Some people like to fault Matthew Stafford for holding the Lions’ offense back and say that Calvin Johnson makes him look good. I think that it’s irrelevant to fantasy football. If Johnson makes Stafford look good, then Stafford is still looking good regardless.
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Stafford finished last year with 4,257 yards passing – his fourth year in a row over 4,000. Johnson missed three games and left another one early due to an injury. Stafford still averaged 266.6 yards and 1.6 touchdowns during Johnson’s absence, which makes me believe he is not entirely dependent on the receiver. A strong season by newly acquired receiver Golden Tate was very crucial in the Lions’ ability to spread the ball around and gave Stafford another deadly weapon.
I believe the group of running backs in the Lions’ backfield, while scary to own by themselves, will keep Stafford from turning the football over. His interceptions were down from 19 to 12 the past two years, which is a good sign. The running backs, Ameer Abdullah and Joique Bell, could make a very dangerous combination on the ground. This could force defenses to play closer to the line of scrimmage, leaving more room for Stafford to work with Johnson and Tate.
Stafford’s ranked as the twelfth-best quarterback and is being drafted as the ninth-best. Overall, Stafford is being drafted around pick No. 71 (Round 5 or 6 depending on league size). I believe Stafford has top-five upside, or at least top-seven, making him a steal in anything later than the fifth round. During the preseason so far, he has completed 19 of 25 passes for 308 yards and three touchdowns and his 156.3 quarterback rating is second only to Drew Brees. Stafford put up these numbers despite playing without projected starters Johnson, Bell and Larry Warford.
With Tate, a healthy Megatron and an established running game, Stafford is poised to have another solid year for you in 2015.
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Nathan Holmes is a correspondent at FantasyPros. To read more from Nathan, check out his archive and follow him @TheNathanHolmes.