In each of the last three seasons, Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff has 30-plus touchdown passes with over 4,500 yards through the air. That has, despite some noticeable week-to-week inconsistency, led to him finishing as a top-10 fantasy quarterback in each season.
The volatilty in Goff's fantasy production is an interesting study. Of the seven games he had with 37 or more pass attempts last season, he finished outside the top-12 fantasy quarterbacks for the week four times. So the idea of pass-heavy game scripts fostering fantasy production didn't apply to him at the typical level.
Being a good quarterback doesn't always correlate to being a good fantasy quarterback, since the former is not required to be the latter, with plenty of past examples. Rushing production is a proverbial "fantasy cheat code" that raises a quarterback's floor, and it covers for what might lack in production through the air.
There are always a few exceptions, but the best fantasy quarterbacks year in and year out generally produce notably with their legs.
Jared Goff gets disrespected in post-draft fantasy ranking (but it's easy to figure out why)
In Yahoo! Fantasy's new 2026 quarterback rankings after the draft, Goff came in at No. 19.
It was an aggregate ranking of four Yahoo! analysts (with Goff's highest individual ranking being No. 18), with no deeper analysis to explain the order. But the reasoning for Goff being so low is obvious.
Goff never runs much, and he had less than 20 rushing attempts last season for the first time since 2021, his first season as a Lion when he missed three games. The only way he delivers anything extra for his fantasy managers as a runner is if he gets a stray touchdown or two. In five seasons as a Lion, he has two rushing touchdowns (both in 2023).
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The offseason loss of running back David Montgomery might give Goff more chances to vulture short yardage rushing scores this season. But Isiah Pacheco is in line to take a good chunk of the goal line role Montgomery left behind, with Jahmyr Gibbs in line to soak up whatever is left.
Fantasy managers who are among the most optimistic about Goff in 2026 have to continue to expect nothing from him on the ground.
Goff has defied where he sits in preseason fantasy rankings/ADP before, and it'd be foolish to say he can't do it again this year. It'll always be about how he gets there though, with weekly ups and downs that can be hard to navigate and no buoying of his weekly floor with rushing production. QB19 in a post-draft ranking lands harshly, but it also makes plenty of sense.
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