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Unexpected fantasy football performances and waiver wire sleepers and trade targets for Week 18 (2023). Will these NFL players sustain their Week 17 success?
Happy New Year everybody, and to those who closed out their fantasy season on top, congratulations. This season was a tumultuous one with injuries to notable players sprouting up every week. If you made it through unscathed, there’s a decent shot you finished with a first-place trophy.
As most weeks have been this season, Week 17 was an interesting one. Many recognizable names had big performances while some less recognizable players showed out big time as well.
If your team scratched and clawed its way to the title game with injuries all over the place, there was a bevy of streamable players who could’ve helped in a time of need. Without further ado, let’s get into the best unexpected boom performances from the final week of the 2023 fantasy football season.
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Surprise Fantasy Football Performances
Julio Jones, Philadelphia Eagles
For the penultimate week of the NFL season, a legend from seasons past had a vintage moment.
Although he’s been more of a role player this season as a member of the Philadelphia Eagles, wide receiver Julio Jones turned back the clock to his days as an elite weapon on the Atlanta Falcons.
Against the Arizona Cardinals, Jones caught both of his targets for 34 yards and two touchdowns. The 13th-year veteran saw only two targets during Week 17, but that’s apparently all he needed to produce a solid fantasy day.
It’s almost impossible anybody started the future Hall of Famer, but in the off chance some time traveler did, they were rewarded with 16.4 half-PPR points and a WR12 finish during championship week.
He’s clearly on his last legs, so if this is the last fantasy football relevant game Julio is part of, it was nice to see him make a significant impact.
Juwan Johnson, New Orleans Saints
For a player that many had high hopes for coming into the 2023 season, it was nice to see him close out the fantasy season on a solid late-season run.
New Orleans Saints tight end Juwan Johnson was seen as a solid sleeper during draft season, and after letting managers down for most of the year with injuries and inconsistency, the fourth-year pro finally showed a pulse.
During a Week 17 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Johnson caught eight of 12 targets for 90 yards and a touchdown. His best performance of the season resulted in 19 half-PPR points and a TE1 finish this week.
After being a disappointing player, Johnson turned into a difference-maker down the stretch with three straight double-digit performances during the fantasy playoffs. Hopefully, he can carry this success into next season and be a more consistent weapon in 2024.
Harrison Butker, Kansas City Chiefs
Normally, I wouldn’t include a kicker on this list. But when a kicker puts up as big of a performance as Harrison Butker did during Week 17, it’d be a disservice to not give him his flowers.
In a must-win game for the Kansas City Chiefs, Butker played savior for the offense as he converted all six of his field goal attempts and his only extra point attempt. That massive total led to a whopping 24 fantasy points, making him the obvious top kicker and the 13th-highest-scoring player from Week 17.
Kickers aren’t usually needle movers in fantasy football. They’re there to give lineups some stability while the rest of the team carries the load.
However, for Butker to do this in the most important week of fantasy football this season, he almost certainly played a massive role in bringing home championships.
Justice Hill, Baltimore Ravens
In a big game to solidify the top seed in the AFC, the Baltimore Ravens showed out in a big way. Nearly every player on the Ravens’ offense seemed to have some notable plays during this matchup, and the most unexpected was from running back Justice Hill.
While being a decent contributor earlier in the season, Hill had been irrelevant lately as the emergence of rookie running back Keaton Mitchell pushed him into more of an RB3 role in this offense.
Now that Mitchell is out for the season with an injury, Hill has been seeing more valuable touches while reemerging as an explosive weapon out of the backfield.
During Baltimore’s Week 17 win over the Miami Dolphins, the fifth-year running back had three carries for 48 yards along with five receptions for 64 yards and a touchdown. His strong production on the ground and through the air resulted in 19.7 half-PPR fantasy points, making him the RB10 overall.
If managers were in a pickle at running back during championship week, there’s a chance that Hill was able to come through in a big way and push them over the hump.
Bo Melton, Green Bay Packers
The Green Bay Packers certainly have a spoil of young receiving weapons, don’t they? After we’ve seen stellar outings from numerous first and second-year receivers in Green Bay, we got another in Week 17, this time from someone usually buried on the practice squad.
Second-year wide receiver Bo Melton was called up this week as a fill-in, and although he wasn’t a name many had tabs on prior to this game, he ended up making his name known by the end of the night.
During a blowout win over the Minnesota Vikings, Melton caught six of nine targets for 105 yards and a touchdown. In what was the first 100-yard receiving game by any Packer this season, Melton came through with 19.5 half-PPR fantasy points and a WR4 overall finish.
There’s a very slim chance he made any impact on starting lineups during the championship week of the fantasy season, but this is a feel-good story for the former seventh-round pick. Maybe this can be the start of something special for his career as he aims to become a consistent part of Green Bay’s roster next season.
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