Week 17 is here and it’s the championship week in most leagues. Each week this column will analyze a player at each position rostered in 50 percent of Yahoo leagues or less. This group of players is basically a dream stream team. For reference, the threshold used for Wins and Losses in this article will be if the quarterbacks can score at least 17 points if the tight ends can score at least eight PPR points, and if the rest can score at least 10 PPR points. Here is the Week 17 stream team.
Week 17 Stream Team: Ronald Jones, Amon-Ra St. Brown, and More!
Week 16 Recap
Quarterback
- Tua Tagovailoa (MIA) @ NO – 11.02 points – Loss
- Matt Ryan (ATL) v DET – 13.10 points – Loss
- Carson Wentz (IND) @ ARI – 17.40 points – Win
- Totals – Week: 1-2 / Year: 20-28
Running Back
- Ronald Jones (TB) @ CAR – 16.10 points – Win
- Duke Johnson (MIA) @ NO – 3.90 points – Loss
- Justin Jackson (LAC) @ HOU – 34.20 points – Win
- Totals – Week: 2-1 / Year: 17-31
Wide Receiver
- Amon-Ra St. Brown (DET) @ ATL – 26.00 points – Win
- Russell Gage (ATL) v DET – 5.90 points – Loss
- Byron Pringle (KC) v PIT – 25.50 points – Win
- Totals – Week: 2-1 / Year: 27-21
Tight End
- Evan Engram (NYG) @ PHI – 11.70 points – Win
- James O’Shaughnessy (JAX) @ NYJ – 8.90 points – Win
- Cole Kmet (CHI) @ SEA – 8.90 points – Win
- Totals – Week: 3-0 / Year: 26-22
- Grand Totals – Week: 8-4 / Year: 90-102
Week 17 Stream Team
Quarterback – Trey Lance (SF – 12%) v HOU
This is the week that everyone has been waiting for. Back in the offseason, there were dreams of Trey Lance becoming a high-end fantasy quarterback. That did not come to fruition as Jimmy Garoppolo held the starting job all year, aside from a couple of games missed due to injury. Garoppolo is injured once again and it looks like this one will force him to miss this game against the Houston Texans.
Enter Lance who rushed 16 times for 89 yards in his only start earlier this season. He also rushed seven times for 41 yards the previous week in relief of Garoppolo. It is very clear that the San Francisco 49ers will take advantage of his dynamic rushing ability and that is huge for fantasy football. In that start, Lance only had 192 passing yards and an interception with no scores and still scored 15.58 fantasy points. He was stuffed on the one-yard line or that would have been a 21.58-point day. The matchup against the Texans is a great one as they are not a good defense at all. If Lance starts, he should be able to post top-12 quarterback numbers this week.
I told you to draft Trey Lance because of his Week 17 matchup against the Texans.
— JJ Zachariason (@LateRoundQB) December 27, 2021
Honorable Mentions – Taysom Hill (NO – 42%) v CAR, Tua Tagovailoa (MIA – 41%) @ TEN
Running Back – Jordan Howard (PHI – 16%) @ WFT
This week is not quite as strong as last week at the running back position but Jordan Howard is a guy that might be of some help. The Philadelphia Eagles have been one of the most run-heavy teams in the NFL this year. It certainly makes sense to do so when Jalen Hurts is the quarterback considering how dangerous he is as a runner.
That style meshes perfectly with Howard who is a pure north-and-south style runner that benefits from the extra space Hurts opens up. Since joining the Eagles in Week 8, Howard has been surprisingly involved and surprisingly effective. Last week’s 37 yards on nine carries were both season lows for Howard, who left the game with a stinger.
Before that Howard had seen double-digit carries in all five healthy games and rushed for at least 57 yards in all of them as well. This week he gets to take on the Washington Football Team. This is the same team he just had 15 carries for 69 yards two weeks ago and that was with Miles Sanders healthy. Sanders is going to miss this game so there should be even more opportunity for Howard in a game where they are currently 3.5-point road favorites with a 24.75-point implied total.
Honorable Mentions – Dare Ogunbowale (JAX – 2%) @ NE, Rex Burkhead (HOU – 14%) @ SF
Wide Receiver – K.J. Osborn (MIN – 34%) @ GB
K.J. Osborn started out the season hot and then fell off for most of the year. That is until recently when Adam Thielen suffered an ankle injury and missed time. Thielen returned last week only to leave with another ankle injury and this time he is done for the season after undergoing ankle surgery. Over the last four weeks, Osborn has stepped up in a big way. He has seen at least seven targets in three of those four games and also scored a touchdown in three of those four games as well. Osborn scored at least 14.70 fantasy points in all three of those games as well and looks to be a major part of this Minnesota Vikings offense right now. This game also looks to be one of the best on the slate as well. The current combined total sits at 47.5 points with the Green Bay Packers sitting as 6.5-point favorites. This should keep the Vikings in a negative game script and throwing most of the game, much to the benefit of Osborn.
K.J. Osborn finishes in games Adam Thielen has A) missed or B) been limited with an in-game injury:
WR21, WR17, WR64, WR15
— Dwain McFarland (@dwainmcfarland) December 28, 2021
Honorable Mentions – Kadarius Toney (NYG – 22%) @ CHI, Gabriel Davis (BUF – 23%) v ATL
Tight End – Gerald Everett (SEA – 43%) v DET
Gerald Everett has been about the only bright spot for this Seattle Seahawks passing attack since Russell Wilson returned from his finger injury. D.K. Metcalf has been on a massive cold streak and Tyler Lockett has been a bit up-and-down.
Meanwhile, it has been Everett as the most consistent one. He has scored double-digit fantasy points in five of the last seven games. This is what plenty of analysts expected heading into the year. After only seeing more than three targets once in the first eight games, Everett has seen at least four targets in all but one of the last seven games.
This week’s matchup against the Detroit Lions is a nice one as well. The Lions have been playing better lately but are still one of the worst defenses in the NFL. They have allowed the 10th-most fantasy points to tight ends this year. The Seahawks are also 6.5-point favorites and should be able to move the ball however they choose in this one, making Everett the tight end of the Week 17 stream team.
Honorable Mentions – Tyler Conklin (MIN – 42%) @ GB, Cole Kmet (CHI – 33%) v NYG
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Main Photo: Embed from Getty Images
