wasn't expecting a good game against the Texans. And what I think that did was just kind of open up things for Brenton Strange. Parker Washington made a bunch of huge plays after the catch, which obviously disallows a lot of other receivers to have big production when one guy is just like eating up a chunk amount of yards all the time. So for me, the other wide receivers are really going to come down to whether or not Sauce Gardner plays. He's been out the last 3 weeks with a calf injury. They didn't put him on IR, which signals to you that they expected this to be around a four-week injury. So maybe he suits back up. We'll have to keep a close eye on practice reports. He will be the decision of whether or not I play him. I I you know what, like Parker Washington, I get it. He's had some high ceiling games. He's definitely more of a shaky flex to me than anything else. I'm not excited to have him in my lineup because he can definitely put you up a really really stinker of a floor game. BTJ is the one the the one here where it's like if Sauce does not suit up, they're already without Tre'Davious White, their second best cornerback. They do have Kenny Moore who's good, but he plays a lot of slot cornerback for them. But if they're without their top two cornerbacks and Trevor Lawrence playing the way that he is. Brian Thomas Jr. for me is going to be like near the top of the dub flex category. If Sauce is back, I expect similar treatment to what he saw against Derek Stingley last week where he'll see a lot of outside coverage from Sauce. And I know people don't like Sauce anymore. They're they're pretending like he's a bad cornerback now. He's not bad whatsoever. He's still a top 10 guy. He's just not like the number one cornerback in the league. And Brian Thomas Jr. clearly is not like a top five wide receiver in the league. So, I think he gets shut down. So, he would move from dub flex down to clear shaky flex category if Sauce Gardner is back on the field.

We can move on to the New England Patriots at the New York Jets. Here, this is a 13.5 point total game here. We might have some weather. We might have some rain, some storms in the New York, New Jersey area. So, keep an eye out for the weather report here, which would bring down the passing game, even though I don't think the Jets passing game can fall down any more than it's already at. So, the way I'm looking at this game is, yeah, Drake Maye should have a great game, but like choosing which players you're going to start is really tough because Diggs' snap counts like just float all over the place. Last week, monster game, ran 85% of the routes, but he had been at like 50% for the previous, you know, 3, four weeks. Either way, Diggs is going to be at the top of the dub flex category for me. I think he should be in your lineup. Breece Hall is the other one where with Brady Cook under center, it's like you have no confidence in this offense. Brady Cook's going to get another start in this one. The big kind of like teetering point here is who the Patriots get back on defense. So, they've been without Robert Spillane who's a top-tier run-stuffing linebacker and Milton Williams in the interior of their defensive line for the last few weeks and teams have been dashing them on the ground. Both of those guys have a possibility of returning this week. If that's the case, Breece Hall is borderline dead to me. But even if they're not there, I still like don't trust Breece Hall whatsoever. So, he's in the shaky flex category for me. I think Matt Collins is a shaky flex. Adonai Mitchell at this point is a rather not for me. The one conversation that needs to be had here is Trayvon Henderson and Rhamondre Stevenson. Trayvon Henderson is working back from concussion protocol. If he misses, Rhamondre is going to be at like the top of the feels good category. You don't you can't get a better matchup than this. Rhamondre Stevenson has the trust of the coaching staff. He'll basically play a three-down back role here. So, Rhamondre is going to be as high as that. If Trayvon Henderson can clear concussion protocol and he's back, he's going to go into the feels good category and I think you could put Rhamondre into the dub flex category just cuz I think the Patriots are going to dominate the Jets and should be a lot of running back touches in this one, especially if there's bad weather.

Let's move to New Orleans at Tennessee. We've got New Orleans as two and a half point favorites here in Tennessee. Tennessee's been a pass-funnel defense. Chris Olave and Tyler Boyd have had some really good chemistry as of late. Tennessee is pretty good against the run right now. So I would expect Tyler Boyd to probably drop back a decent amount. And again, without Shaheed, without Devin Duvernay, without Brandin Cooks, like it's all Olave and Juwan Johnson. There might be some weather here. There could be a little bit of rain that maybe stifles the passing game, but at this point, I mean, if you have Chris Olave, you know, I'm looking at him similar to J.Mo, but when you turn the matchup on, then it's, you know, you got to have him in your lineup. Tony Pollard's been awesome the last few weeks. I think he's at 100 rushing yards in three straight games. So, I'm going to put him into the dub flex category. Don't love the matchup against the Saints. I think they're actually a pretty good defense right now, but you got to like the volume that he's getting. I don't know how you can trust really anyone in the uh Titans passing game. I know DeAndre Hopkins has had some ceiling games, but he's also had a ton of floor games. So, he's very very boom or bust. So, he's a shaky flex for me. Treylon Burks is a rather not for me. The Saints backfield is a very very tricky one right now. We have Taysom Hill who ended up more than doubling Alvin Kamara and Jamaal Williams' carries last week. It was like all the Taysom Hill show. On paper though, Alvin Kamara did get a lot of opportunities. He did run a ton of routes. So, I will say I I would throw Kamara back into the shaky flex category. I would not like to start him a bunch above most of these guys, but I do think he is someone where it's like if he had a bounceback game, wouldn't really surprise me if they just played him in the traditional running back role. But do not touch Jamaal Williams here.

And as always, my weekly rankings will be live by the time you guys watch this video. So, a bunch of these question marks, if you're curious, like where I had Kamara ranked relative to like a Jaden Reed or a Woody Marks or whatever, those will be in the rankings. Those will be updated throughout the week, like in real time as injury reports roll in and all that kind of stuff. So, obviously, there will be no more videos after this, but I will always keep the rankings up to date all the way through Monday Night Football. So, you can get the rankings on bdge.co if you're a Big Dog member, the cheapest way to get it and we'll get you 3 months free of it, you know, if you play in Dynasty Leagues, we'll have our Dynasty rankings updated on the site as well for the Big Dog members. If you go to our partner app or website, as you can see right here, MGM, deposit $10 or more with code BDGE, play any slip on there, you know, we've been giving you slips throughout the video so far. or play any slip on there when you deposit with code BDGE for the first time and they will hit you with a promo code in-app for a free 3 months to use on our website bdge.co.

Let's move to Pittsburgh at Cleveland. So, this is going to be a disgusting game. 33.5 point total. How is that a regular season total? I'll tell you how. Because the Steelers are without DK Metcalf, the Browns have Dorian Thompson-Robinson at quarterback and we've got two relatively good defenses. So without DK Metcalf suspended, I think you pretty much have to put Kenneth Gainwell into the feels good category. He's going to catch five to six passes. He's just been awesome for the Steelers. You know, the run defense for the Browns has been kind of terrible actually since Malik Collins has been out. It's been something that I've kind of been preaching to you guys for like over a month now. Since Malik Collins, their interior defensive stud got hurt, they're letting up 25 fantasy points a week to the starting running back. Whether that's Warren or Gainwell, I think they're both startable. You know, at this point, I think you have to start Gainwell over Warren if you have to make that decision, but Warren feels pretty damn good at this point and would be above like the Lad McConkey, the Tony Pollard, the Michael Carter of the world. The backfield situation for the Browns right now, we don't have any clarity on D'Onta Foreman as far as I know. He hasn't practiced in a while. He was dealing with a calf injury and then missed this week's game with a hand injury. So, I don't know if he gets back. I like D'Onta Foreman a lot as a player. My question though is like when he gets back, it's his first time back in a while. I kind of feel like they'll use someone else on the goal line. So, while I think he has some upside in PPR leagues because he'll probably catch a ton of passes and Dorian Thompson-Robinson does check the ball down a decent amount, I don't think it'd be wise to throw him in as anything more than a shaky flex at this point. I'm intrigued by him more more so than a lot of the dudes in this category like the Michael Pittmans, the Jayden Reeds that just don't really feel like they have a lot of upside where I do think D'Onta Foreman has upside, but I do think he has a floor as well. Well, if D'Onta Foreman doesn't go, the backfield will be split up by Raheem Mostert, who I'll throw into the shaky flex category, and Jerome Ford, who I don't want to start at all. And then everybody else in this game for me, even with DK Metcalf out, it's like, no. Adam Thielen, rather not. Jerry Jeudy, rather not. The only players you really want to play in this game are Harold Fanon pretty much.

Moving to Seattle at Carolina, we've got Seattle as seven point favorites traveling cross country. They are in Carolina. JSN, of course, is going into the top of the must-start category. I think a lot of people are going to be really hyped about Kenneth Walker. I really don't think anything's changed in that backfield. He is still the same explosive player he's been all year that's not getting goal line touches. It's like, sure, if he breaks off a 60-yard play, he's going to score a touchdown on it, but if he doesn't do that, he's going to lose goal line carries. He's still playing fewer snaps than Zach Charbonnet, which is crazy. I'll throw him into the dub flex category because I do like the matchup. Like the Panthers have been pretty generous to running backs, but I don't feel great about him despite him coming off of the big week. It just doesn't feel like there's ever going to be a turning point where they're like, "Finally, let's just let Kenneth Walker be the workhorse." Same thing it feels at Rico Dowdle, who honestly just hasn't been that good since Chuba Hubbard has returned. So, he's very much a shaky flex play. Terrace Marshall Jr., I I think he's a dub flex. Like, I think him and Bryce Young have just shown enough chemistry and I think he's shown a high enough target share that even in a tough matchup against Seattle, I like Terrace Marshall Jr. enough. Zach Charbonnet is definitely a shaky flex. I think Jalen Coker is like flexible but shaky. Same thing with Cooper Kupp and Rashid Shaheed have really done nothing this year. So all these guys are going to end up being rather nots for me.

Moving to Tampa Bay at Miami. We've got a Florida showdown. Love the environment here. Only a 45.5 point total because Tua Tagovailoa is the quarterback for Miami. This is a pass-funnel defense for Tampa Bay. 5.5 point favorites. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are Devin White of course going into the must-start. I you know I I loved everything I've seen from Mike Evans since he's returned. So he's going to go into the feels good category. Jaylen Waddle's a tough one. I do like the matchup and I I do like the involvement he had last week. It was like they played the Bengals last week. They were in full-time catch-up mode the entire second half. So yeah, uh I think they have a lot of plays dialed up for Jaylen Waddle. He'll be more of a dub flex for me than a feels good. We'll put it that way. The rest of the Buccaneers receivers. I mean, it is ugly. You have Trey Palmer who ran the fourth fewest routes or the fourth most routes I should say of the Bucs wide receivers last week. We had Evans, we had Godwin, and then we had McMillan above Palmer. Palmer only ran 50% of the routes. He's like a boom or bust guy. Like obviously he can make a big play and score a touchdown, but from everything we've seen from the Bucs receivers, it's like I don't I don't want to play any of them. McMillan's actually going to go into the rather not category. The only other talking point would be Rachaad White in the backfield here. And I know people are like, it feels like they're off of Rachaad White because Sean Tucker's taken the goal line work, but Rachaad White's had plenty of like very high ceiling games without getting goal line work before. He's had games where he's taken screens for 65 yards, scoring touchdowns from 30 yards out. So like this is a a defense that I really really like to play Rachaad White against. And uh don't be surprised if Rachaad White has a very big blow-up game where he goes for like 130 from scrimmage and scores one or two touchdowns here. A big long touchdown play while everybody's kind of like off of him because he's not scoring the touchdowns. I actually love Rachaad White in this matchup. Chase Edmonds can be thrown into the shaky flex category here. And then Sean Tucker. Yeah, you're not actually starting him anywhere.

We can move to the Giants at the Las Vegas Raiders. Uh, 41.5 point total here. The Raiders are actually favored here, of course, because the Giants got to travel cross country. It's a great matchup for Gentry. He's coming off of his biggest game of uh the season. And there's a possibility that they get Kolton Miller back, their best offensive lineman. I think there's a pretty good chance of that, which make me feel really good about A.S.H.E.N. Gentry. Very, very much towards the top of this tier. So, I love Gentry. I love the matchup here. I think Darius Slayton is going to go into the shaky flex category. I think Devin Singletary can go into the shaky flex category. I think Trey Tucker can go into the shaky flex category. And then you've got

The two other Giants players who I do like. You've got Tracy who has, you know, gotten 65 to 70% of the snap since leaving with that hip injury a bunch of weeks ago pre-by and has looked really, really good. So, I'd imagine a lot of the game plan is going to run through him. So, as weird as it is to put two Giants offensive players into the feels good category, I'm going to do that with both Tracy and Jell Robinson for this week.

Philadelphia at Buffalo. We're in Buffalo. 43 and 1/2 point total in this game. Buffalo is a point and a half favorite. We might see some weather in this game. It's about a 65% chance for some rain, maybe some thunder, maybe some snow. It's going to be around 35°. We've got wind up to 25 30 mph. So, we could definitely see an effect in the passing game on this one.

Of course, you are starting James Cook, no doubt about it. The Bills run defense has been bad. Saquon's been good as of recently. I think both teams will be getting back a decent amount of players in this one. Jaylen Carter should be back on the defensive line for the Philly Eagles. I think Lane Johnson will be back for the Eagles on the offensive line. So, you like both running backs.

AJ Brown, I would say, feels good. He's getting a ton of targets. He's been really, really efficient and effective in the passing game, though. The Bills matchup is tough for opposing wide receivers. I'm going to throw Dvonte Smith into the dub flex category. Klo Shakir is the only guy you can even like think about starting on the passing side of things for the Bills right now. He's going to go into the shaky flex category. You know, he's very very boomer bust and I think we can kind of move on from that game.

Sunday night football, we've got Chicago at the San Francisco 49ers. CMAC, of course, going into the ver very mustart cat. Kind of [ __ ] with that line of 68 and a half rushing yards. Lot of injuries still to figure out here. We'll have both running backs available, DeAndre Swift and Kyle Manungai. And this is a relatively good matchup. I think Swift has been way more good than bad this year. Of course, he he'll struggle against tough match ups like he struggled against Green Bay both times they played, but Green Bay is a very good run defense. So, I actually feel damn good about DeAndre Swift this week. If you want to throw him into the dub flex category, I get it. He definitely is similar to like a Tyrone Tracy, similar to like a Stefon Diggs. Good match up there. So, I like Swift.

Do I think Kungai is a dub flex? No. I think he's definitely closer to the shaky flex category, but he gives you a floor probably of like six or seven points. If he gets into the end zone, he can have a good day. Jawan Jennings absolutely love. Have loved him pretty much all year. uh he's going into the feels good category. And the bigger question mark here is like whether or not George KD plays. So he left the game with an ankle sprain. We don't know if it was like more score related or severity related, but I think there's a good chance George KD misses this game. I think there's a good chance Ricky P misses this game. And if that's the case, it'll be, you know, 10 targets for CMAC, probably eight targets for Jawan Jennings, and then Jawan Jennings is as good of a bet to score a touchdown as any like non- elite player at this point. So Jennings is like a top 15 fantasy wide receiver for me this week.

The other side of things is a little bit more muddied. We have Roma Doomsday dealing with the foot fracture. They said he's going to be back at some point this year. I doubt it is week 17. So, I think we should proceed as if he is not. DJ Moore has had back-to-back really, really big fantasy days. Obviously, if they didn't go into overtime, get the onside kick, he would have had a pretty underwhelming week last week. And the volatility is obviously going to come into play if Luther Burden is back. But I do think there's a chance Luther Burden misses this game as well. It's not like he got in any practice last week. So, if Luther Burden and Roma Dunce are both out, I feel much better about DJ Moore. And I think I would almost go as far as saying I'd put him into the feels good category. I think if Luther Burden plays, that makes both of them very very tough to decipher.

It's going to be interesting. I I actually really like Chicago in this game. They're three-point underdogs and I think it's a very very like if anybody's watched the Niners play this year without Nick Bosa, without Fred Warner, they get zero pass rush. Like they don't put any pressure on the quarterback and Chicago's offensive line is awesome. So, I think there is such a mismatch there that Chicago's kind of going to be able to do whatever they want on offense. And I think more often than not, what they want to do is run the ball. And it's another reason why I really like DeAndre Swift. I think they're just going to control the trenches and really, really control the line of scrimmage. But I also think Caleb Williams is probably going to have a lot of time to throw the ball wherever he wants. So, I think if Luther Burton does return, I would move DJ Moore down to the like probably the bottom of the dub flex category because the volatility in that passing game has been just all over the place this year. And then I'd put Luther Burden into the shaky flex category. Let me make sure I'm not forgetting anybody.

Yeah, I think we can move on to Monday Night Football. We've got the Rams at the Atlanta Falcons. 7 and 12 point underdogs for Atlanta being at home. 49 12 point total here. The Rams got to travel all the way across the country. Won't matter for Bejon. He a goat. I think there are some question marks around Drake London, but fear not. Drake London still ran a route on like 85% of the drop back. So, we're not concerned about the injury. He was a little bit rusty last week, dropping some uncharacteristic balls, but I'm not worried about him whatsoever. And while the Rams defense has been good overall, they have allowed the sixth most fantasy points to opposing wide receivers. So, Drake London should be in your lineup in week 17. Nobody else should though. Nobody else for the Falcons on this list should be.

However, Dvonte Adams almost certainly going to miss this game. Again, wouldn't matter for Puka because he is the goat of goats in this one. The running back tier. I guess we can talk about Katada Mumfield a little bit. He's still only running about 50 60% of the routs. He's a rather not for me. Kron Williams, Blake Cororm, Kyron Williams still getting around 65% of the snaps, but this is a very very good matchup on paper. And I do think objectively if you're Shawn McVey and you are the Rams, the Falcons pass defense has a week- toeek ceiling game where I do think their approach to this game will probably be very very runheavy between Kyro Williams and Blake Cororm. So we love Puka. We do like the matchup. You know, they're in a dome here, so there shouldn't be any like weather concerns. It should be relatively high scoring, a 49 12 point total here. I think Kairen Williams is a feels good player for me for sure. I'd start him over a decent amount of players in this tier.

And then Blake Cororm, man, it it's tough to throw him into the dub flex category, but I think he's earned it. He's getting scoring opportunities. He's getting long drives and one of the best offenses behind a very good offensive line. He's got the MVP at quarterback that just moves the chains. This is not a good run defense in Atlanta. So, when I'm looking at the other running backs, like I would definitely start him over Deont, would start him over Woody Marks, would start him over Aldrich Esté. So, I think I'm going to throw him into the bottom of the Dub Flex category. And if you've got Blake Corum, you could definitely do a lot worse. I'm going throw Tyler Alier into the rather not just to show some respect.

And that is every game. We are 50 minutes in. This is definitely the longest recording of one of these rankings shows I have done this year, but we wanted to get everybody into one so that you guys would have the full two days. And uh just to quickly recap, just check practice reports for injuries. Guys like Colton Miller for the Raiders, guys like uh Robert Splain and Milton Williams for the Patriots defense. if you're, you know, deciding on a guy like Bree Hall. So, injury reports matter for the guys that are not paying attention, like the trench guys. Check weather reports, of course, for the games. The ones right now that you should have on your radar would be the Ravens, Packers, possible weather concerns there. A little bit of rain, not overly concerning. Steelers, Cleveland Browns, some wind, some uh possible rain there is kind of gross. Saints, Titans, could be some rain there. Patriots at the Jets, very, very high forecasting for rain now. actually moved up since we even started the video. Cardinals, Bengals, 50% chance of rain there. Eagles, Bills, we've got some rain concerns there. Everybody else should be pretty good on the slates.

So, I will leave you all with that for the 2025 fantasy football season. As I've mentioned throughout the video, you know, we will be taking a lot of bets throughout the Christmas weekend and into the playoffs. You could do so on MGM, of course, that is our biggest partner app there. You will get three months free of the big dog membership if you go deposit newly there. You want to track any of my bets for free, you could see them on the Picket app as well. Pickicket is like a social bet tracking platform. So, you can follow me, you can follow any of the BDG guys, you can get your friends on the app and and have them you guys can follow each other and like track how bad you guys are at betting against each other and you can copy slips. So, if you just want to see what I'm betting throughout the weekend, you can literally go on there, go to my profile and just like copy bet to whatever sports books you guys use. Hopefully, it is MGM, but you can do it with whatever books you sync on there. So, you can sync all your books on there. Just make sure obviously free to do so, but make sure that you put promo code BDGE in when you download the Picket app so that lets them know we sent you there.

All right, signing out. It is time for me to take a nap. I'm tired, but we continue the fights. Love y'all. Good luck in your championship weekend. One final last 2025 smoochis. Mwah. down. Hey