Dallas Cowboys

NFL Inactives Week 17: Tom Brady Playing, More

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 5:28 p.m. ET

Fansided, Cody Williams/FanSided via NFL Spin Zone

Taking a look at the NFL inactives and active players for each team in Week 17, including Tom Brady playing for the New England Patriots.

Week 17 of the NFL season is always intriguing for a number of reasons. The most obvious of course is that teams are still jockeying for a playoff berth or playoff seeding. Naturally, this gives game more importance than others around the league. However, more interesting is the fact that the Week 17 NFL inactives don’t always tell the whole story.

For instance, when the Dallas Cowboys release their lists of NFL inactives prior to their kickoff against the Philadelphia Eagles, Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott won’t be on there. They are indeed going to play. However, they won’t be playing the full game as they’ve already locked up their playoff seed. Thus, the inactives only tell part of the story.

Still, they tell some of the story for teams whose stars are dealing with injuries. That’s the case with the New England Patriots and Tom Brady. Brady has been listed as questionable all week, but is going to play (as reported on NFL Insiders). This shows that the Patriots are eying home-field advantage at full-force by not just making their legendary quarterback inactive.

But what about the rest of the league? There are obviously more than just a couple of teams vying for something in Week 17. So who’s playing and who’s not in the regular season finale? Here are the NFL inactives for each team (Note: inactives for 1 p.m. ET kickoffs are released about 1.5 hours prior to the start. The list will be updated then and throughout Sunday):

This could be a big day for the league considering the stakes. However, some teams needing a win find themselves in a tough spot thanks to these NFL inactives.

Even still, that shouldn’t lessen the overall drama of the week. These types of stakes and games are what the league thrives on. Therefore, fans should get ready for a treat in Week 17 as the action should be high-entertainment.