Fantasy Football: 4 Takeaways From Preseason Week 2

Jared Goff May Not Be a Lost Cause

Things were looking scary for the Los Angeles Rams at the end of last season.

By our Net Expected Points (NEP) metric, which you can read more about in our glossary, Jared Goff was the worst quarterback in the NFL last season. Among the 34 quarterbacks with at least 200 drop backs, he ranked dead last in Passing NEP per drop back. Yikes.

Last Saturday, though, the Rams looked promising. Playing against the Oakland Raiders' starters, Goff managed a completion percentage of 75 percent and threw for 120 yards and a touchdown. It is still preseason, and the Raiders did give up the 10th-most fantasy points to the quarterback position last year, but Goff's play was encouraging.

So was the showing of those around him, in fact. Cooper Kupp has been impressive so far this preseason, and the Rams recently traded for Sammy Watkins to give Goff a legitimate number-one receiver. Todd Gurley looked at home behind their newly beefed-up offensive line, and he needs a bounce-back season after ranking dead last in Rushing NEP per carry last season among backs with at least 200 carries.

Again, this is still the preseason, but if Goff can take a step forward in 2017, it would go a long way toward helping Gurley and Watkins perform at a fantasy level that is more reflective of their actual talent level.