Fantasy Football Week 17 Busts: 3 players with the potential to wreck Championship Week lineups

On By Littum

It’s Week 17, which means most fantasy football managers are smack dab in the middle of their fantasy football championships. Unfortunately, there have already been a few letdowns at a crucial moment, but there may be more on the horizon. In this week’s fade/bust column, I want to highlight three players with the potential to let you down in fantasy’s most crucial week.

Since returning to the active lineup following his benching of Joe Flacco, second-year QB Anthony Richardson has generally improved — especially for fantasy football managers after scoring 20 fantasy points in three of his last five matchups. Still, in that span there has been plenty of inconsistency, as Richardson has averaged a 51.1% completion percentage with fewer than 175 passing yards in all but one outing, throwing 4 passing TDs and 5 INTs in that span with a 6.5 YPA. It’s not the passing production that’s scored those fantasy points, though — it’s his work on the ground; he has scored at least one rushing touchdown in all but one of those matchups.

In Week 17, Richardson could face several uphill challenges against the New York Giants, the first being health. The QB missed practice Wednesday and Thursday, listed with back and foot injuries, and while active, could find himself limited in the rushing game under the circumstances. He’ll also face a New York Giants defense that forces the second-highest sack rate at 8.3% — another alarming note that could be bad news for a benched QB already prone to some big hits.

Heat check Given the preseason hype for Richardson, it seems ludicrous to consider leaving him on your fantasy bench. But given his track record of volatility and another string of injuries, he’s probably better left out of lineups for such an important week.

Unfortunately for fantasy football managers who were hoping to ride off into the sunset — er, championship game — with this year’s most pleasant surprise in their lineups, there’s another tough game on deck for Dallas Cowboys RB Rico Dowdle at the most crucial moment. It’s his second straight week here for Dowdle in the fades column, fresh off a game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers where he was limited to just 23 rushing yards on 13 attempts and scored just 6.6 fantasy points in half-PPR leagues for his third-lowest scoring outing of the year.

However, this week’s matchup against the Philadelphia Eagles likely won’t be the cure.

The Eagles’ rushing defense has been a challenge for opponents to overcome this year, with the fourth-lowest EPA per game. rush (-0.14) and second-fewest fantasy points per to have allowed fewer than 10 rush results in the year. Over the past five weeks, the Eagles are dead last in schedule-adjusted fantasy points per game. match allowed to opponents per Fantasy Points data. With CeeDee Lamb shut down for the rest of the 2024 season, there’s also the potential for things to get out of hand pretty quickly, which would be bad news for establishing play in terms of the play script.

Heat check Dowdle is another big asset that could have helped carry you to the fantasy championship as a surprisingly useful FLEX play all year. However, it looks increasingly unlikely that his chances of delivering a league-winning performance in Week 17 are high.

Former first-round pick Jameson Williams has been among the more surprising breakouts this fantasy season, currently ranking third in the NFL with an 18.9 YPR average and an average WR22 rating of 11.9 FPPG in semi-PPR scoring formats despite a relatively low goal percentage (5.8) per games — 43rd among WRs playing more than 10 games this year). However, it hasn’t necessarily been a smooth ride for the overall rankings, with as many weekly finishes ranked outside the top 100 at WR as he does in the top five

Despite coming off a season-best 23.5 points in Week 16 thanks to a 5-142-1 stat line, his performance has been generally underwhelming of late, scoring 11.2 or fewer fantasy points in five of his last seven games dating back to Week 10. This week, the already volatile asset will be tasked with facing the San Francisco 49ers, who are allowing the fifth-fewest schedule-adjusted fantasy points over the last five weeks per Fantasy Points data. Going back to Week 10, the 49ers rank dead last in the league in explosive receptions allowed (10), with a league-low 10.0 YPR and the second-lowest YAC/R average (3.55) in the league on targets to WRs.

Heat check Williams has a high ceiling, but fantasy managers should carefully consider whether his ceiling is worth the potential low floor in a must-win week.