Who Should I Start? Jared Goff or Patrick Mahomes

Friday, December 19, 8:25 PM

Across 14 games this season, Detroit Lions quarterback Jared Goff has completed 69.3% of his passes for 3,672 yards, 29 touchdowns, and five interceptions. The 31-year-old has thrown for at least 255 yards in seven straight games and has topped 300 passing yards in each of his last two contests. With the Lions' defense struggling, Goff has been forced into more pass-heavy game scripts in the second half of the season. After attempting more than 29 passes in just one of Detroit's first seven games, he's thrown fewer than 33 passes in the team's last seven games. Goff and the Lions have a favorable matchup on paper in Week 16 against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Entering Sunday, Pittsburgh ranks 29th in the NFL in passing yards allowed (3,649). The Steelers' pass rush also looks a little less fearsome this week, as star edge rusher T.J. Watt (lung) will miss a second straight game while recovering from surgery to repair a collapsed lung. Given his recent pass volume trends and the opponent, Goff profiles as a low-end fantasy QB1 in Week 16.

Wednesday, December 17, 1:21 PM

Kansas City Chiefs head trainer Rick Burkholder said that quarterback Patrick Mahomes (knee) was operated on quickly to fix the LCL part of his ACL/LCL knee injury that he suffered in Sunday's loss to the Los Angeles Chargers, according to Jesse Newell of The Athletic. Mahomes has started his rehab in Dallas this week and will continue through Thursday before returning to KC. The fact that the 30-year-old tore both his ACL and LCL will make his recovery more complicated, but reports suggest that Mahomes is "hellbent" on returning for the Week 1 season opener in 2026. For the final three weeks of the 2025 season, Gardner Minshew will run KC's offense, which is an obvious downgrade for all of the Chiefs' offensive skill players. Mahomes, a three-time Super Bowl MVP, threw for 3,587 yards, 22 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions in 14 games in 2025 in his ninth NFL season.