Instant fantasy football takeaways from Lions-Packers Thursday Night Football

• Josh Jacobs scores hat trick: Six different players have three rushing touchdowns in a game this season. The Green Bay Packers Running back is the only player to do this twice.

• Tim Patrick scores twice in an increased role: Patrick found the end zone for the first and second time Detroit Lions player while taking a few snapshots of Jameson Williams.

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

PFF’s fantasy football roundup focuses on player usage and stats, breaking down all the key information you need to achieve fantasy success in 2024.

Green Bay Packers @ Detroit Lions

Packers miss Romeo Doubs: The Packers’ outside receiver missed his second straight game due to a concussion.

The Packers’ plan at wide receiver was exactly the same as last week. Dontayvion wicks began, and both he and Christian Watson played more than Packers receivers normally do because they were no longer competing for the same snaps. Bo Melton And Malik Heath were their backups.

Doubs’ injury had no impact Jayden Reedis game time. Through the first 13 weeks, Reed played 90% of Green Bay’s 11 personnel snaps and 2.6% of their 12 personnel snaps. These splits were very similar last week and in this game even though Doubs was out. Similar to how teams often have running backs who gain a lot of yards in wins and not as many yards in losses, before this week Reed averaged 130 yards per game in the Packers’ losses and 34 in the Packers’ wins.

Many expected Reed to have a big night, as the Lions had given up the most receptions (85) and receiving yards (1,084) to wide receivers lined up in the slot by a wide margin. Instead, Watson was able to take advantage of the defense. The Lions lead the league in man defense percentage and Watson is the only Packer with significantly better yards per route against a man compared to zone.

Reed has been the most frustrating good wide receiver from a fantasy football perspective this season. He only has four weeks as a top-24 wide receiver compared to seven weeks outside the top-40, including this game. The only wide receivers with similar splits in the top 40 in fantasy points are DJ Moore And Calvin Ridley. These two are full-time players who had a slow start to the season due to their overall slow offense. The only real reason for optimism for Reed is that the Packers are playing in the stadium Minnesota Vikings in Week 17 as they may be playing from behind in that game.

Wicks suffered a serious blow late in the fourth quarter and was able to leave the field under his own power. Melton and Heath shared the limited snaps after Wicks left. The Packers never got the ball back, so it’s hard to say how serious the injury is. If Doubs and Wicks miss a game, expect Melton and Heath to share the roles. If Wicks misses time and Doubs is able to return, expect Watson to continue playing more than usual.

Tim PatrickThe role continues to increase: Patrick scored his first two touchdowns of the season while also playing more snaps.

Patrick had a slow start to the season after being released by the Denver Broncos On cutdown day, it will take some time to get used to the Lions’ offense. He eventually found the role of third wide receiver, but found himself in some rotation Caliph Raymond. Patrick saw a temporary increase in snaps in weeks 8 and 9 Jameson Williams was suspended.

Patrick experienced a more permanent rebound last week when Raymond landed on injured reserve. This led to Patrick being more consistently on the field in sets with three receivers.

The increase in snaps in this game was the result of increased usage on 12 personnel and other plays with few wide receivers on the field. Typically, he played at best a third of the snaps on the 12-team roster, mostly rotating for Williams. Likewise, St. Brown and Williams rotated as the only wide receivers in three tight end sets last month. Patrick had only played two snaps from this personnel group all season before this week. In this game, he and Williams were split closer to 50-50 in those personnel groups.

Williams tended to play more passing plays while Patrick played more running plays. However, Patrick scored on a 12-man play where he was on the field and Williams was not, and he scored his second touchdown on a 13-man play. The change in playing time for both receivers shouldn’t make much of a difference over the next three weeks, but it did in this game.

Various notes

• The Lions have signed a wide receiver Maurice Alexander Joined the active squad today. He has one career receptions record with Detroit in 2022 and made his season debut last week, playing exclusively on special teams.

Table notes

• Snaps include plays that are called back due to penalties, including offensive holding or defensive pass interference. These plays have been removed from the other three statistics.
• Goals may vary from official NFL sources. The most likely discrepancy would be a clearly thrown away pass, where the NFL might pass the target to the closest receiver, whereas this data does not.