The Chicago Bears head to Detroit to take on the Lions. The Bears need a win to stay alive in the Wild Card hunt, while the Lions will be heading into the offseason with more questions than answers. For those worried about teams resting starters, this game is worth looking at for fantasy purposes. In order to help you set the optimal playoff lineup, we've got player projections courtesy of numberFire.
Bears vs. Lions: Fantasy football projections featuring Brandon Marshall, Calvin Johnson, Matt Forte
We take a look at the pertinent fantasy projections for the Week 17 matchup between the Bears and Lions.
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Chicago Bears
The Bears are in “must win” mode, so they’ll be going all in. Brandon Marshall is locked in as a WR1 and has a juicy matchup against the Detroit secondary. Look for him to get to 1,500 yards for the first time in his career.
Matt Forte is dealing with another ankle injury, but he's expected to play and retains RB2 value. Jay Cutler has been way too inconsistent to trust every week this year, but he might be worth a start if your studs are resting.
The 4-11 Lions are looking to play spoiler and knock Chicago out of the playoff picture, so I don't expect them to rest any guys either. Calvin Johnson needs only 108 yards to become the first receiver in history to reach 2,000. He'll probably get that in the first quarter. Matthew Stafford is chasing a record of his own--he's sitting at 685 pass attempts and only need seven more to break Drew Bledsoe's single season record of 691.
That probably says more about Detroit's running game than I could hope to. Joique Bell is more valuable than Mikel LeShoure due to his role in the passing game. LeShoure gets the red zone touches and is only useful if he scores.
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