Through Week 6 this season, Jared Goff was QB5 (by total points; Yahoo! scoring)) in fantasy football. A couple not so-good outings in Week 7 and Week 8 dropped him to QB9 entering the Lions' Week 9 bye.
Still, Goff's fantasy owners have to be happy with the results so far. He has even had a big game on the road, to go against the grain of his home-road splits as the Lions' quarterback. And entering Week 8, he had a top-five toughest strength of schedule for a quarterback by some metrics.
The big question is if Goff can keep it up after the bye. He has finished the last two seasons strongly though, and the Lions' schedule has one game left where weather could be a factor. So it certainly looks favorable for him down the stretch, moving toward and into the fantasy playoffs.
Let's take a look at Goff's rest-of-season fantasy outlook.
Fantasy Football: Jared Goff post-bye outlook
Starting simply, here are Goff's remaining opponents and how they rank in fantasy points per game allowed to quarterbacks entering Week 9 (Yahoo! scoring; 1st being worst/most favorable, and 32nd being best/least favorable).
Week 10, at Los Angeles Chargers: 1st
Week 11, vs. Chicago Bears: 5th
Week 12, vs. Green Bay Packers (Thanksgiving): 22nd
Week 13, at New Orleans Saints: 27th
Week 14, at Chicago Bears: 5th
Week 15, vs. Denver Broncos: 7th
Week 16, at Minnesota Vikings:13th
Week 17, at Dallas Cowboys, 29th
And if you're in a league that uses Week 18, Goff gets the Vikings again.
It doesn't get much better than two matchups against the Bears in a four-week span, with the only risk one-sided wins that will lead to Goff hardly throwing the ball. Matchups against the Chargers and Broncos on each end of the full six-week stretch from Week 10-15 are pretty nice.
Week 16 against Minnesota won't be too bad. While Week 17 is a tough matchup, it's fair to assume Goff will be throwing plenty in what could be a very high-scoring game against the Cowboys.
Green Bay's standing against quarterbacks is a little bit misleading. Their 32.3 pass attempts per game against is in the bottom part of the league, and it can be said Kirk Cousins is the best quarterback they've faced so far (including Goff in Week 4, when he threw the ball eight times in the second half). The Saints have a good defense, but they haven't exactly faced a murderer's row of opposing quarterbacks either.
Overall, Goff is a consistent risk to deliver a fantasy dud based on a matchup or a game script situation where the Lions lean hard to the run game late. But he can absolutely take his start to the season right through to the end, and finish as a top-10 fantasy quarterback this year. Just be prepared from some boom and bust weeks along the way.