Who Should I Start? Marcus Mariota or Jared Goff

Thursday, December 18, 5:29 PM

Washington Commanders quarterback Marcus Mariota has a tough matchup in Week 16 against his former team, the Philadelphia Eagles. Mariota will remain Washington's starter for the remainder of the regular season after the team shut down Jayden Daniels (elbow) after aggravating his elbow injury in Week 14. The 32-year-old signal-caller has been solid all season while filling in for Daniels, completing 62% of his passes for 1,600 yards, 10 touchdowns, and seven interceptions while adding 49 carries for 298 yards and a touchdown as a runner in 10 games (seven starts). Mariota is averaging 18.4 fantasy points per game in his seven starts, which would be tied for QB11 on the season among quarterbacks with at least six games. Mariota profiles as a QB2 on Saturday against an Eagles defense that has allowed the 10th-fewest fantasy points per game to quarterbacks.

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.