Week 17 DFS Picks: Best Game and Team Stacks

Every week, I will go through the players I am targeting to play in DFS for all games, tournaments, and game stacks.

The idea is that this will paint a clearer picture of framing lineups.

One of my favorite ways to play DFS from a tournament standpoint is small-field, single-entry to five-max games with fields of 5K or smaller.

Both sites even offer these types of games with fewer than 100 entries (albeit at a higher cost of entry) if you want to go after a really small field.

In these contests, my approach is to go with full-game stacks.

You will likely lose a lot of weeks, but if you get the game right, you will gain a significant advantage.

Just cashing in on one of these over an 18-week season can make your entire year.

When doing these, I want to aggressively build around games that have a wider range of outcomes.

Still, with the reduced number of entries, you can also eat some chalky game stacks because we are going further in the overall game stack than our opponents likely will.

This is the spot where you will find some missing names from the core and tournament play sections.

Just because a player is not mentioned in those two pieces does not mean I will have zero exposure to them.

These are the games I am circling for those tournaments in Week 17, but you can also tie these games into your stacks for other tournaments.

I will analyze the player selections and game writeups, but please refer to the Week 17 Worksheet for a detailed breakdown of the players and games.

Cardinals at Bengals

The highest total on the main slate (52 points) features two defenses that we have picked on regularly to close the year.

Arizona has forced a punt on a league-low 23.8% of opponent possessions.

The Bengals have forced a punt on 26.1% of possessions, 31st.

We also love that we can bet on the passing games.

79.5% (31 of 39) of the Bengals' touchdowns have been passing touchdowns, the highest rate in the league.

73.5% (25 of 34) of Arizona's touchdowns have been passing, third in the league.

The Arizona defense is down badly as the year comes to a close.

They had another lousy run of fortune on Sunday, losing Garrett Williams and Walter Nolen for the rest of the season, while Josh Sweat and Budda Baker left the game with injuries and are not expected to play on Sunday.

Joe Burrow stacks with Ja’Marr Chase are never cheap and only get richer with the addition of Tee Higgins.

We have enough flexibility on this slate, given injuries, to reach Burrow doubles and even a full Bengals onslaught with Chase Brown.

We finally saw Jacoby Brissett let gamers down last week, but he is in a great spot to bounce back.

The Bengals are still 30th in passing points allowed per attempt (0.517). They allow 8.2 yards per pass attempt (30th) and a 5.9% touchdown rate (29th).

Cincinnati did not allow a touchdown to Quinn Ewers on Sunday, but he still threw for 8.7 Y/A and 260 yards in his first NFL start.

Stacking Brissett with Trey McBride is nice and tidy.

The best fantasy tight end in 2025 against the best matchup for tight ends in 2025.

The problem is getting McBride onto the rosters for primary Cincinnati stacks.

Jaguars at Colts