The Arizona Cardinals had high, high hopes headed into the 2019 season. New head coach Kliff Kingsbury’s up-tempo offense had players talking spicy about 90 plays per game. They fell short of that. They fell well short of that, posting just 62.6 plays per game. The Arizona Cardinals ranked 21st in plays per game, so they didn’t even come close to their goal. They should have a better 2020, with a full season of Kenyan Drake, a healthy Christian Kirk, an offseason for Kyler to learn and grow, and hopefully a vastly upgraded offensive line. As we dip into the 2020 offseason, it’s important that we remember how the Cardinals season broke down for fantasy football. Here are the five things to remember for the Arizona Cardinals and their fantasy football weaponry in 2020.
What to Remember from the 2019 Arizona Cardinals Season
- Starting with the Halloween game against the 49ers and ending in week sixteen, Kyler Murray played on a 3,221, 25 touchdown, 14 interception pace. He also played on a 606 rush yard, five touchdown pace. This is 19.09 fantasy points per game, which would have been QB10 among QBs to start at least 8 games.
- Before getting hurt in week eight, David Johnson averaged 17.7 fantasy points per game. He had over 100 total yards and/or a touchdown in every single game in that span. After his injury and Kenyan Drake’s arrival, he had 17 carries for 45 yards and 6 receptions for 55 yards, and a touchdown, through week 16.
- After the Cardinals freed Kenyan Drake, he played on a 1,283 yard, 3 touchdown pace prior to the last two games of the fantasy football season when he went supernova. In weeks 15 and 16, he had 340 total yards and six touchdowns. He’s going to fly up preseason rankings because of this sample size.
- Christian Kirk led the team in air yards, but outside of Kirk and Larry Fitzgerald, no Arizona Cardinals player had more than 500 air yards on the season. His 30% air yards share and 24% target share compare to Keenan Allen, D.J. Moore, and Julian Edelman. Kirk had trouble converting this volume, turning in just three top-24 weeks during the fantasy football season. This is mostly due to Kirk scoring just three touchdowns (all in the same game).
- Larry Fitzgerald’s retirement status remains up-in-the-air, but should he retire, a lot of key Arizona Cardinals targets go up for grabs. Fitzgerald was fourth in ten zone targets during the fantasy football season. He only converted four of the ten targets, but he turned those conversions into three touchdowns. Christian Kirk, the likely beneficiary of these vacated targets, had five. He was one of two wide receivers with at least five ten-zone targets without a score (Zay Jones).
(Header Image: Public Domain Photo was taken by U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Aspen Reid)
