The Cleveland Browns will face the Miami Dolphins in Week 17. Here’s fantasy football start-sit advice for every Browns skill player who has the potential to make a fantasy impact during the game.
Looking for more lineup advice? Head over to our Week 17 Fantasy Start-Sit Cheat Sheet, where we cover every fantasy-relevant player in every game.
Dorian Thompson-Robinson, QB
Week 17 Status: PLAYING
If you ever need to feel good about your quarterback (be it for your favorite team or your fantasy squad), throw on the game film from Cleveland’s loss in Cincinnati last week, and you’ll be in a better mental spot.
Dorian Thompson-Robinson’s sack count was higher than the yards he averaged per pass, and I’m not sure the box score (20-of-34 for 157 yards, zero touchdowns, and two interceptions) even does it justice.
Dorian Thompson-Robinson on passes thrown 15+ yards this season: 0-11 with 3 interceptions pic.twitter.com/lFzMzsSJHM
— Pro Football Network (@PFN365) December 23, 2024
Could we get Jameis Winston back in our lives? DTR suffered a calf injury on Sunday and is being managed thus far. The Dolphins allow the third-highest deep completion percentage, a weakness that holds much more weight if it’s Winston under center.
Jerome Ford, RB
Jerome Ford has seven games with 10+ touches this season and has produced 7.7% over expectation in the process. He has plenty of boom/bust in his profile, but the numbers don’t lie – when he sees his role expand, he pays off.
D’Onta Foreman was handed Cleveland’s first two doorstep carries last week, but with a failure and a fumble, we can probably eliminate that from our worries this week. Dorian Thompson-Robinson isn’t going to have this offense in scoring position too often, but his conservative approach does favor a player like Ford.
It’s not crazy to pencil in 16-20 touches in this game, and given the ability to win in the passing game, I’m playing Ford as an RB2 and will have DFS exposure in a game that I expect to be higher scoring than sportsbooks do.
Nick Chubb, RB
Nick Chubb broke his foot in Week 15, bringing to a close what has been a lost season for anyone who rolled the dice on him off of last season’s knee injury (3.3 yards per carry).
The team doesn’t expect this injury to require surgery, and that’s good news, but we are firmly in a spot where we will need to see more than him squatting a small village to reinvest this summer with the injuries piling up on a soon-to-be 29-year-old body that has north of 1,500 NFL touches. Reports have come out of Cleveland that it’s “ hard to say what his future in Cleveland might be” and that makes it difficult to project anything close to confidence in a meaningful role for 2025.
I’m rooting for him as I’m sure most are – but doing so from a distance.
Cedric Tillman, WR
Week 17 Status: OUT
The Browns are “hopeful” that Cedric Tillman can return from a concussion that has resulted in four missed games, but I can’t imagine a situation in which you’re rolling the dice on a player like this in an offense that went from recklessly aggressive to mind-numbingly conservative with their change under center.
The Tillman-coaster was a fun ride for three weeks (32 targets and three touchdowns), but his skill set, when fully healthy, aligns perfectly with Jameis Winston, not Dorian Thompson-Robinson.
Could a 24-year-old with high-end athletic traits develop into something? Of course. Can he do it with Cleveland seemingly committed to Deshaun Watson? I’m not so sure – I don’t think he’ll be on my list of favorite late-round flyers for 2025.
Elijah Moore, WR
I was more in on Elijah Moore last week than most, and I can assure you that I will not make that mistake in consecutive games. My thought process was that the short-yardage target in a low-octane offense could see enough high-percentage targets to return reasonable PPR value.
As it turns out, this offense has no “high-percentage targets” with Dorian Thompson-Robinson under center. Moore has turned 11 targets into just 20 yards over the past two weeks and has found the end zone just twice in his past 24 games. There are many more paths to failure than success, and that’s not a math equation I’m comfortable backing.
Jerry Jeudy, WR
Week 17 Status: PLAYING
Situations like this allow you to learn plenty about yourself as a fantasy manager.
Just how much risk are you willing to take on with all of the chips in the middle of the table?
My answer: not much. Jerry Jeudy had a nice run with Jameis Winston under center, but that’s kind of like saying that my exercise plan went great in the summer when it was nice out — it doesn’t matter right now.
This Dorian Thompson-Robinson-led offense doesn’t come preloaded with anything close to the upside of the Winston-led version but it carries all of the same downside. Jeudy managed just 20 yards last weekend in Cincinnati against one of the most forgiving secondaries in the league. Why would we expect him to flip the script now?
The Dolphins can be had down the field, though that doesn’t project to be a major issue against this now ultra-conservative offense. What Miami can do is get off the field on third downs (third-best in the league this season), and with Cleveland going 3-of-12 in those spots last week, forgive me if I think that the road team has every chance to control this game.
The Browns are going to struggle against anyone, and if their offense can’t stay on the field, I’m told that’s bad for business.
Jeudy resides in the Marvin Harrison Jr./Aam Thielen tier this week of WR1s for his NFL team that I’d rather not roll with for my fantasy team if possible.
David Njoku, TE
Week 17 Status: OUT
David Njoku was questionable entering last week, but he posted his seventh top-10 week of the season and seems to be close to quarterback agnostic. His big play on Sunday was a 29-yard screen pass — a great design to beat a heavy blitz and one that he probably turns into six points if at full strength.
Even if he’s a bit compromised … even if the quarterback play in Cleveland is underwhelming … even if Miami is a top-10 pass defense in both yards per attempt and touchdown rate, you’re starting Njoku.
The more I look at my tight ends every week, the more I tend to believe that this is a position that rewards skill (be it athletic abilities or route running precision) over the situation, something that I’ll take into consideration when constructing my way-too-early 2025 overalls.