The Week 15 matchup between the Detroit Lions and the New Orleans Saints features two teams trying to get through the final month of the season on a positive note. We've got the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.
Detroit Lions
The St. Louis Rams did a great job limiting wide receiver Calvin Johnson last week. He caught just one pass in the game for a 16-yard gain. The Detroit Lions might find themselves in a rebuilding mode next year and it looks like Johnson will need to rebuild his fantasy value. It's been a rough year in Detroit all around. Even going into his early 30s, Megatron is still one of the game's top receivers. At the same time, it's hard to trust his current level of fantasy production in the postseason. Johnson might be able to turn things around at least this week because the New Orleans Saints don't exactly scare anybody defensively.
Matthew Stafford has also had a difficult season. In years past he's been the type of quarterback who would throw up huge yardage totals and seemed to find Calvin Johnson for multiple touchdowns in every game. This year has been quite a different story. He's had to play hurt at times, thrown a plethora of interceptions and at the end of the day, he hasn't been able to lead the Lions to too many victories. The same likely goes for his fantasy owners.
New Orleans Saints
If there's two things fantasy owners have been able to count on from Drew Brees over the years, it's been touchdowns and yardage totals. Even when the New Orleans Saints don't exactly have a good record in the standings, he somehow still finds a way to put up numbers. That's a rarity for a quarterback. Brees will be up against a Lions team this week that ranks in the middle of the pack against passing games. They just haven't been very good. This one could be a very high-scoring affair on both sides but Brees has done much better this year offensively than his counterpart Stafford.
When Brees needs to take a chance down the field, Willie Snead will be the most likely recipient of catches. The receiver caught 7 of 8 passes last week for 122 yards. He's emerged as a viable option in an offense that actually lacks talent at the wide receiver position this year, or at least consistently producing talent. Snead should be able to get loose against the Lions. It would be nice if he could tack on a touchdown to his receptions and yardage totals, though.
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