ClutchPoints
The 2025 fantasy football championship game is here at last. Another year of research, stress, bad luck and anxiety comes down to one final week.
Luckily for fantasy football managers, the quarterback slate is fairly favorable, making it easy for many to determine their lineups. Any manager who has made it to the championship game will be tempted to just leave in the star quarterback who has taken them to the dance, but there are still a few matchups to avoid.
Before the action unfolds in NFL Week 17, we will go over the top three fantasy football quarterbacks to start and three others to sit one more time.
The Dallas Cowboys have been eliminated from the playoffs for the second consecutive season, but Dak Prescott has been on a heater. Since his two-touchdown blunder against the Denver Broncos in Week 8, Prescott has been the seventh-best quarterback in fantasy football and has shown zero signs of slowing down entering Week 17.
Although Prescott is coming off a pair of “down” games, during which he still averaged 269 passing yards, he draws his softest defensive matchup in a month. Prescott has faced a pair of zone-heavy defenses, but he will go against the Washington Commanders’ man-heavy scheme in Week 17.
The last time he faced man-dominant coverages, Prescott dominated November with three consecutive 300-yard outings. He was the No. 1 fantasy football quarterback during that frame, and now draws a Commanders secondary that is depleted without top cornerbacks Marshon Lattimore and Trey Amos.
Any fantasy football manager who relied on Justin Herbert in Week 15 was paid off handsomely with the quarterback’s second 300-yard game of the year. Herbert benefited from facing the Dallas Cowboys’ atrocious pass defense, but he will face much more resistance in Week 17 against the Houston Texans.
The Texans are on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, allowing the fewest fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks. Houston has allowed just five quarterbacks to top 15 fantasy points against them all season, and none were able to reach 20.
Herbert also threw an interception in four consecutive games before facing the Cowboys. The Texans boast the second-best turnover margin in the league, averaging 1.7 takeaways per game.
Any manager relying on Herbert in the fantasy football championships against this secondary is praying for a 17-point game at best. That could certainly be enough, but most should have another option with a higher ceiling to feel more confident in.
Any Trevor Lawrence owner would find it difficult to bench him at this point in what might be the best stretch of his five-year career. Lawrence enters Week 17 with 1,082 passing yards, 12 touchdowns, zero interceptions, 112 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns in his last four games.
Coming off his two best performances of the year, Lawrence and the red-hot Jacksonville Jaguars...
