Fantasy football and real-life don’t always align to who’s the best at each position. But there can be some correlation. Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff might not ranked in the top five at his position in the NFL. But in fantasy football? It’s not out of the question.

Goff ranked 10^th in total fantasy points last year according to FantasyPros. But he was only 24 points short of fifth place Geno Smith.

With a longer stint of Jameson Williams and the additions of Sam LaPorta and Jahmyr Gibbs, Goff should be in line to see his numbers increased.

He three for 4,438 yards and 29 touchdowns. Not career highs, but certainly above his averages. Another year working with offensive coordinator Ben Johnson should provide more chemistry. And assist Goff and his teammates in working more efficiently.

We know the Lions want to run the ball and work the clock. But the opponents know that too and will make sure to game plan for it.

Goff is patient in the pocket and now has weapons at every level. He has Williams on the outside, St. Brown between the numbers and Gibbs out of the backfield. Not to mention he has an athletic tight end with superb run after catch skills in LaPorta.

If Goff can increase his numbers by a couple hundred yards and five touchdowns, he would be in line to take a top five spot.

Who is the Competition?

If we look at his competition, Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, Jalen Hurts and Joe Burrow all finished in the top four. I think we can pencil in those guys for having another good season. But it’s certainly possible one of them gets hurt or has a down year.

The quarterbacks who finished 5-9 is where it gets interesting. Smith, Justin Fields, Trevor Lawrence, Daniel Jones, and Kirk Cousins all finished slightly ahead of Goff. But are you that confident in any of them repeating the same numbers they did last year?

Lawrence and Fields I’m most confident in mainly due to natural development in their game. But Smith is coming off a career year. The Giants were about to cut Jones. And Cousins is trash.

It’s completely realistic for Goff to pass most if not all of them next year in fantasy points. You could argue he has the best weapons amongst them and he has the best offensive line.

There are two quarterbacks not mentioned that I would be concerned with leapfrogging Goff, Lamar Jackson and Justin Herbert.

Baltimore drafted Zay Flowers to help Jackson in the passing game and a healthy J.K. Dobbins will provide him some cushion as well.

The Chargers selected Quentin Johnson in the first round to help Herbert. And if Keenan Allen can stay healthy that will go a long way to boosting his fantasy numbers.

More Winning Won’t Help Jared Goff

It’ll be interesting to see where the experts slot Goff in their quarterback rankings closer to the start of the season. He certainly won’t crack the pre-season top five. But he should get some love being listed just outside of it.

As with most players there is a little risk with taking Goff. It’s certainly plausible for his numbers to go up from last year. On the other hand, the Lions are expected to win more games, which means he might not have to throw as often.

The Lions were down in a lot of games in the first half of 2022 which leads to more opportunities for Jared Goff to boost his numbers.

Hopefully, that won’t happen again for our football team.