Vikings vs. Lions Fantasy Football Worksheet, Week 17

The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview by Rich Hribar, breaks down everything you need to know about the Week 17 matchup between the Vikings and Lions on Christmas Day.

Find a breakdown of every Week 17 NFL game in our Worksheet Hub.

Trust = spike production for that player

Quarterback

Jared Goff: Forced into jailbreak game script against Pittsburgh, Goff attempted a season-high 54 passes, completing 34 of those (63%) for 364 yards (6.7 Y/A) with 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions.

Goff has thrown for over 300 yards in three straight games and has now thrown multiple touchdown passes in six of his past eight.

Since the Week 8 bye, Goff is the QB4 in points per game (20.5).

That includes a Week 9 matchup between these teams.

Goff was the QB13 (19.4 points) in that game, completing 25 of 37 (67.6%) of his passes for 284 yards (7.7 Y/A) with 2 touchdowns.

Brian Flores threw a ton of interior blitzes at the Detroit offensive line in that game.

Goff was pressured on 42.9% of his dropbacks, his fourth-highest rate of the season.

When Goff was pressured in that matchup, he was 7 of 13 (53.8%) for 72 yards (5.5 Y/A).

When he was kept clean, Goff was 18 of 24 (75%) for 212 yards (8.8 Y/A) with 2 touchdowns.

The offensive line injuries remain a concern here.

Graham Glasgow (knee), Christian Mahogany (fibula), and Taylor Decker (shoulder) all sat out on Sunday.

Pittsburgh was missing T.J. Watt and Nick Herbig but still managed to pressure Goff on 38.6% of his dropbacks.

When Goff was pressured on Sunday, he was 9 of 19 (47.4%) for 89 yards (4.7 Y/A).

Kept clean, he was 25 of 35 (71.4%) for 275 yards (7.9 Y/A) with 3 touchdowns.

Goff is a volume-based option on the QB1/QB2 line here.

Keeping him clean with a challenge against Minnesota, which has been dominant on defense since these teams last played.

Over the past seven games, Minnesota is third in pressure rate (43.3%), allowing a 56% completion rate (2nd), 5.9 Y/A (3rd), and a league-low 0.5% touchdown rate.

The Vikings have not allowed a touchdown pass since Week 10.

There are some differences from the first game, with Dan Campbell being the offensive coordinator in the rematch.

Campbell has been pass-heavy since Detroit has struggled to run the football.

Detroit is seventh in pass rate over expectations since Campbell took over play calling (+2.7%).

The Lions are 28th in rushing success rate (33.3%) over the past four weeks.

When these teams played in Week 9, Detroit rushed 20 times for 65 yards (3.3 YPC).

Max Brosmer: With J.J. McCarthy unable to get healthy on a short week, Brosmer is in line to make another start.

In his first career start, Brosmer was 19 of 30 (63.3%) for 126 yards (4.2 Y/A) with 4 interceptions.

Taking over in the second half, Brosmer was 7 of 9 (77.8%) for 52 yards (5.8 Y/A).

Minnesota only had a 37% dropback rate in the second half, operating hyper-conservatively against a listless Giants offense.

It is fair to assume that Brosmer and this passing game will be pushed more here.

Brosmer is only an option for desperate 2QB teams and can be used as a cheap play in Thursday DFS.

At least this is a better spot than when Brosmer made his first career start in Seattle.

Detroit has allowed 8.2 yards per pass attempt (30th) and a 5.3% touchdown rate (22nd) to passers over their past seven games.

Running Back

Jahmyr Gibbs: It was not pretty, but Gibbs got there for fantasy gamers in the end on Sunday.

Gibbs only managed to rush for 2 yards on 7 attempts against Pittsburgh, but he made up for things through the air, catching 10 of 13 targets for 66 yards and a touchdown.

The rushing issues for this offense have been ongoing.

Over the past four weeks, Gibbs has rushed 52 times for 151 yards (2.9 YPC) with a 21.2% success rate.

Only Quinshon Judkins has a lower yards per carry average (2.8 YPC) over that span among 24 backs with 50 or more runs, while that success rate is last among that group.

The good news is that Gibbs has seen a spike in overall usage since Campbell took over the offense.

Gibbs has played 72.1% of the offensive snaps with 69.5% of the backfield touches since Week 10 after playing 61.5% of the snaps with 57% of the touches prior.

He has made up for the lack of rushing success through the air.

Over the past seven games, Gibbs leads all running backs in receptions (43) and receiving yards (363) with 3 touchdowns.

He has 21.7% of the targets (RB1) with a target on 29.1% of his routes (RB2) over that period.

We could need that here for Gibbs as a volume-based RB1 with added ceiling if he finds rushing efficiency.

When these teams met in Week 9, Flores gave Gibbs fits, which led to Campbell taking over.

He only managed 12 touches for 28 yards in the first game, by far his lowest total of the season.

Minnesota shut him down in the run game for 25 yards and 2.8 yards per rush while attacking him in the passing game.

The Vikings sent pressure after pressure in the middle of the field, forcing Gibbs to pick up blitzes.

He ended up in pass protection on a career-high 15 snaps that game, allowing 7 pressures.

Campbell said afterwards that they did a poor job of in-game calibration, having their 200-pound back forced to take that much punishment.

Minnesota is undoubtedly going to blitz a ton again here, but I would not anticipate Gibbs being forced in similar assignments to the same degree as the first outing.

With McCarthy out, Detroit could outright control the game script, pushing the ground game even if that does not come with efficiency.

The Vikings are a run funnel.

Teams are throwing the ball 3.3% below expectations against them, ahead of only Buffalo (-4%).

The Vikings allow the fewest fantasy points per touch to running backs (0.70) but face the most touches per game (29.9) from backfields.

Aaron Jones: Jones had a season-high 23 touches for 93 yards on Sunday against the Giants.

Jordan Mason was injured on the opening drive of the game and carted off with an ankle injury.

Jones also had an early ankle injury, but he was able to return and control the backfield.

Zavier Scott only had 3 touches for 12 yards.

Assuming that Mason will not suit up on a short week, Jones is a volume-based RB2 here.

The downside is the offense could be volatile overall with Brosmer.

Jones had success when these teams met in Week 9, rushing 9 times for 78 yards and catching 2 passes for 20 yards before leaving the game with a shoulder injury.

Detroit has had a rough couple of weeks against opposing backfields.

After allowing 159 yards and 3 touchdowns to the Rams backfield in Week 15, Detroit allowed 279 yards and 3 touchdowns to the Pittsburgh backfield on Sunday.

David Montgomery: Montgomery only had 4 touches for 14 yards on Sunday.

With Detroit forced into a trailing script again, we saw little of Montgomery.

Since Campbell took over the offense, Montgomery has only played 30.6% of the offensive snaps with 25.9% of the backfield touches while trailing.

Montgomery is only averaging 8.4 touches per game over that span, leaving him as a touchdown-dependent FLEX.

A few things could help facilitate touches for Montgomery here.

The first is if Detroit plays out in front.

Montgomery jumps to 45% of the snaps and 41.2% of the backfield touches when playing ahead on the scoreboard since Campbell took over.

The other is that if Flores attempts to spam interior blitzes again, which then forces Detroit to use the bigger-bodied Montgomery more.

In the first matchup, they transitioned late to that approach, with Montgomery being the more effective back, turning 13 touches into 50 yards and a touchdown.

Wide Receiver

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