Week 17 Fantasy Football Championship Start/Sit Sleepers (2024)

Happy Belated Christmas and Happy Early New Year! It’s the last week of 2024, and ladies and gentlemen, it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for! It’s Week 17, and we will finally decide who will win that fantasy football championship. Now, you may be in a bind where you need to look at some sleepers due to injuries or make a “Hail Mary” type call. That’s where I come in!

But first, let’s recap last week’s “Shore Thing Sleepers.” Boy, oh boy, I am firing on all cylinders. It may have been a bit hit-or-miss during the regular season, but I know I have to perform the best during playoffs, and that’s just what I’ve been doing! In Week 15, I was 4.42 points over projection. I topped that performance with 10.06 points over projection last week, with hits from Tank Bigsby (+1.2), C.J. Stroud (+1.46), Tucker Kraft (+2.1) and Tank Dell, who scored 12.7 points over projection before suffering that horrific knee injury. My thoughts and prayers go out to Dell, and I hope we can see him kill it on the football field once more.

Let’s end this season on a high note and continue to ride this hot streak. After all, it’s the most important week of the fantasy football season! Let’s find some Week 17 “Shore Thing Sleepers.”

Fantasy Football Start/Sit Consideration: Week 17 Sleepers

Quarterback

Drake Maye (New England Patriots)

Santa’s list is full of people who are naughty or nice. Drake Maye’s been a mix of both since returning from concussion protocol in Week 9. In the last six games, he’s been nice, throwing for a touchdown in each game. However, he’s also thrown an interception in each game during that span.

Still, Maye has 18.4+ fantasy points in three straight games, averaging 267.9 scrimmage yards, 1.6 total touchdowns, an interception and 18.4 fantasy points during this span.

The third-overall pick faces off against the Chargers in Week 17, whose defense has been struggling against quarterbacks lately. In back-to-back games, the Los Angeles has allowed a quarterback to have 263+ passing yards, multiple touchdowns, 25 rushing yards and 21+ fantasy points.

Jim Harbaugh‘s defense might be out of sync, but Drake Maye is definitely in sync with his offense. When people ask who my sleeper for quarterback is this week, you just have to listen to NSYNC because “It’s Gonna Be Maye!”

Running Back

Javonte Williams (Denver Broncos)

Congratulations to Javonte Williams, who broke a three-game streak last week where no Broncos running back scored double-digit Points Per Reception (PPR) fantasy points. Still, there’s room for concern, as Jaleel McLaughlin will likely return for this game.

Also, despite scoring double digits, Williams has not gone over 25 rushing yards since Week 11. You’d think the production would be due to a touchdown, but it wasn’t. Instead, it was the seven receptions on 11 targets for 29 receiving yards. That’s why I’m loving him this week. In four of his last nine games, he has 23+ receiving yards. Every time he’s seen those numbers, he’s scored double-digit fantasy points.

Do you want to guess which team has allowed the most receiving yards to running in the last five weeks? Yeah, it’s his opponent, the Cincinnati Bengals. In that span, they’ve allowed 292 receiving yards to opposing backs!

What’s even more shocking is that the Bengals have only played four games in that span, so they’re allowing an average of 73 receiving yards to the position in this span. Cincinnati has also allowed a running back to see four-plus targets in three of those games, accruing to 39+ receiving yards and 10.4+ fantasy points. That Sounds fitting for a running back in Williams, who averages 4.2 targets this season.

Devin Singletary (New York Giants)

Devin Singletary lost his job to rookie Tyrone Tracy Jr., just like Giants owner John Mara is losing sleep over Saquon Barkley leaving in free agency. Tracy Jr. aggravated an ankle injury in Sunday’s loss to the Falcons and is now in danger of missing this week’s game. That would put Singletary back into the starting running back role. Even if Tracy Jr. does play, I would expect him to be limited.

Before being injured, which played a considerable role in Singletary losing his starting job, Singletary averaged 55 rushing yards and 0.5 rushing touchdowns for 12.8 fantasy points. While the Colts have not allowed a running back to have over 35 rushing yards in back-to-back games, a certain trend has me salivating.

Since Week 10, the Colts have allowed eight running backs to have 27+ rushing yards. Six of those eight running backs also scored a touchdown. Those eight running backs all scored at least six fantasy points, but due to the touchdowns, their average is an astonishing 17.5 fantasy points!

If Tracy Jr. can play, the Colts have also allowed a running back duo to score six-plus fantasy points in three of the last four games, including two of those games being double-digit running back duos.

Wide Receiver

Note: Due to the NFL schedule, only four games are left after the early slate is over on Sunday. These wide receivers play on either “Sunday Night Football” or “Monday Night Football.” So, if you need a plug-and-play player left on the waiver wire, I like these two targets!

Tim Patrick (Detroit Lions)

“Is this Amon-Ra St. Brown or Jameson Williams? No, this is Tim Patrick!” After putting up back-to-back games of 30+ receiving yards, a touchdown and 13+ fantasy points, Patrick put up a goose egg in Week 16 against the Bears.

Here’s a lesson: “When life knocks you down, just get right back up.” How is he supposed to get right back up when the 49ers have allowed the least fantasy points to opposing receivers this season? Well, stop thinking negatively and look on the bright side!

The bright side for Patrick? In three of the last five games against the 49ers, a WR3 or lower on the depth chart has been the highest-scoring receiver that week. Those receivers were also held to under 42 receiving yards or fewer and scored a touchdown! Note that when Patrick scored a touchdown in those two games this season, he was held to 43 or fewer receiving yards, too.

Olamide Zaccheaus (Washington Commanders)

You have to have a “next man up” mentality, and that’s exactly what Olamide Zaccheus has done. In the two games since Noah Brown was placed on Injured Reserve (IR) with a kidney injury, Zaccheus has averaged four receptions on six targets for 53 yards, a touchdown, and 15.3 fantasy points.

His matchup against the Falcons is just that much sweeter. In two of their last three games, the Falcons have allowed a receiver duo to see six-plus targets. The WR2 in those games averaged 7.5 receptions for 97.5 yards, 1.5 touchdowns and 26.2 fantasy points. That includes having a floor of 62 receiving yards and 13.2 fantasy points.

Why not even get a bit weirder with the trends? The Falcons have allowed a receiver duo to have six-plus targets in every other game against the NFC East this season! That WR2 averaged a solid 5.3 receptions for 34.6 yards, 0.3 touchdowns and 10.8 fantasy points.

Tight End

Jake Ferguson (Dallas Cowboys)

I thought a tight end was a quarterback’s best friend?! So, where was the chemistry between Jake Ferguson and Cooper Rush all season? In the four games this year where Ferguson did not leave with an injury and played with Rush, he’s averaged 3.7 receptions on six targets for 29.7 yards and 6.7 fantasy points.

I think it was just slow-moving chemistry, though, because last week, Ferguson had six receptions on nine targets for 40 yards and 10 fantasy points, his highest totals with Rush at quarterback.

Meanwhile, the Eagles have been struggling against the tight end position recently, allowing a tight end to score 7.3 fantasy points in three of the last four games. In addition, the last four tight ends to see six-plus targets against the Eagles have all scored a touchdown and double-digit fantasy points. Better yet, this all has happened in the last six games. The four tight ends averaged five receptions on 43.5 yards, a touchdown and 15.4 fantasy points.

Check out all of our Week 17 fantasy football content:

Thanks for reading this week’s “Shore Thing Sleepers.” If you’re looking for more fantasy content like this or need help with the last-minute fantasy football start/sit decisions for your roster, you can find me on Facebook at “Fantasy Sports Start or Sit’Em Questions,” Twitter/X @FSSOSEQ or on BlueSky!

*Photo Credit: Tim Heitman – USA TODAY Sports*

Ben Siebert

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Week 17 Shore Thing Sleepers (2024)