Bold fantasy football predictions for Week 17, the championship round!

The Yahoo Fantasy Football crew is back to share their boldest predictions, one last time for the 2025 season. Hopefully, these takes help you bring the hardware home in Week 17!

Ja’Marr Chase wins your fantasy championship on his own

Ja’Marr Chase scored a league-high 17 receiving touchdowns in 2024, a weekly occurrence. After having five touchdowns early on, the Bengals’ star receiver has had 102 targets in a row without a touchdown. With the offense back on track, Joe Burrow healthy and Chase continuing to be the focal point of the offense, there is no reason his touchdown production wouldn’t bounce back in a major way.

In the second half of the season, only the Arizona Cardinals are giving up 30+ PPG, with a mark of 34.7 points allowed per week to opposing offenses. I would expect Chase’s eighth 100+ yard game this season, but this time with a touchdown or two. He last played Arizona back in 2023, scoring 52.2 fantasy points on 19 targets. — Joel Smyth

Tyrone Tracy Jr. finishes Championship Week as a top-10 fantasy RB

There hasn’t been much that’s gone right for the New York Giants this season. Two wins, a whole lot of pain and now Week 17 brings a heavyweight tank-off with the Las Vegas Raiders that feels like a fight for the No. 1 overall pick. But trust and believe, Tracy is the dude you can start with supreme confidence. Since rookie sensation Cam Skattebo’s season-ending injury, and since the Giants stopped messing around with Devin Singletary, Tracy’s been living in that 15-plus carry neighborhood.

He’s stacked back-to-back 70+ rushing yard games, punched in two touchdowns over the last two weeks and now draws a Raiders defense that looks like it’s hanging on with duct tape. If Maxx Crosby can’t go, the resistance gets even lighter. Volume wins titles, and Tracy’s volume is about to cash a check. — Ray Garvin

Jacoby Brissett throws for 400 yards at Cincinnati

I understand if anyone has cold feet on the Arizona offense after last week’s clunker. The key is to recognize that Brissett and company were wildly productive in the nine prior weeks, and now there’s a gettable Cincinnati defense on the schedule.

Trey McBride is the key element here, as he’s been the runaway TE1 all year and the Bengals are awful with seam coverage. McBride has multi-touchdown upside in this spot, and Brissett and Joe Burrow can give us a pinball, back-and-forth game — just what you want for championship week. — Scott Pianowski

Rhamondre Stevenson ends as an RB1 in championship week

This is a boring, simplistic analysis; anytime you can start a running back who is going to take the lead on a team projected to score 28 points in a game, you do it. When that running back’s team is set to face a defense that’s allowed the fifth-most rushing yards since Week 12 and a league-high eight receiving touchdowns to the position on the year, it’s even more of a reason.

When that player, despite getting vitriol from the fantasy community this season because he’s “stolen” touches from a younger and more exciting player, is a proven quality NFL runner, it’s the final piece of the puzzle. All of those boxes are checked by Patriots running back Rhamondre Stevenson as he prepares to play the Jets in Week 17 with TreVeyon Henderson likely out with a concussion. — Matt Harmon

Omarion Hampton finishes as a top-7 fantasy RB

The Chargers will be dealing with a severe mismatch, between their banged-up offensive line and the Texans’ ferocious pass rush, in what projects to be a low-scoring affair in Week 17. Normally, that would be enough to steer clear of a backfield, but it’s exactly the scenario Ashton Jeanty was in last week when he racked up 188 scrimmage yards and two scores against this same Houston defense.

Hampton is another talented rookie runner who’s coming off his best performance (95 yards and a TD) since returning from injury. Meanwhile, the Texans have allowed at least 90 scrimmage yards or a touchdown to five straight starting running backs. With Kimani Vidal likely sidelined due to a neck injury, Hampton should see the bulk of the touches en route to a strong finish to his first fantasy campaign. — Justin Boone

Chris Olave gives fantasy managers another WR1 performance

Devaughn Vele and Devin Neal being out sure helped Chris Olave’s case to be a top-12 option last week against the Jets. However, he didn’t necessarily need the expanded workload. Since Tyler Shough took over under center, Olave has turned into the WR1 we all knew was in his range of outcomes from a talent perspective. His catchable target rate is up to 72%, and his yards per route run jumped from 1.64 to 2.17 since Week 9. It’s no wonder that with two pass-catchers down, HC Kellen Moore opted to make Olave the focal point of the passing game with 16 targets versus spreading the ball out to the other role players.

Olave now gets to face a Titans’ secondary that, outside of their game against the banged-up Chiefs, has given up 15 or more PPR points to a single WR in every contest since their bye. With a similar situation to Week 16 setting up for the Shough-Olave connection, fantasy managers should expect to see the former Buckeye in the top 12 again this weekend. — Chris Allen