The Detroit Lions will face the San Francisco 49ers in Week 17. Here’s fantasy football start-sit advice for every Lions 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.
Jared Goff, QB
Jared Goff isn’t going to win the MVP, but he is certainly playing like one, and it’s finally spilling over into our world with consecutive top-five finishes. This is a potential pace-down spot against the 49ers, but efficiency has been the name of the game all season long for the Lions. That should again be the case against the NFL’s third-worst red-zone defense.
The home/road splits are still a thing for Goff, but he’s posted a passer rating north of 135 on the road three times this season. I’m not worried about that narrative and have him ranked as my QB8.
Jahmyr Gibbs, RB
Dan Campbell made it clear that the team trusts Jahmyr Gibbs to handle the David Montgomery role last week, even after a few failures on the doorstep. When all was said and done, Detroit’s bell cow was trusted with 27 touches. I think we might see more of that over the next 1.5 months as this team looks to get to New Orleans.
Gibbs now has six top-10 finishes this season and will be a first-round pick next season. He could prove to be the piece that is most common on championship rosters this season – make sure to check back this offseason as we will work hard to position you to get “the next” version of him.
Amon-Ra St. Brown, WR
Wait, you’re telling me that Amon-Ra St. Brown caught 75% of his targets and found the end zone last week? That never happens …
Games with at least a 75% catch rate and a TD reception, 2024:
- Amon-Ra St. Brown: 10
- Mark Andrews: 7
- Ja’Marr Chase and George Kittle: 6
No player has married scoring equity with efficiency quite like St. Brown this season. When you zoom out, it’s even more impressive. Do you want the full list of instances since 2000 in which a player had more than 10 games like this through 16 weeks in a season?
- Randy Moss, 2007
That’s it, and that’s all. St. Brown’s name deserves to be thrown into the 1.01 discussion. He’s the first Lion to have multiple 100-1,000-10 seasons on his résumé, and I’m confident that he will add a third such year in 2025.
Jameson Williams, WR
Jameson Williams is coming off his third top-10 finish of the season (Weeks 1, 11, and 16) and, more importantly, his sixth straight game with 10+ expected PPR points. That second number is the one that has my interest as we know that Williams is plenty capable of making the chunk plays and exceeding expectations, but the built-in value of his recent targets helps elevate his floor to a place where I’m comfortably Flexing him weekly.
Williams would have been an auto-fade for me earlier in the season in this spot. The 49ers are the second-best yards per deep pass attempt defense in the league, and I would have never thought of playing him in a spot like that. But now? Now I think there’s enough versatility in his profile to land him as a top-35 WR.
Jared Goff is as efficient as anyone in the league, and with designs a part of the plan for Williams, I’ll take my chances. The big-play potential is still very much there (just ask Chicago’s secondary), but with a single-digit aDOT in three of his past five, I think there’s more well-roundedness than this burner gets credit for.
Tim Patrick, WR
The idea of Tim Patrick made some sense seven days ago, but now that we have a picture of what this offense will look like sans David Montgomery, there’s no reason to dig this deep.
Patrick scored three times in two games but was targeted just one time on his 21 routes against the Bears last week; Jared Goff instead loaded up his stars with looks (Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams, Jahmyr Gibbs, and Sam LaPorta accounted for 84.4% of Detroit’s targets last week).
Every week you should be speculating on players like Patrick — players with a role that has a path to expansion. If it doesn’t happen, you chalk it up and move on.
Sam LaPorta, TE
At this point, Sam LaPorta isn’t going to cash in on our preseason hype, but he is trending in a strong direction at the right time. I think that stands to make this season a success for those who spent up early on him.
- Weeks 1-9: 3.3 targets per game (23rd among TEs)
- Weeks 10-16: 7.0 targets per game (seventh among TEs)
The volume is finally there, and it really hasn’t come at the cost of his teammates. LaPorta has reached double figures in PPR points in four straight games. With the Lions’ defense banged up at every level, I’m confident that this offense is going to be pushed consistently.
He may not have a clear path to being the top producer at the position right now, but he deserves to be locked in without a second thought.