The Dallas Cowboys will face the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 17. Here’s fantasy football start-sit advice for every Cowboys 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.
Cooper Rush, QB
Brandon Aubrey has made more 55+ yard field goals this season (six) than the Cowboys have made 55+ yard plays during the regular season since the start of 2023 (five).
Things aren’t great in Dallas these days, but Cooper Rush does have 290 passing yards or multiple touchdown tosses in four of his past five games. Like half a dozen quarterbacks that will be gracing NFL fields this week, his value is not what we are worried about as much as it is his ability to get his top option involved.
Mission accomplished up to this point.
The Eagles’ defense is elite, and Rush isn’t likely to finish the week with top-15 or even top-20 numbers (Week 10 in this spot: 23 passes for 45 yards with zero touchdowns and zero interceptions). But if he can get CeeDee Lamb his required 10 looks, the fantasy community will give Rush a nice firm handshake and nod.
Rico Dowdle, RB
All of the Rico Dowdle momentum (three straight 100-yard games) came to a screeching half on Sunday night against the Buccaneers, as his 13 carries picked up just 23 yards. He did, however, manage to catch multiple passes for the eighth time in 10 games to give his managers a little something. Even so, it was a big letdown, and it’s hard to project a major bounce back against the best yards-per-play defense in the sport.
Limited efficiency is one thing, but getting vultured by Ezekiel Elliott is another. Any lead-back on a below-average offense needs to control his team’s few scoring chances—we didn’t see that last week.
I’m hanging tough in there and have Dowdle as a reasonable Flex option. The versatility is something that I’m banking on – either they ride Dowdle in a major way and keep this thing close, or they are forced to pass more often than they’d like. He turned 15 touches into 56 yards during the Week 10 loss to these Eagles, the production that I think makes for a pretty good starting point.
He’s far from “safe,” but at this point, I value his role more than anything going on in Tennessee, Jacksonville, or even Kansas City.
Brandin Cooks, WR
Brandin Cooks’ playing time is inching up, but he’s simply going to run out of time. We saw signs of decline last season; even if you think there is gas left in the tank, this Cooper Rush-led offense doesn’t have much of a path to accessing that.
In his eight appearances this season, Cooks is averaging just 0.80 yards per route. He’s well off of fantasy radars in all formats at this point and might have a hard time finding a suitor when he becomes an unrestricted free agent after this season wraps.
CeeDee Lamb, WR
Updated at 4:20 PM ET on Thursday, December 26
Lamb has officially been ruled out for the remainder of the NFL season due to a shoulder injury.
“My shoulder is outta whack, I’m not gonna even lie to you. … It’s not fun, but I love this game that much.”
I don’t know how to spin that forward. Should we take the low-hanging fruit and drop him down the ranks, or should we go the contrarian route, using this mindset as the type of grind that we want in our starters?
The Cowboys took the decision making out of our hands on Thursday by ruling out their star receiver not only for Week 17, but for Week 18 as well. Lamb is a special talent that you should consider in the first round of your 2025 drafts, but he can safely be released in redraft formats now.
Jalen Tolbert and KaVontae Turpin are the receivers set to benefit the most from this status, but neither is a safe play. If you’re swimming upstream as an underdog, I’d swing big on Turpin, but you have to do so with the understanding that the floor is a goose egg.
Jalen Tolbert, WR
Despite limited usage, Tolbert scored in consecutive weeks and has six on the season. His nose for the end zone might be a trait we circle back to in August, but in a Cooper Rush offense that involves a banged-up CeeDee Lamb, I have no interest in betting on this passing game in any capacity.
Dallas has been putting up some points in plus matchups lately, but this Eagles defense certainly isn’t one that I’m targeting, even after a disappointing Week 16 performance.
There are two Cowboys worth your while, but Tolbert isn’t one of them.
Jake Ferguson, TE
There was some momentum building in Jake Ferguson’s statistical profile ahead of Sunday night, but his 36% on-field target share against the Buccaneers was downright impressive.
We are well past the point where he is a lineup lock, so I don’t mind grabbing the elevated floor that he offers, even if there isn’t much of a ceiling to chase. Last week against Tampa Bay, his nine targets netted just 12 air yards, but that role resulted in six catches and a double-digit performance, which will work with regularity.
The idea of Ferguson is strong. He’d slide into the back end of my TE1 rankings in a neutral matchup, and I’d pick him over all waiver wire options. Sadly, this week is not that.
The Eagles allow the lowest completion percentage and the fewest yards per pass attempt on those short throws, which puts Ferguson managers in a bind. They have to rely more than they want to on a touchdown, a tough ask for a player who hasn’t earned an end-zone target since Week 1.
He currently sits outside of my top 12 at the position and is more likely to fall outside of my top 15 by kickoff than move into that TE1 tier.