The fantasy football landscape shifts each week, bringing fresh opportunities and unexpected challenges that separate the prepared from the pretenders. Savvy managers know that last week’s performance tells only part of the story, and diving deeper into the underlying metrics reveals the accurate picture.
This week presents some intriguing decisions. Here’s insight about key Arizona Cardinals players heading into their matchup with the Green Bay Packers to help you craft a winning lineup.
Jacoby Brissett, QB
Talk about a player put into a position to fail.
Backup quarterbacks are rarely in good spots, but facing a hot Colts team and losing your WR1 early (concussion) isn’t exactly ideal.
Jacoby Brissett was better than expected by a wide margin.
There were six different Cardinals with a 20+-yard reception on Sunday, and he loaded up Trey McBride with 28.2% of his targets. Brissett himself doesn’t need to be on your radar this weekend, should he get another start, but if that is the situation we find ourselves in, I don’t think you have to fear that your Cardinals are swimming upstream the same way the Bengals were when Jake Browning took over.
Kyler Murray, QB
Kyler Murray played in every game last season after dealing with the injury bug for the previous two (19 games played and 15 missed), but he sat last week, and this foot sprain doesn’t sound like the type of thing that a mobile QB recovers from in a hurry.
With Arizona going on bye next week and an extra day of prep ahead of their Monday night showdown with the Cowboys in Week 9, my reflex is to have your secondary option ready this week and hope for the best as we get into November.
The problem is that “the best” hasn’t been all that good for fantasy managers. Murray’s best weekly finish this season is QB14, and he’s on a career-low pace in terms of yards per completion.
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The rushing numbers have been stable (25+ in all five of his starts), but without much passing upside (two multi-TD games with a 220-yard ceiling), he’s little better than replacement level at this point.
The looming matchup with the Cowboys will be interesting if we assume he’s back, but the schedule stiffens after that, making Nov. 4 potentially “sell Kyler Murray day” should he look the part the night prior.
Bam Knight, RB
Adam Schefter planted the Bam Knight seed early on Sunday, and he was right. Knight held a slim snap and touch edge over Michael Carter, scoring 12.4 PPR points in the loss at Indianapolis.
The short touchdown made the difference in what was an inefficient afternoon. He out-snapped Carter 10-6 inside the Colts’ 20-yard line, giving us reasonable hope that these short scoring opportunities are going to be his moving forward.
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That said, this team only picked up 88 yards on 24 rush attempts and didn’t have a carry gain more than 12 yards. Carter ran a route on 62.5% of his offensive snaps (Knight: 38.2%), and if you think this game plays out as the sportsbooks are forecasting, the script may favor Carter in comeback mode.
I have Knight over Carter by a handful of spots for the bump in scoring equity, but neither is inside of my top 30 at the position in a tough matchup.
Michael Carter, RB
We liked James Conner because he was consistent, and the idea behind Trey Benson was volume-based. With both of them out of the mix and Murray banged up, there’s no reason to jam any running back from Arizona into your lineup.
Week 6 Running Back Resumes
- Bam Knight: 48.6% snaps, 12 touches, 12.4 FP
- Carter: 42.9% snaps, 11 touches, 8.4 FP
- Emari Demercado: 4.3% snaps, 1 touch, 0.1 FP
I have Knight ranked over Carter (3-1 red zone touch edge last week, in addition to a reasonable snaps edge in running spots), but neither ranks as a top 30 back for me this weekend against a Packers defense that surrendered just 55 rushing yards last week to the Bengals.
Trey Benson, RB
We knew there was a knee thing bugging Trey Benson coming out of Week 4, but we got news last Wednesday that arthroscopic surgery was required and that a trip to IR was the team’s decision.
Initial reporting has Benson potentially returning when in Week 10 against the Seahawks, good news for those who hoped that, following the James Conner injury, they had a bellcow at a bargain.
Game script factored in, but he wasn’t used in the same dominating fashion that Conner was, more serving as the plus-side of a low-end committee than a true feature back.
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That’s about what I’m expecting when he comes back, though this window does give Michael Carter a good chance to prove capable of handling more two-down work, including a juicy matchup in Week 9 with the Cowboys.
Prior to landing on IR, Benson had back-to-back 13-touch efforts, both coming in losses. The volume isn’t going to overwhelm, though I do think he’s the favorite to end this season with the lead role in an above-average offense that will benefit from a game against the Bengals in Week 17.
I’m holding and considering a low-ball trade offer, should the manager with Benson be fighting to keep their season on track.
Marvin Harrison Jr., WR
Concussion symptoms led to Marvin Harrison Jr.’s early departure over the weekend, and with Arizona’s bye in Week 8, I’m tentatively making other plans for this weekend.
The Cards’ WR1 had been useful in three of the first five weeks this season, and while the yardage totals are spotty, he showed signs of turning a corner with Murray.
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Now we have injuries on both sides to navigate, which makes this a situation I’d rather not invest in if I can help it. Harrison has a TD or a 30+ yard reception in four of five weeks with Murray under center, and that makes him a low-end WR2 moving forward when both parts of that tandem are on the field.
Should Harrison play without Murray this weekend, he’ll be ranked as nothing more than a low-end WR3: think Tee Higgins in the Jake Browning era.
Trey McBride, TE
Trey McBride has earned at least seven targets in every game this season and has even scored twice over the past month. Bonus!
This Murray injury impacts the Cardinals in a huge way, obviously, but with a professional backup in Jacoby Brissett, I think McBride managers can sleep easily knowing that their guy is going to be given every chance to succeed (28.2% target share on Sunday).
There isn’t the type of separation he had hoped for at the top of the TE position, but McBride is giving you weekly volume that is hard to find, and it should pay off against a Packers team that hasn’t held a TE1 under nine PPR points this season (Tanner Hudson went for 11.0 against them in Week 6).
