Players to watch for on Thursday Night Football - Lions vs. Packers
The FFL team discusses which players they are closely monitoring in tonight's matchup between the Lions and Packers.
Video Transcript
MATT HARMON: Jordan Love. I've got my eyes on Jordan Love tonight. Because when you look at him so far, he's been really efficient, not super consistent. And he's done this without his best weapons so far for the balance of the season for the most part here. Jordan Love, right now, is number three in EPA per play among quarterbacks.
The only guys who are ahead of him, obviously, Tua running that freak show offense down there in Miami. And number two is Brock Purdy. And I actually think he's in a similar situation here, Jordan Love and Brock Purdy. These guys aren't complete yet. They're still growing. They're still very, very new in their starting careers. But they have two of the best play callers in the NFL.
Matt LaFleur is absolutely dialing it up. He is scheming this thing to perfection there in Green Bay. And that has benefited Jordan Love, who is actually pushing the ball farther downfield on average than any other quarterback, 10.6 average depth of target. Now he gets Christian Watson back who, last year, proved he was a big-time deep threat and a big-time YAC specialist.
And again, as Andy mentioned, we're going to get Aaron Jones back here as well. So I think things are really looking up for Jordan Love in this matchup at home. He showed me a lot in that comeback effort. Again, he's not perfect. He's still developing some technique, some footwork, and stuff like that. But so far, I think so good for the Jordan Love era for the Packers.
JASON FITZ: What I've just decided definitively is the next time I watch my beloved Raiders lose and drink too much Jager, I'm going to be a certified YAC specialist afterward. YAC specialist has a good ring to it. That's a better way to describe what happens to me Sunday after Sunday Night Blitz.
I want to get your thoughts on my thought in this game because I want your expertise. Realistically, what happens a lot of times is what we think of a player coming into a season clouds what we see from a player coming into a season. You just mentioned Jordan Love. He's playing efficient. It's not spectacular, but it's good enough.
In fact, if you look at the numbers for both Goff and Love, they're both top-10 fantasy quarterbacks right now. And the numbers on this are pretty impressive when you look at points per game and you look at where they rank versus where we expected them. I'm trying to figure out coming into this season now-- we sort of knew what these two quarterbacks were.
I'm looking particularly at Goff, who's continuing to play well, and Love, who's developing, and wondering if maybe there aren't people that are looking at these quarterbacks on their bench and saying, hey, it's a pretty good option. I took this as a safety net, and it feels like it's better than a safety net, Harmon.
MATT HARMON: Yeah, I think Jordan Love has definitely being that guy. Obviously, certain matchups are going to be better, like when he goes against Andy's Bears. That's always a tasty proposition, of course. And Jared Goff-- I feel like nobody can come out and just say, hey, I like watching Jared Goff. He's a good quarterback.
Everybody still has this bias because the Rams kicked him to the curb so hard. But this guy isn't some untalented goofball. He was the number-one overall pick in the draft. And yeah, for the most part, they've got him in a really good system Ben Johnson's a very good play caller. And they keep Goff on the tracks behind a very good offensive line.
But every now and again, Goff makes one of those throws down the field, and you're like, right, this guy's kind of got a hose. So yeah, it's a small secret society of us who don't really like to admit it out loud that we enjoy watching Jared Goff play football. But yeah, the numbers show it. He's been a very effective starting quarterback for the Lions so far.
JASON FITZ: You are a quote machine today. Yeah, this guy's got a hose. I'm just going to leave that there. Behrens, I think there is a real point there though. We get dug in. I'll call it Alex Smith Syndrome. We saw something from a quarterback, we decided that that's who they were. Goff is playing at a very high level with a lot of weapons around him. I think maybe he deserves a little more respect on his name in this process.
ANDY BEHRENS: Yeah, it did not serve Jared Goff well that in the early years of his career, we thought of him as a literal puppet for Sean McVay, right? Sean McVay was in his head, in his ear, diagnosing at the line of scrimmage on his behalf. Goff is, obviously, a better player than that, and the past couple of years have shown it.
The Lions were a bit of a fantasy juggernaut last year. They were top five in the league in terms of offense, both in scoring and yardage. They were great. And that has, by and large, carried over into this season. And he's playing-- I think he's playing really well.
And then Jordan Love, tonight is really the first time that we get all of his weapons on the field with him. So we'll see what this looks. But it's been pretty good so far. Now it has a chance to be spectacular.
JASON FITZ: Yeah, this game is going to prove a lot to everybody. Just from a non-fantasy standpoint, we keep looking at Jordan Love, asking when's the dam going to break. Is he really this good? For the Lions, it feels like every week people are just champing at the bit to come in and start screaming, oh, the Lions are still the Lions, right? There's just a lot on the line in this Thursday Night Football game.