Fantasy Football Dating App: Week 17

Every Sunday morning, fantasy owners face similar choices to the ones dating app users do on Saturday night. When faced with lots of options, do you swipe left and pass on potential opportunity or do you want to swipe right and open the door for exciting possibilities? Each week, we'll talk about specific players and what you should do with them (particularly when setting your daily fantasy lineups).

Russell Wilson

Week 17 is the NFL equivalent of college's bowl season. A handful of games matter, but the rest are just put on more or less for show in front of half-interested partiers. That makes things particularly difficult to predict, as all those meaningless games motivate playoff teams to protect their impact players and their playbooks, while everyone else just wants to make sure they don't have a limp when they jet off for vacation next week. While the Seahawks could technically improve from the sixth to the fifth seed with a win, I expect that they'd rather keep their star QB healthy. Furthermore, they very well might play the Cardinals again in January, so their play-calling will likely be highly conservative so that they don't give anything away. Finally, even if they were to go all out for some crazy reason, the Cardinals are a top five fantasy defense against opposing signal callers. Put it all together and there is little reason to believe that Wilson is worth his $7,000 price tag this week.

Jordan Reed

Hot take alert—Jordan Reed is just as important to the Washington offense as Rob Gronkowski is to the Patriots offense. I'm not saying he's as a good a player, but if he's not involved, Washington's passing game disappears. There have been three games this year where Reed did not receive at least five targets. In those games, Kirk Cousins averaged 207 yards and threw five picks versus only three TDs. In the other 12 games, Cousins averaged 281 yards and had 23 scores versus only six picks. In other words, when Reed is used, Cousins is Tom Brady. When he's not, Cousins is Peter Brady. Perhaps most critically, Washington lost all three of those games. The takeaways here are that Reed is awesome and indispensable, and that Washington knows it. With nothing on the line on Sunday, expect to see more of him wearing a hat than a helmet, thus making Reed a poor play this week despite a stellar season.

Jordan Matthews

You have to hand it to Chip Kelly. It's difficult for any coach to anger his team enough to get fired with one week left in the season, yet still be popular enough that the dominant media stories are about what team will be lucky enough to hire him next. That's real talent. In the meantime, the Eagles take the field on Sunday with an interim coach who was given a handful of practices to prepare a team with zero motivation and no time to make adjustments. I expect we will learn that the only thing worse than a Chip Kelly offense this season is a Chip Kelly offense led by someone else. I wouldn't touch anyone on the team and only named Matthews here because he's been hot lately, thus making him a potentially popular play.

Odell Beckham Jr.

Here is the flipside of the Eagles coin. Call me crazy, but I don't think the Eagles secondary can sleepwalk faster than OBJ can run. And if you think Beckham wants the dominant story going into this offseason to be his suspension, you are even crazier. Expect him to put on a personal talent show on Sunday against a bunch of Walking Dead extras wearing Eagles jerseys. Given his sky-high potential, he's a must play despite the substantial expense.

Ben Roethlisberger

Just like Beckham, here is another expensive guy likely to justify breaking the bank. Given the turmoil of Week 17, elite players who are fully motivated are difficult to find. While the Steelers need some help, expect them to take care of business against a Browns team that Big Ben lit up for almost 400 yards and three scores off the bench in Week 10. With guys like Newton, Brady, and Wilson threats to head to the sidelines if the game is decided or there is too much defensive pressure, Roethlisburger is the number one quarterback play this week and as sure a bet as the Browns blowing another top five pick.

Doug Martin

Other than guys leading teams jockeying for playoff position, the best players to look for in Week 17 are those with every reason to gun for their own stats. Doug Martin trails Adrian Peterson for the NFL rushing lead by just 64 yards, and his head coach has publicly declared that it's his goal to bring home the rushing title to boost the Bucs morale. Martin could receive nearly 40 carries this week, and Minnesota actually has something to play for, meaning they can't do the same thing for AP. Ultimately, rushing titles are forgotten quicker than MTV Movie Award winners, but hey, if it matters to Martin, Lovie Smith and the rest of the Tampa Bay brass, then it should matter to us.