Arizona

Cardinals

While it’s nice to see McBride lead the team in targets, this was a disappointing effort for the stud tight end considering the Bills were without their best linebacker (Matt Milano) due to injury. It seemed like the Cardinals would have an advantage over the middle of the field, but they never really took many shots down the field with McBride and used him far closer to the line of scrimmage than we’d like to see. Hopefully some of the offensive gameplan will change here in the coming weeks.

Wilson also dropped another pass near the end zone in the fourth quarter, so while he is the clear fourth-option in the passing game, he is one of the primary targets in the red zone, which will give him some deep-league fantasy value.

It’s hard to know if the Cardinals came into this game panning to target Dortch or simply adapted once the Bills lost slot cornerback Taron Johnson to injury on the first drive. Regardless, Dortch was far-and-away the most targeted receiver, getting five more targets than Marvin Harrison Jr. We’re not sure that will continue, but Dortch is clearly a big part of this offense and is a solid target in PPR leagues but will be a harder sell in other formats since most of his work is underneath and close to the line of scrimmage.

Yes, four yards. Harrison dropped his first NFL target on a 13-yard curl route. The Cardinals went right back to him for a four-yard out route on the next play and that was essentially the end of his day. He was running wide open in the back of the end zone on the Cardinals’ final drive, but Kyler Murray was also running for his life and didn’t see him. Harrison will have better days, but there were some questions about the Cardinals’ offensive gameplan here, including an incredibly conservative approach, so some strategic things may need to change for Harrison to be unlocked for fantasy.

James Conner is the clear lead back in Arizona, but Benson got the entire second drive of the game to himself. That made it seem like this would be more of a split, but Benson rarely saw the field the rest of the way. An additional concern is that Emari Demarcardo worked as the clear passing down back, often coming into the game on third and long situations. It seems like Benson will need an injury to Conner to have much fantasy value this season.

Conner was a major part of the Cardinals’ gameplan, which appeared to be bleeding the clock and keeping Josh Allen off the field. It worked well for the Cardinals in the early going, but the Bills quickly caught on, and the Cardinals’ offensive line was unable to get much push against the Bills’ front four. Conner did run hard and looked a little slimmer and quicker than he did last season, which helped him as a receiver out of the backfield. With this kind of workload, he should remain a consistent RB2 in fantasy this season.

Murray looked good but was really conservative, averaging just 5.2 yards per completion on Sunday, which is a surprise considering the Bills are replacing their safeties in 2024 and it was thought to be a major weakness of their defense. Murray also only targeted Marvin Harrison Jr. three times while relying heavily on Trey McBride and Greg Dortch, which was likely due to the Bills daring him to beat them underneath. Murray did make some big plays with his legs, but he also took four sacks while spending a lot of time dancing around the pocket. It still should be a strong fantasy season for Murray, but we can’t help feeling like he could have had a bigger game this week. We’ll see if he can build on it next week against the Rams.

Williams went down holding his knee and had to be helped off the field. It didn’t look great in the moment, but we’ll wait to hear more. Kelvin Beachum will replace Williams at RT.

There are no surprises here. TE Tip Reiman and S Joey Blount are active after being questionable with injuries.

Petzing said Conner is the top running back for the Cardinals backfield, while Trey Benson will need to be ready. The 29-year-old Conner has not played a full season in his career yet. Though he has missed eight games over the last two seasons, it seems the Cardinals will give him a heavy workload when active, similar to his three straight seasons of over 16 touches per game. Meanwhile, the rookie Benson is one of the most valuable handcuffs in fantasy football, ready to take on a large workload should Conner miss time.