The Detroit Lions are hoping to get Calvin Johnson back after the Week 9 bye and so are fantasy football owners and for the time being if he can't return, Golden Tate remains the best fantasy WR start option for Matthew Stafford, as he has been having a great season with Johnson banged up and missing time.
The Lions are hoping to have Johnson back and it comes after the team pulled off another amazing comeback win. The team was down 21-0 and came back to win in London against the Falcons and now Johnson has another week off before the team decides on whether to start him. Fantasy owners are drying to have Johnson back and so is Matthew Stafford, as he is one of the best players in the entire league.
Johnson first came down with the injury against the Packers in Week 3 and he was able to play through it, but it came back up against the Bills and knocked him out the two games after that. Reports from last week had the Lions keeping Johnson out through the bye week and into the next week so he could be fully healed and that looks to be the pan after he missed Week 8. Coming into that game this season Johnson has already missed two games and he could miss three if he is out this week and that is a career high for him.
Johnson had just five TDs, but he had 1964 yards and the year before that he once again was fantastic with 96 catches for 1681 yards and 16 scores. Johnson's streaks of over 84 catches, 1000 yards and double digit touchdowns are in jeopardy if he continues to miss time. Johnson has had double digit TD receptions in three of the past four seasons and four of the past six.
Tate has been one of the top free agent signing from last year after the way this has played out and he has been very productive this season. Tate has 55 catches for 800 yards and three TDs and he is one pace to put up the best numbers of his career after playing with the Seahawks for four seasons. Tate had a huge game on Sunday with 10 catches for 154 yards and he now has at least seven catches in each of the past four games and he has scored his Tds in that span.
According to Pro Football Talk, Johnson is feeling better and can run routes while cutting and as the week goes on, the team will check his progress ahead of game time in Week 10. Johnson has 22 catches for 348 yards this weekend and he is in line for some low numbers that would put him back in his 2007-2008 range. Johnson has put up some amazing numbers over the past few seasons and in that time he has only missed two games. The last time he missed time before last year was back in 2009 when he also missed two games and now Johnson is hoping to keep that streak intact (of not missing more than two games). Last season Johnson had 84 catches for 1492 yards and 12 touchdowns and the season before that the WR had 122 catches.
