Matthew Stafford Injury Status Hurts Fantasy Outlook of Lions Offense With QB Ruled Out for Week 11

Matthew Stafford has been officially ruled out for the Detroit Lions' Week 11 clash with the Dallas Cowboys.

Things have been trending in this direction all week, as Stafford couldn't get on the practice field on Wednesday or Thursday. He's dealing with broken bones in his back that kept him out of last week's loss to the Chicago Bears, so this news shouldn't really come as a surprise.

It will once again downgrade the fantasy outlook for the entire Detroit offense, with Jeff Driskel starting in Stafford's place. Last week, none of the Lions' running backs cracked even 40 rushing yards, and only Marvin Jones Jr. topped 60 receiving yards.

Of course, a lot of that had to do with a tough matchup against an elite Bears' defense, but Stafford was playing at an elite level prior to the injury. He ranks in the top five in terms of passing yards per game (312.4, No. 2), passer rating (106.0, No. 5), passing touchdowns (19, No. 2) and yards per attempt (8.6, T-No. 3).

That kind of MVP-level production was enough to make quite a few of Detroit's skill-position players fantasy relevant, but it's going to be tough to trust anyone outside of Kenny Golladay, who ranks as WR22 in our Week 11 fantasy football PPR rankings, while Stafford remains sidelined this Sunday.

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Max Staley is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Max Staley also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username mstaley1212. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.