Matthew Stafford

Week 10 - Stafford was actually pretty effective in week 9 as he was 22 of 33 for 285 yards, but the RB’s ate up the TD’s against the Jaguars, leaving none for Matthew to dish out.  He remains a top 10 option at QB in terms of fantasy scoring, and he draws a must win matchup against the reeling Vikings in week 10.  Minnesota just gave up 3 passing TD’s to Russel Wilson, so you can expect Stafford to attack through the air.  Keep him active as a QB1 in most leagues.

Week 9 - The QB who threw for 5,000 yards in 2011 finally made an appearance against the Seattle Seahawks in week 8.  Stafford threw for 352 yards, 3 TD’s and 1 INT.  That is the fantasy QB owners expected to see, and Stafford remains a QB1 in all formats heading into week 9.

Week 6 - Stafford draws the Eagles in week 6, and jumps right back in as a QB1 in our fantasy rankings.

Week 5 - Bum leg and all, Stafford was able to put in a solid showing against the Vikings by throwing for 319 yards on 30 of 51 passing.  His team lost, probably due to the fact that he didn’t record a passing touchdown, but he did run for one score, which was a nice bonus for fantasy owners.  Stafford gets a week off to rest in week 5, so hopefully you have a solid backup QB ready to fill in.

Week 4 - Stafford pulled up lame trying to make a tackle in week 3 against the Tennessee Titans, and the Lions are being deliberately vague on the details of his injury.  The best anyone has come up with is hamstring injury, and while we may get a feel for how he is performing during the week, we won’t know for sure until Sunday if he is playing or not against the Vikings.  Log in to the forums Sunday morning, 2 hours before gametime head NFL writer mikesherman will be live, and he can give you updates as to whether or not Stafford will start week 4.

Week 3 – Stafford makes an excellent buy low target in fantasy football, so if you are reading this and don’t currently have him rostered, send out a trade offer, you never know what sort of answer you may get when the star QB plays like this.  In his first 2 weeks, Stafford amassed just 28.70 fantasy points, heading into week 3 things figure to get much better for the QB as he faces a reeling Titans squad.  Keep Stafford active as a QB1 through thick and thin, and expect him to get things turned around starting this week.

Week 2 – As predicted, the Rams 7th best passing defense from 2011 shut Stafford down pretty effectively in their week 1 matchup to the tune of 15.50 standard fantasy points.  Things don’t get any easier for Stafford in Week 2 as he takes on the vaunted 49ers defense.  The one thing he has working in his favor this week is just how good the 49ers are against the run.  Kevin Smith should find very little running room against the best run defense in football, meaning Stafford will have to go vertical to put up points for the Lions.  With Detroit also looking to get their offense running a little smoother than it did a week ago, Stafford is still a must start fantasy option that should be right around 5,000 passing yards once again this season.

Week 1 - It may come as a surprise to some owners, that Stafford’s first week matchup, the St. Louis Rams had the 7th best passing defense in 2011.  Some of that may be due to the fact that teams could run the ball at will on the Rams last season, but the high flying Lions and Megatron don’t figure to be a ground and pound team in 2012.  Start Stafford with confidence as this should be a high scoring game, and with both Leshoure and Best out, the Lions will be looking to Stafford to put up big numbers against the lowly Rams.

Preseason Analysis

Last season Matthew Stafford fulfilled the lofty expectations placed on him as he passed for over 5,000 yards and 40 TD’s.  Coming into 2012 Stafford is a top 5 QB as he should once again eclipse 5,000 yards passing with Calvin Johnson to help him out.

Matthew Stafford – Getty Images

Matthew Stafford career statistics: