How fantasy football managers should approach Cardinals WRs with Marquise Brown injury, Robbie Anderson trade

It’s not going great for the Arizona Cardinals’ offense right now.

There are injuries up and down the depth chart, Kyler Muray and Co. struggled with just nine points total against the Seattle Seahawks on the road this past Sunday and there’s a looming short week when they’ll host the Saints on Thursday.

Welp.

There’s Marquise Brown’s injury, the trade for Robbie Anderson and the return of DeAndre Hopkins to account for, so let’s break down all the current WRs and how fantasy football managers should approach the receivers — who’s the WR1 (it’s obvious) now? Should Anderson be a target?

Let’s dive in:

Marquise Brown

Let’s start with Hollywood:

Cardinals’ WR Marquise Brown suffered a potentially season-ending foot injury Sunday, per sources. He is undergoing further testing today to determine the extent of the injury.

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 17, 2022

Until we get further info, I won’t say he’s an outright drop. But it’s clear it was a really bad injury on Sunday that could cost him the rest of the season, which stinks given what he’s done so far with Murray in 2022.

 

DeAndre Hopkins

Nuk is back from a PED suspension that cost him the first six games of the season. Obviously, he’s your WR1 that if you stashed, he could pay off big time now that Brown is potentially out.

We’ll see if he can knock off the rust right away, and the hope is we don’t see a dropoff in volume like we saw in 2021 for him.

I don’t see that happening. What I am worried about is the yardage for him:

Kyler Murray is dead last in the NFL in completion rate (35.4%), yards per attempt (7.1 Y/A), and EPA per dropback (-0.11) on throws over 10 yards downfield.

— Rich Hribar (@LordReebs) October 17, 2022

So, maybe he gets peppered with the short stuff and racks up numbers that way. And that’s great news if you’re in a PPR league.

 

Robbie Anderson

🥶🙏🤞🚀 https://t.co/5EWLCWeHX5

— Robbie Anderson (@chosen1ra) October 17, 2022

You saw those stats above. Anderson’s a deep threat, so maybe he has a shot to improve Murray’s downfield numbers. But I’m not touching him in fantasy until I see the fit. I think he’s the WR3 at this point on this team because …

Rondale Moore

I kind of wonder how he’ll do if he’s the No. 3 pass-catcher for this offense (No. 2 would be Zach Ertz). We know he’s a heck of an athlete. What we haven’t seen is the kind of consistent usage that would make him thrive. Don’t pay too much to grab him off the waiver wire … but if you can get him cheap, there’s a world in which he could pay off.

3rd and 17 conversion by Rondale Moore.

Expected YAC: 3.1 yards
Actual YAC: 21.9 yards

Per @NextGenStats pic.twitter.com/qMSN1a96IX

— Seth Walder (@SethWalder) October 9, 2022

A.J. Green

Just … no.