Fantasy Football Round Up
It's Week 3, so I'm a little late on this, but with some help from the brain trust at SB Nation Arizona, we have decided to do a weekly fantasy football preview.
I have seven fantasy football leagues, so I figured I would be the right person to do the job. Essentially, I have no life and spend too much time looking at statistics.
To start it off each week, we will take a look at the Cardinals matchup and then give you some national notes.
Cardinals-Raiders
There aren't many weeks the Arizona Cardinals will have good plays in fantasy football, but this week is an exception.
Through Week 2, the Oakland Raiders defense has been woeful.
The Raiders are ranked 29th in rushing yards allowed and 26th in yards allowed per rush. The question is figuring out which Cardinals running back will get the carries. The safe play is Tim Hightower, who is coming off an excellent week against the Falcons where he rushed for 115 yards on 11 carries and a touchdown.
The riskier play is Chris "Beanie" Wells, who should make his debut this week. We really don't have any idea what Wells' role is going to be. Going into the season, we assumed Wells would be the Cards #1 running back. During the preseason, Wells barely got any snaps with the first team offense. Playing "Beanie" is really risky, but there is a lot of upside.
When taking a quick glance at the Raiders pass defense, you might think playing any of the Cards WRs would be a bad idea given that they are fifth in the league, giving up 275 passing yards through two weeks. When you look closer, the Raiders give up 7.6 yards per pass attempt, which is ranked 27th in the league.
The reason they haven't given up more net passing yards is because of the struggles of their run defense. Last week, Arizona threw the ball 33 times and only ran it 13 times. Coach Whisenhunt says they need to run the ball more and used the excuse that the Falcons jumped out to an early lead as the main reason for the unbalanced attack. I don't buy it. Week 1 against the Rams, the Cardinals played a close game, and what was the pass/run breakdown? 41 passes and 20 rushes. Once again, play calling heavily favored towards the pass.
The play for fantasy this week is Cardinals wide receiver Steve Breaston. Most teams avoid throwing towards Raiders corner Nnamdi Asomugha and attack the rest of the secondary. I would avoid Larry Fitzgerald and roll the dice with Breaston.
Lock Him In
Here are players I love this week ...
- QB Brett Favre against a Lions defense that is giving up 9.5 yards per pass attempt
- QB Michael Vick against a Jaguars defense that has given up 600 yards passing in two games
- RB Michael Turner against the New Orleans Saints. Monday night, Frank Gore gashed the Saints run defense. Against the Cardinals, Turner had nine carries for 75 yards before he left with a groin injury. All indications were Turner could have come back into the game against Arizona and they held him out for precautionary reasons. Turner doesn't have a TD yet this season; this will be his breakout week.
- TE Dallas Clark against the Broncos. Denver's secondary is banged up and Clark scored three touchdowns against the Broncos last season. Wouldn't expect the three TDs, but a big week is in store.