Fantasy football projections, Week 13: Lions-Saints featuring Matthew Stafford, Drew Brees, Michael Thomas, more

The Week 13 matchup between the Detroit Lions and the New Orleans Saints features offensively gifted teams going head-to-head. We’ve got the fantasy projections courtesy of numberFire.

It seems no matter what the circumstances are, the Lions just keep finding ways to win. Unfortunately for fantasy owners of quarterback Matthew Stafford, the team’s Week 12 victory over the Minnesota Vikings didn’t lead to a spectacular fantasy performance. Stafford threw for 232 yards in the game and just one touchdown. He now has just that single touchdown pass over the last two games combined. The good news is that the Lions draw a porous Saints defense in Week 13. New Orleans gave up three touchdown passes to Los Angeles Rams rookie Jared Goff last week. Stafford should be able to climb over the 300-yard plateau at the Superdome and he’ll probably throw multiple touchdowns. A performance along those lines on Sunday will get him and fantasy owners beyond his projections by a wide margin.

By extension that means wide receiver Golden Tate should also rise above expectations on Sunday. He’s seen at least seven targets from Stafford in six of the last seven games. After starting the season in a major slump, Tate has found his game. What fantasy owners are hoping he finds on Sunday as the end zone. Tate caught five of seven passes for 77 yards against the Vikings last week. The Saints ranked 27^th in the NFL at defending opposing passing games. They allowed 271 passing yards per game. Tate should be a sneaky good and possibly top performer in a pivotal Week 13 fantasy matchup.

Quarterback Drew Brees just keeps on ticking for fantasy owners, even in his late 30s. Brees leads the NFL in touchdowns, completion percentage and passing yards. He threw for 310 yards and four touchdown passes against the Rams last week. Brees also rushed for a one-yard score at the goal line. The Lions have given up the third-most points to fantasy quarterbacks this season. Nobody can stop Drew Brees regardless of who his receivers are or how the team is playing as a whole. At this point it simple math. Brees will top his projections in Week 13.

Wide receiver Michael Thomas probably will too. A relative unknown prior to the start of the season, Thomas has quickly become one of Brees’ favorite receivers. After being held out of the end zone in back-to-back games, Thomas scored twice against the Rams last week. He caught all but one of his targets and finished the game with nine catches for 108 yards to go with the two touchdowns. The effort marked the second 100-yard game of Thomas’ rookie season. That’s all good news. The bad news is the Lions haven’t given up a 100-yard game to any receivers so far this season. Perhaps Thomas can be the first. That said, if he accomplished the feat Thomas would be bucking quite the strong trend. Should he rise above his projections in Week 13, he’ll do so only slightly.