Week 17 Updated Quarterback Rankings: Trust Tyler Shough, Not Justin Herbert

Welcome to Week 17, the grand finale of the fantasy football season. If you are reading this, you are likely one of the two participants in your league’s championship. Congratulations! Surviving until the final week isn’t an easy feat. But we’re not here just for a participation trophy. There can only be one winner so let’s make the right start-sit decisions in this ever-critical week.

Best Quarterbacks in Week 16

In the fantasy football semi finals, we witnessed several mid-tier quarterbacks dominate while superstars struggled to hold their own. The consensus top signal caller of the week, Josh Allen, tallied a season-low 6.9 fantasy points, good for just a QB27 finish. Lamar Jackson was even worse after exiting Sunday Night Football with a back injury. He mustered a mere 4.7 points. Jordan Love managers are feeling the pain too. A concussion derailed his momentum as he finished with less than four points. More injuries altered the landscape of the position as Gardner Minshew, J.J. McCarthy, and Marcus Mariota all were forced to exit Week 16, clouding their respective statuses for the fantasy championships.

Meanwhile, Trevor Lawrence continued his torrid late-season pace. The Jaguars' captain dominated arguably the best defense in the league (Denver), completing 23 of 36 passes for 279 yards, three touchdowns, and zero interceptions. He added six rushes for 20 yards and an additional trip to the end zone via his legs. Lawrence’s 31.2 fantasy points paced all quarterbacks in Week 16.

Three other signal callers joined Lawrence in the 30-point club: Brock Purdy, Matthew Stafford, and Justin Herbert. Joe Burrow rounded out the top five with a four-touchdown performance of his own (29.0 fantasy points). It was interesting to see none of the top dual-threat quarterbacks finish at the top of the positional leaderboard. That being said, both Lawrence and Herbert found the end zone with their legs, proving that pocket awareness can be just as important as pure speed. Jalen Hurts finished just inside the top 10 (19.4 points) and rookie Cam Ward finally entered the QB1 conversation with a QB12 finish (18.0 fantasy points).

Week 17 Quarterback Preview

The quarterback position has been decimated by injuries. Top-tier signal callers Patrick Mahomes and Jayden Daniels had already been shut down for the year, Tua Tagovailoa was benched, and now there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding Lamar Jackson, Jordan Love, J.J. McCarthy, and Marcus Mariota. And with Kansas City seeing Gardner Minshew go down with a multi-week absence, the Chiefs will have to turn to Chris Oladokun in the final week of the fantasy season.

An MRI revealed that QB Gardner Minshew did not tear his ACL, as the Chiefs initially feared on Sunday, per @RapSheet.

Minshew suffered a non-displaced tibial plateau fracture that will land him on the IR and end his season. pic.twitter.com/txVvf5fvIg
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) December 22, 2025

Fantasy managers will want to avoid starting backups in the championships, although if Mariota is available against the Dallas Cowboys, he makes for an interesting streaming option. With three games kicking off on Christmas (Dallas at Washington, Detroit at Minnesota, and Denver at Kansas City), let’s review this year’s top quarterbacks before breaking down this week’s rankings.

Best Fantasy Football Quarterbacks in 2025

Josh Allen, Buffalo Bills
Matthew Stafford, Los Angeles Rams
Drake Maye, New England Patriots
Trevor Lawrence, Jacksonville Jaguars
Dak Prescott, Dallas Cowboys
Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles
Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City Chiefs (INJURED)
Jared Goff, Detroit Lions
Caleb Williams, Chicago Bears
Bo Nix, Denver Broncos
Justin Herbert, Los Angeles Chargers
Baker Mayfield, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Tyler Shough Enters QB1 Discussion Against Titans

The Saints’ rookie quarterback has quietly carved out a role as one of the safest floor plays in fantasy football, and that’s not something you often say about a late-season waiver add. Tyler Shough has delivered at least 17 fantasy points in four straight games, a level of week-to-week stability that’s increasingly rare this time of year.

Shough has been efficient while doing it, completing 66.7% of his passes on the season and averaging 6.9 yards per attempt. More importantly, the accuracy has been consistent, as he’s cleared the 65% completion mark in five consecutive starts—an encouraging sign for a young quarterback still finding his footing.

He’s coming off his highest-volume outing yet in a win over the Jets, completing 32 of 49 passes for 308 yards and a touchdown. That pass-heavy approach wasn’t by design so much as necessity. With Alvin Kamara, Kendre Miller, and Devin Neal all battling injuries, the Saints’ running game has been gutted, forcing the offense to lean on Shough’s right arm. He answered the call.

There’s also sneaky upside baked into his profile. Shough has added value with his legs, rushing for 135 yards and two touchdowns over his last five starts. That dual-threat element raises both his floor and ceiling, especially in games where New Orleans struggles to control the script.

Week 17 sets up nicely against a Titans defense that has shown cracks, allowing the ninth-most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks in 2025. While Tennessee has recently managed to keep lesser quarterbacks in check, it allowed an average of 283 passing yards and 24.7 fantasy points per game to the position over a four-game stretch earlier this season. Shough is trending in the right direction—he’s QB14 over the past month—and enters championship week as a high-floor option with legitimate top-10 upside when it matters most.

Bench Justin Herbert in Week 17

Week 17 Fantasy Football Must-Sit Quarterback: Justin Herbert, Los Angeles Chargers — Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert (10) participates in pregame warmups against the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium. | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

Herbert is coming off a season-high 30.2 fantasy points in Week 16, but that was largely due to a matchup against a Dallas Cowboys defense that can’t seem to stop anybody. This week, he draws a Houston Texans secondary that is allowing the second-fewest fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks this season.

Geno Smith posted a respectable line of 201 yards and two touchdowns against them this past Sunday, but he also threw a pick six. Houston survived the afternoon, but it wasn’t a performance that will have the defensive staff patting itself on the back. Allowing Las Vegas to hang 21 points marked the most the Texans had surrendered since Week 9, an eyebrow-raiser for a unit that’s worn the league’s top ranking for much of the season.

This defense has already shown it can rise to the occasion, having taken turns frustrating Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes earlier in the year. Justin Herbert presents a different challenge, and although he is uberly talented, he’s not quite the same caliber as the former MVPs.

Herbert’s recent track record isn’t exactly encouraging. Before torching the league’s worst pass defense last week, he had failed to crack 15 points in five straight games. In a game that can determine playoff seeding in the AFC against a motivated Houston defense, Herbert isn’t someone you should trust with the fantasy championship on the line.

Time to Trust Baker Mayfield

Baker Mayfield’s recent box scores haven’t exactly inspired confidence—he’s thrown just one passing touchdown in five of his last six outings—but the setup this week offers a clear path to a rebound. Miami’s secondary has been generous all season, allowing the 10th-most fantasy points to opposing quarterbacks. And the trend is heading in the wrong direction. Over the past two weeks alone, the Dolphins have given up an average of 251.5 passing yards and three scores through the air, making this a timely get-right opportunity for Mayfield.

Although Mayfield and rookie wideout Emeka Egbuka have struggled to capture their elite early-season chemistry, the veteran quarterback has a plethora of weapons at his disposal with a healthy Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, not to mention Bucky Irving in the backfield. If the Bucs want to keep their postseason aspirations alive, they need a victory this week. Expect Baker to air it out for 250-plus yards and at least two scores. Don’t forget that he has some sneaky mobility too, as he’s crossed 25 rushing yards in three of his last four outings.

Let’s take a look at where the rest of the NFL’s quarterbacks stack up in our Week 17 rankings.