Detroit Lions QB Jared Goff Continues Career Resurgent Year
QB Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions are now 6-7 after knocking off the division rival Minnesota Vikings, and, don't look now, but they have an outside shot of the playoffs in 2022. Goff's first season in Detroit was about as bad as pretty much everyone expected it to be; the team lost 13 games while the quarterback he had been traded for, Matthew Stafford, won the Super Bowl with the Los Angeles Rams. The team passed on replacing him in the NFL Draft, allowing him to ride for another season as a bridge quarterback, but now that he has a three-game streak against the NFC North, questions abound about him keeping his job yet another year.
Beating the Vikings and Feeding Fantasy Assets
The Lions are 5-1 since the start of November, with the only loss coming on a last-second field goal by the Buffalo Bills on Thanksgiving day, maybe the only time in the last decade that football fans were excited to see Detroit on the storied slate of games. Over the course of this last month and a half, Jared Goff has bolstered a number of fantasy options that many fantasy managers can blame for getting their teams into the fantasy playoffs, including Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jamaal Williams, D'Andre Swift, and to a lesser extent, C.J. Chark, Josh Reynolds, and rookie Jameson Williams.
Since Week 9, Goff's stats have been more than respectable, as he has 1,448 passing yards, 10 touchdowns, and one interception with a 67.2% completion rate while taking six sacks. Over that time frame, he has supported Amon-Ra St. Brown as the overall WR3 (47-554-3 receiving line), Jamaal Williams as the overall RB11 (342 yards rushing, six touchdowns), and D'Andre Swift as the overall RB20 (138 yards rushing, three touchdowns). All the while the ancillary receiving options have taken turns having blow-up weeks, with more likely to come as Jameson Williams gets worked into the offense.
Fantasy Playoff Outlook
The Detroit Lions kick off the fantasy playoffs here in Week 15 against a Jets team that has one of the best pass rushes in the league, which is going to make things difficult for fantasy pieces right out of the gate. While Amon-Ra St. Brown is matchup-proof because of the pure volume of targets he gets week-in and week-out, secondary pieces such as Jameson Williams and D.J. Chark are going to be very difficult to trust. The running game should go a little more smoothly, as the Jets defense ranks 12th in schedule-adjusted fantasy points to the position while ranking first against both the quarterback and wide receiver positions. Both Swift and Jamaal Williams can be considered RB3/Flex options while the latter continues his bid for the rushing TD crown.
As for the outlook on Jared Goff stats, he is likely best left on the bench for Week 15, but don't give up on him yet as the whole offense should see a resurgence in the final two weeks of the playoffs. In Week 16, they will face a Carolina Panthers team that ranks 21st in schedule-adjusted fantasy points allowed to opposing offenses, before a Week 17 showdown with the Chicago Bears, who rank 25th.
