Team Previews - Arizona Cardinals
Projected Starting Lineup QB: Sam Bradford RB: David Johnson WR: Larry Fitzgerald WR: Christian Kirk WR: Chad Williams
TE: Ricky Seals-Jones
LT: D.J. Humphries LG: Mike Iupati C: A.Q. Shipley RG: Justin Pugh RT: Andre Smith
Cardinals 2014-2017 Offensive Profile
2014-2017 Pass Attempts Rank: 15th, 19th, 3rd, 5th 2014-2017 Rush Attempts Rank: 24th, 9th, 21st, 20th 2014-2017 Play Volume Rank: 26th, 15th, 2nd, 5th 2014-2017 Yards Per Play Rank: 25th, 1st, 19th, 30th Unaccounted for Air Yards from 2017 (Rank): 2,589 (3rd) Unaccounted for Carries from 2017 (Rank): 356 (2nd)
Mike McCoy's average offensive production as an Offensive Coordinator in the NFL. (9 Seasons)
Passing: ATT COMP PCT YDS AVG YDS/G LONG TD TD% INT INT% SACK YDSL RATE 565 353 62.07 4133 7.29 244 66 28 4.89 15 2.64 37 224 89.3
Rushing: ATT YDS AVG LONG 20+ TD YDS/G FUM FUML 1DN
444 1766 3.94 47 9 9 110 7 4 95
Receiving: REC TAR YDS AVG TD LONG 20+ YDS/G FUM FUML YAC 1DN
353 565 4133 11.8 28 66 54 258 4 2.9 1846 202
Quarterback-
Sam Bradford will start the season off as the Cardinals starting QB. While he has not lived up to his #1 overall billing, many league execs, players and coaches view him as an above average QB. The main issue with Bradford has been his inability to stay healthy for an entire 16 game season. His play this season will determine when the QB of the future begins his NFL season, more on Rosen in a minute though. When Bradford is under center he will be looking the way of his first ballot HOF receiver Larry Fitzgerald. Bradford targets slot WR’s 24.8% of the time which is the 3rd highest among QB's in the league since 2007. While he ranks 3rd in the league in terms of slot WR targets, he ranked 30th of the 35 qualified quarterbacks in percentage of passes attempted 20-plus yards downfield in 2015 “10.3%”, and 34th out of 34 in 2016 “8.5%”. With the usage of a high draft pick on Rosen and his durability issues, he is not a QB worth drafting.
On to the “Chosen Rosen” which is easily the worst nickname one has ever given himself. I personally just wanted to write a little blurb about him as I think he is extremely overrated. I have watched the majority of his games in college and the one common trait I saw from him was poor decision making and trying to fit balls into tight windows. While he has been tabbed as a “smart” kid, he does not display one bit of that on a football field. The other issue with him is his lack of effort off the field as well. I do not believe football is the most important thing to him and he will continue to try and get by with his god given abilities, which works in the PAC-12 but not in the NFL. If the Cardinals start off poorly, it is likely that you will see Rosen take over for Bradford after there week 9 bye.
Wide Receiver-
The receivers are lead once again by the ageless wonder Larry Fitzgerald. He is coming off his 3rd straight 100+ catch season and should approach that number again in 2018. As I mentioned earlier Bradford salivates over slot WR’s and Fitzgerald might be the best in the game. Fitzgerald has finished as a top-20 wide receiver in four of the last five years, and will probably again be undervalued. Another top draft pick for the Cardinals was on WR Christian Kirk who went 47th overall. (229 catches 7 return touchdowns in just three seasons. The issue I have with Kirk this season is that he will be playing out wide. His skillset is much better suited for the slot, but with Fitzgerald there his time will have to wait till Larry hangs up his cleats. He had a very nice combine 4.47 40, 20 reps on bench, 35.5 vertical and is very dynamic with the ball in his hand "see the 7 return td highlights". While I think he will be a good player down the road, Kirk is nothing more than a very late round pick till he takes over the slot duties in Arizona. It goes with out saying that David Johnson will be leaned on heavily in the passing game as he saw the second most targets during his last healthy season in AZ. The remainder of the passing attack will come from NFL veterans J.J. Nelson, Brice Butler and Chad Williams. While each of these players has big play ability, not much consistency can be expected fantasy wise for the 2018 season.
Tight End-
At TE they again went to the well of Texas A&M and grabbed former wide receiver Ricky Seal-Jones who signed on as an undrafted rookie. While he just accumulated 12 catches for 203 yards and 3 TD’s he did so on only 70 routes run! I look for him to be the lead TE with Jermaine Gresham recovering from a torn Achilles in week 17. The downside on Seals-Jones is his blocking, although his arrest last night hinted that he improved over the off-season “muscled his way in by pushing him back with his elbow to his shoulder and chest and was pretty forceful, it was like being moved by an offensive lineman” Thank you for the arrest quotes ESPN. I do believe there is a decent amount of upside with Seals-Jones as long as he does not get suspended. We will have to revisit the TE situation after the pre-season.
Running Backs-
David Johnson returns from his year-ending dislocated wrist injury suffered in week 1 of the 2017 season. If you need a quick reminder of how he played the year before, how does 2,118 yards from scrimmage and 20 touchdowns sound? Johnson will not lack motivation, as this is his contract year. With a defensive-minded coach one would think running the football will be the focal point of this offense. The only issue for Steve Wilks and offensive coordinator Mike McCoy is that Arizona probably has a bottom five offensive line in the NFL. The good news for David Johnson is that this will not have too much of an impact regarding his fantasy production as he should be targeted over 100 times and see plenty of work in the passing game. David Johnson is a consensus top 6 pick and has potential to finish as RB1. Behind Johnson we have some unknowns, as Chase Edmonds will be his primary backup. Edmonds was drafted in the 4th round and is the Patriot League’s all-time leading rusher (5,862), who averaged 6.2 yards per carry while adding 86 catches and compiling 74 all-purpose TDs. Edmonds might not be the biggest (5’9/205) but he has excellent quickness, 3-cone 6.79 and 20 yard shuttle of 4.07 which were good enough to finish in the top 5 of each of those drills. His versatility is something that the Cardinals loved and he is very comparable to David Johnson as a do it all type back.
2018 Vegas Win Total
The Cardinals current win total is 5.5 in Las Vegas, which means the folks in the desert see this as one of the least talented rosters in the NFL. They play in one of the toughest divisions as the Rams and 49ers made major roster upgrades to go along with the consistent Seattle Seahawks. Not only do they have 6 tough matchups in their own division but they face the loaded NFC North as well. I look for this to be a very long season for the Cardinals and outside of David Johnson and Larry Fitzgerald I will not be looking to own many Arizona players this fantasy football season.
