Fantasy Football 2024: Arizona Cardinals Key Players
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00:00We're starting at the top of the list with the Arizona Cardinals, a team that has not
00:08been great, still doesn't have the best offensive line, nor the best defense.
00:12That's a good thing for fantasy.
00:13You know why?
00:14Bad offensive line means Kyler Murray is going to be running all over the place.
00:17Now, he might not be protected as much as we want either, although they did address
00:20some of those issues this off season and did make some slight improvements, it might not
00:25be enough.
00:26However, they did make a huge improvement with the wide receiver core, and that is very
00:29exciting to me, and this is a team that I think people are sleeping on in fantasy.
00:33What I love the most about the Arizona Cardinals is the fact that it's a very simple plan.
00:38You have Kyler Murray, you have Trey McBride, and you have Marvin Harrison Jr.
00:42That trio is very, very good, and in terms of fantasy value, all appropriately valued
00:50in the marketplace, which is also rare.
00:52Now, it might be a little aggressive on Marvin Harrison, but I don't see that.
00:56I know he's going as early as wide receiver 10 in some drafts, and that's okay with me,
01:01because this is a player that I think has possibly 160 targets in front of him this
01:06year, could catch 100-plus balls, could easily have 1,300 or even 1,400 yards receiving and
01:13double-digit touchdowns.
01:14That's the upside of Harrison.
01:15Now, the downside looks a little bit more like maybe 1,100 yards and maybe six touchdowns.
01:20Still a pretty good player at the end of the day, but regardless, you look at what
01:27else is around here, Michael Wilson, Zay Jones, those guys are just small contributors.
01:32I don't see them really being very fantasy relevant outside of the fantasy streamer on
01:36occasion.
01:37Kyler Murray, the question is, what does he look like in this new offense here?
01:41We got a little taste of it last year.
01:43Kingsbury's no longer around, so it's a little bit different in terms of how things work.
01:47You also got James Conner coming back for another year, who has been a very productive
01:50back in this time of the Arizona Cardinals, but the time is now another year older, which
01:54means Trey Benson, the rookie that they drafted, is going to at some point probably get some
01:59opportunities.
02:00That's probably going to be later in the season or unless, God forbid, an injury happens to
02:05James Conner.
02:06So when you're looking at the Cardinals right now, the guy that really is interesting to
02:10me besides the Harrison investment, which is expensive, Matt, when you're looking at
02:14Trey McBride, that's the guy, to me, that I think carries a lot of upside at that right-hand
02:19position.
02:20Yeah, absolutely, especially considering how this offense is going to gel, and you and
02:24I have talked about it, how the position, the tight end position, is really starting
02:28to grow and starting to change.
02:31Tight ends are being paid the way running backs want to be paid, and there's a reason.
02:34So yeah, I like that you're highlighting McBride here and what it can mean to this team overall.
02:38I'd like to throw those projections back up for a second, too, because I think these projections
02:43are low.
02:44And I know 83 catches, people say, well, I don't know, 83 catches seems like a lot for
02:48a tight end.
02:50But put it in an offense that's bereft of other people worthy for targets, 849 yards,
02:54I think is, I mean, that's an incredible number for a tight end, just generally speaking.
03:00I think you can go over this as well.
03:01I think he's somewhere in the 950 range, potentially.
03:04And Trey McBride had a phenomenal college career.
03:06I think people forget how good he was in college because the career started a little slow because
03:11he played for the Arizona Cardinals with backup quarterbacks playing.
03:14Now he's got that opportunity this year to really sort of blossom.
03:17We saw the beginning of the breakout.
03:18We saw he could handle the target share.
03:20He was getting double-digit targets in a lot of games.
03:22If that trend continues with Harrison now, too, in this offense, all of a sudden the
03:27Arizona Cardinals are going to be interesting.
03:28And remember, that defense isn't going to stop anybody, which means there's going to
03:31be a lot of shootouts and they're playing in a division that's got a lot of good offenses.
03:35So this could be a really intriguing team from a wagering perspective on overs, from
03:40a weekly perspective in terms of overs on the fantasy projection.
03:44So keep an eye on the Cardinals.
03:45Yeah, the win total might still underwhelm a little bit, but maybe the fantasy points
03:50are a little bit more prevalent than you might realize.