Fantasy Football D/ST Rankings: Week 17 2025

There’s no doubt that fantasy football managers have to consider injury situations when trying to decide on a defense. And the opponent’s quarterback position is the key focus. With those things in mind, here are our week 17 rankings for the 2025 NFL season.

Once again, we have a clear-cut No. 1 team. And like many times before this, it has to do with a key injury. Because of a recent contest, you may have a bias against this defense. But you’ll have to shrug it off and count on them to bounce back because of the terrible quarterback situation for their opponent.

Fantasy Football standouts

You need to stick with the Denver Broncos. The Kansas City Chiefs are basically playing a practice-squad quarterback. That alone against the defense like the Broncos should be enough to sway your decision. But there are other important factors.

Included in the mix is the way the Broncos played against the Jaguars last week. Denver will come out breathing fire against the Chiefs, trying to erase the bitter taste of that awful performance.

Furthermore, the Broncos suddenly find themselves in danger of falling short in the AFC West. The Chargers put themselves in a position to wrestle the title away. So Denver is locked in for a standout defensive performance.

Yet another reason to feel safe is head coach Sean Payton’s anger about the Jaguars game, according to Sports Illustrated.

“I think the No. 1 thing, I don’t know what the third down numbers were, but I know they weren’t good,” Payton said. “[Trevor Lawrence] played a really good game, and so you can try to pin that down on … I’m sure we’re going to look at the tape. We missed a lot of tackles in space. There were a lot of yards after the catch that showed up, which was evident.”

The mindset began immediately after the loss, which ended an 11-game winning streak. And that’s another bonus for the Broncos. Winning teams bounce back with fire. The defense should score big-time fantasy points.

Steelers’ defense is also a good look

The Steelers have been shaky at times this year, but they’ve also been surprisingly good in some tough spots. That was especially evident in their performance against the Lions last week. They did not get any turnovers, but were able to record six sacks.

Now they get a Cleveland Browns offense that has been prone to turning the ball over. Shedeur Sanders has been sacked 12 times over his last four games and has thrown six interceptions.

If the Steelers can match the pressure that they got on Jared Goff, they should be able to come up with a big defensive play or two in this contest.

However, the Steelers will have to work for it, as Sanders seems to be improving, according to the Orange and Brown Talk podcast via Cleveland.com.

“He’s a gamer. He’s got moxie, he’s got toughness, he’s got grit,” said Browns beat reporter Mary Kay Cabot. “He got hit another 11 times for a total of 40 over three games. I just think that he kept pace with the Bills and had a chance to beat them at the end.”

One player the Steelers have been able to count on is linebacker Alex Highsmith, according to post-gazette.com.

“In a year when T.J. Watt hasn’t been the superstar the Steelers have normally expected, Highsmith has stepped up in huge ways,” Christopher Carter wrote. “He’s a force against the run and consistently brings pressure on quarterbacks. This week, he had six pressures, one of which chased Jared Goff into a Heyward sack. He’s shown he’s not a Robin anymore, and that offenses are foolish if they don’t game plan to limit him.”

Other standouts

If you look at the matchups this week, there are a lot of questionable situations. That brings a rising team like the Saints into the equation.

They have a good matchup against the Titans. And they are coming off their best defensive performance of the season. They crushed the Jets’ offense.

And the whole team is playing better, which makes a difference for the defensive mindset. They indeed had only one sack over two weeks before the eight they recorded against the Jets. And Titans QB Cam Ward has only taken three over the past three weeks.

But because of the other matchups, the Saints provide an outlier safe floor.

Speaking of those Jets, they face the Patriots this week. And that means the Patriots are a go-to pick. However, the Patriots haven’t been good of late. There’s some risk here, but the Jets’ terrible quarterback situation should relieve much of the hesitancy to use the Patriots.

Fantasy Football sleepers

It’s a grin-and-bear-it situation, but the Buccaneers could be serviceable against the Dolphins. With Quinn Ewers or Zach Wilson at the Dolphins’ QB controls, there’s reason to believe in a few turnovers, according to Fantasy Pros.

“Ewers threw a pair of interceptions against the Bengals in his first NFL start,” Pat Fitzmaurice wrote. “Wilson has been sack- and interception-prone throughout his star-crossed career. Despite Tampa Bay’s defensive flaws, the promise of bad quarterbacking puts the Bucs squarely in play as a Week 17 streaming option.”

The Jacksonville Jaguars could be in play, especially if the basically eliminated Colts decide to shut down The Philip Rivers Nostalgic Train Ride.

Fantasy Football Week 17 Defense Rankings

1. Denver Broncos (DEN) at KC
2. Pittsburgh Steelers (PIT) at CLE
3. New England Patriots (NE) at NYJ
4. New Orleans Saints (NO) vs. TEN
5. Houston Texans (HOU) at LAC
6. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (TB) at MIA
7. Jacksonville Jaguars (JAC) at IND
8. Detroit Lions (DET) at MIN
9. Seattle Seahawks (SEA) at CAR
10. Los Angeles Rams (LAR) at ATL
11. Tennessee Titans (TEN) vs. NO
12. New York Giants (NYG) at LV
13. Dallas Cowboys (DAL) at WAS
14. Los Angeles Chargers (LAC) vs. HOU
15. Green Bay Packers (GB) vs. BAL

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