Fantasy Football Daily - 2022 Franchise Focus: Arizona Cardinals

Episode Date: July 30, 2022

Joe Dolan (@FG_Dolan) invites Cardinals beat reporter Johnny Venerable (@JohnnyVenerable) to discuss the upcoming season for the Arizona Cardinals. The Franchise Focus Podcast series is brought to you by Underdog Fantasy (@UnderdogFantasy). New users can sign up to Underdog using promo code FANTASYPTS for up to $100 in bonus cash on their first deposit. Visit fantasypoints.com/underdog for more info. The podcast series is also sponsored by Evan's Sports Cards & Collectibles (@evanscards). Follow @EvansCards on Twitter for weekly updates and card releases, Like on Facebook, and head to evanssportsnj.com for more info, including the always-updated eBay store. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fantasypoints.com and the 2022 franchise focus series is sponsored by Underdog Fantasy, the best and easiest way to play fantasy sports, with no waivers, trades, or lineup setting for season-long drafts. New users can sign up to Underdog Fantasy Fantasy, PTS, for up to $100 in bonus cash on their first deposit. That's promo code FantasyPTS. Head to FantasyPoint.com slash Underdog for more information. Now let's get to the show. It's time for the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoints.com. Top level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle,

from numbers to the film room with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. It is the final franchise focus podcast here at FantasyPoint.com. We went in reverse alphabetical order. Normally we talk Cardinals early in the process. This year we're talking Cardinals late in the process. Well, all right, let's put it that way. This is the last normal podcast because we still haven't released our Cleveland Browns podcast for obvious reasons.

But this is our last normal one. And I'm glad we waited to the end because I was able to get a spectacular guest for this podcast. My name's Joe Dolan, by the way. You know me from FantasyPoint.com. But I have not been the star of these podcasts. The star of the franchise focus podcast have been my excellent guest. and I've got a great one for you today. His name is Johnny Venerable.

Yeah, that's an awesome name. It sounds like a pro wrestler. Like, the great Johnny Venerable. Well, he is the great Johnny Venerable. He is the Arizona Cardinals Beat Reporter for P.HNX. He is the host of the P.HNX Cardinals podcast. And you can follow him on Twitter at Johnny Venerable. Johnny, welcome to the show.

Just like a lot of other folks that I've been kind of getting on these podcasts. I have some beatwriters, but I've also done a lot of Reddit searching. And on Reddit, like, seriously, I mean, this is what I'm doing. I'm like, is there, are there any gaps in what I'm not following on Twitter? And I did a Reddit search. What's the best Cardinals podcast? Well, PHNX is the one that came up. You and your co-host do a phenomenal job there.

And I'm glad to kind of welcome you to the Fantasy Points family and hope that more people learn your great work because, man, the Cardinals, kind of a hot team right now. They are. Yeah, not necessarily for what they're doing on the field, but they've certainly made their fair share headlines in the off season. And it's good for us. It's good for our business. It's good for our content. We're fans at heart. But yeah, PHNX is a fairly new media, digital media company here in Phoenix started last fall. And very fortunate that what we're doing is resonating with the people here in the Valley. We cover. all the major and collegiate franchises here in Phoenix. And I'm very fortunate to be able to cover the team. I grew up loving with my co-host, Bo Brock. And, yeah, we have been treated to a phenomenal start to the season last year en route to a historic collapse.

And then everything and everything, Kyler Marie collapsed this offseason contracts, Hollywood Brown, all that good stuff. So, yeah, good year for content. Yeah, and by the way, before we get into the rest of the podcast, I mean, I'm glad we did this one late in the process. Yeah. Because Kyler Murray gets extended. And I think if we did this just a couple of weeks ago, the conversation between you and I probably would have revolved is this Kyler Murray's last season in Arizona?

Obviously not going to be the case. Money talks as it often does. Yeah. And you know what? It's one of those things where if we would have done this podcast like two days ago, this would have been completely different given that this addendum clause has come out with with Kyler Murray. and all the specific speculation or the regulations, I should say, that team president and older Michael Blitabell has put in this contract. But at the end of the day, the Cardinals have never had a homegrown quarterback like this before.

They haven't extended a homegrown quarterback that they've drafted and developed since 1998. That was Jake Plummer. Think about that for a second. Everybody who pushes back on this deal. And I know, you know, people have reservations about paying Kyler Murray this kind of money. I get that. but for a franchise that has hitched their wagon to older players, like a Carson Palmer, excuse me, like a Kurt Warner, when you have a commodity like this that's 25 years old

that you feel like is entering the prime ages of their career, like you have to get something done. It's not an option not to extend them. It just goes into how do we want to protect ourselves? You know, Kyler Murray has been known to get banged up at the end of the year. What do the guarantees look like? Deshaun Wats. contract threw wrench into this whole thing.

So my guess is they always had something like this plan for Kyler. Kyler and his agent Eric Burkhardt came to the team probably a year earlier than they expected, kind of through the offseason on a hilt a little bit. But kudos to them. Week before training camp, they get something done. The franchise focus series of podcast is brought to you by Evans, sports cards, and collectibles, the best place for cards, collectibles, autographs, and more. All of our memorabilia giveaways at Fantasy Point.

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tell them that the guys from fantasy points.com sent you. So now Kyler is Johnny is equipped with the new contract. He's presumably happy. But from a fantasy perspective, you brought up the word early in the process here on the podcast, and the word is collapse. And I hate it. I hate that we have to continue to talk about this, but, you know, until it doesn't happen for Cliff Kingsbury and Kyler Murray, people are going to talk about it. And one of the things from just a fantasy perspective is that late in the year, Kyler Murray, he's suffering through dings and dens, slings and arrows. And in the last couple of years, down the stretch in the second half of the season, we really saw the rushing production wane. I think two years ago, there were several games

in which he had under 30 yards rushing in the second half of the season. Last year, he only, he didn't have a rushing touchdown in any of the final five games. Do the Cardinals have a plan for just keeping Kyler healthier? Is he going to run less earlier in the season? We know it makes him dangerous, but, you know, it's kind of tough to keep him on the field with his frame. He does not want to run. He has made it clear like he runs out of necessity. They don't like using design runs unless it's in the red zone.

Orn's short yardage. Because he is, I've stood next to him. I'm five, six and a half. He is probably five, nine and a half. And he's built well for somebody of that size. You know, in cleats, he's probably five, ten. But this is the NFL. I mean, you're going to last at that size if you consistently run.

He wants to be Drew Brees. He wants to be Russell Wilson. These guys who make their living 4,500 yards passing, 40 touchdowns. Because he knows, like that's the most efficient way this team's going to win long term. And so I think it's about him going through his progressions as a pocket passer and then using that kind of icing on top to run when teams least expect it as a red zone threat. They love the bootleg in the red zone. But you mentioned it. The struggles at the end of the year.

I wish I could explain it. I know Cliff Kingsbury wishes he could explain it. You know, they lose DeAndre Hopkins last year. That was a huge part of Kyler Murray's kind of downturn. I mean, he was the MVP frontrunner, about 10, 11 games in. And then the Packer game happened. Everybody got hurt, and they just were never the same team. And they were blowing teams out at that point.

They were winning games by double digits on the road, the first eight games of the season. So I think this team has as much talent as anybody in the division. But I also know that they're going to be under intense scrutiny and a microscope, unlike anybody else, because nobody respects Cliff Kingsbury and Kyler Murray, November. December, January. They got exposed by Sean McVan company in that Rams wild card game. That's what everybody wants to talk about. And this is something that is fault. This is a Cliff Kingsbury problem, but it's a Cardinal problem too. And I think it's up to Kyler Marie to elevate Cliff Kingsbury. Just like Cliff Kingsbury, I believe elevated Kyler Murray the first couple of years of his career. It's time for Kyler to kind of payback Cliff. Like, hey, Cliff, you have these struggles. It's embarrassing. We're going to own it as a team. Let's find a way to personal. severe and be better. I'm, you know, I'm, I just signed this new contract extension. By the way, Cliff got one as well. There's expectations now. Like, guys, these are, these are struggles of the past. We need to figure out ways to win a big, important ball games

in December or January, or we're never going to be taken seriously. It doesn't matter if we start every year 10 and 0 when we're finishing like this, losing games at Detroit, losing to a bad Colts team with Carson Wentz on Christmas Day, losing to a bad Seahawks team at home to finish the year. Those cost them the division. They needed one more game, one more win at the end of last year, and they dethrone the Rams as division champions. It's crazy to think about because the Rams went on to win the Super Bowl. It was right there for the Cardinals and they just couldn't capitalize. So you talk about Kyler Murray wanting to be Drew Breeze.

And it's funny we talked about them always starting hot. Well, is it possible things are a little bit reversed this year? Because obviously DeAndre Hopkins is suspended for the first six games of the season. And if Kyler Murray wants to be a pocket passer, what do you kind of anticipate that passing game is going to look like for those six weeks because look, hey, they brought in Hollywood Brown, but you don't have that big dominant X anymore if DeAndre Hopkins isn't out there. I don't think AJ Green's that guy anymore. No, and AJ Green was brought back kind of as a safety blanket if things go awry.

They are not going to be overly reliant on AJ Green. I can tell you that. The Hollywood Brown trade is a real trade in the sense that they gave up a premium first round pick. Now, they got a third back, but this is Kyler Murray's best friend, like dating back to their time at Oklahoma. This is somebody he spends his off seasons with. This is somebody that they believe they're buying, I don't want to say low on, but they think he can be a 1,300 yard receiver in their offense, that he was kind of neutered in Baltimore's offense, which has run dominant. Lamar Jackson, who's an exceptional quarterback, but, you know, much more of a runner to set up the pass as

opposed to Kyler Murray, who wants to sling it all over the yard. They feel like the change in division, the climate, going from the frigid, you know, northeast to, you know, sunny Arizona. All of that adds up to, I think, a more productive Hollywood Brown. Will he ever make a Pro Bowl? Is he going to be an all pro? No. But like, I do believe he's going to consistently have a thousand yard receiving seasons in

Arizona. And that's more than, by the way, Christian Kirk ever had, who just got $20 million per season from the Jackson. Exxonville Jaguars. So it's going to be a steady diet. Hollywood Brown is going to be their number one target. But then you figure, okay, they acquired Zach Erds, who was immediate plug and play production midseason last year. They drafted Trey McBride, the drafts top tight end in the second round, really kind of gifted to them. They weren't expecting him to be there, not necessarily a position of need, but now they have these two supremely talented past catching tight ends.

Ron Del Moore, who everybody was high on through the first six games last year before disappearing. He's back in your. or two as a second round receiver last year. Then you mentioned A.J. Green. Like, they have enough to compensate. They have a Pro Bowl running back in James Connor, who scored 18 touchdowns. There is not excuse making that's going to be, I guess, accepted with Kyler and company through the first six weeks without D.HOP.

Like, they have enough talent offensively to score 30 points per game. And I think the floor for this team offensively next year is a top 10 offense. Like, if they have anything other than Cliff Kingsbury's first top 10, offense, it's going to be a disastrous season. Injuries permitting, of course. So DeAndre Hopkins last year, though, I think we're all concerned, of course, about the suspension, but he plays 10 games last year by far career low. I think he had only missed two games in his career prior to last year. And very un Hopkins-like, those of us in the fantasy industry, he did not have a single weekly finish as a top five wide receiver for fantasy.

He had just three as a top 12 wide receiver. He was not. the same guy last year. How confident are the Cardinals that the Hopkins they're going to get back in October November is going to be the Hopkins that we're used to seeing and not the Hopkins that we saw last year? They'll say they're confident publicly. They don't know. I think this PED ding is kind of a flash in the pan. I don't think that's who DeAndre Hopkins is. If you look at him physically, I mean, he's just supremely gifted Hall of Fame caliber receiver, but he's not built like a Julio Jones, right? He's got much more, I don't know, finesse to his game, but he's, you know, he's sneaky physical. But I think DeAndre Hopkins is worth, or excuse me, has a cap hit of

$30 million next season in 2023. They can move off a large portion of that, should he disappoint this year. Now, it could work out to their benefit that they stink at the end of the year. So they're getting D-Hop back. He's going to be fresh. They couple that together. He helps lead them to the playoffs. He looks fantastic. They'll happily pay him that $30 million. They have a little bit of an a ace in the hole with D.Hop. Kind of like what the Dallas Cowboys had with Murray Cooper. And I don't think the Cardinals want to cut the Andre Hopkins, but it could be that same kind of situation where, hey, we know you're a thousand yard receiver, but we're paying our quarterback a premium now

with Kyler Marie, just like the Dallas Cowboys did with Dak Prescott. Like, does it make sense for us with Hollywood Brown potentially needing a new contract in a year or two to pay you this into your early 30s. And we've seen guys fall off a cliff. They reach 31, 32, 33. They're not the same caliber of player. And while I think DeAndre Hopkins' skill set ages incredibly long in this league, it'll be interesting. If I had a guest today, I think he's back in 2023.

But you're right. Like they had that first year where he catches the Hail Murray and he's fantastic. He's maybe the best receiver in football. And then last year and this year, it's going to be a little bit compromised, right? And suddenly that trade, it's like it's a good trade. But is he worth the money? TBD on that. But they're hoping that he comes back, guns ablaz and improves to everybody as a top three receiver in the NFL. Trey McBride, you mentioned, was the first tight end drafted. Many thought he was, obviously the Cardinals thought he was the best tight end drafted because they drafted him first of all the tight ends. Zachertz is getting older. He's in his 30s. Tray McBride, probably a little bit more athletic than Zach Ertz, who really is more of a finesse player.

Do you anticipate Trey McBride is going to play a lot as a rookie, or is he more of a down the line for when Zach Ertz just can't really move all that well anymore? What's your expectations for him? What are the Cardinals' expectations for him? Yeah, they resigned Zach Ertz to begin this offseason. And they gave him a three-year contract, which I think it has guarantees for the first two years. So Zach will be around the next two years. But you're right. Here's my take. I think they view Trey McBride as somebody that can make it impact. this year. He's not going to be the tight end number one, obviously. But I think he holds off the number two tight end, who really is a default blocker in Max Williams, who's coming back from injury. I think Trey McBride sees snaps over Max Williams. And I think it's he and Zach Ertz as a tandem in the desert for the next two years. And I think it's very similar to how it played out in

Philadelphia with Ertz and then Dallas Goddard, who eventually took over that role. I think it's the same kind of scenario as Trey McBride beefs up in the NFL a little bit more, gets a little bit more weight on him to be able to handle the rigors of being the every down tight end from a blocking standpoint. But from a receiving standpoint, I know he played at Colorado State. We have close people on the floor in Colorado State. He was the mountain west at male after the year. He carried that program. He was their entire offense. He is from what I've seen from OTAs, the buzz to begin training camp, he is a special pass catching tight end or past catching player. right he's somebody that's going to be able to come in especially in the red zone where they need

size when you got undersized players like hollywood brown and randell more he and erds present problems for opposing defenses and kailer murray needs a big target so it would not surprise me at all if he had four or five hundred yards receiving and three or four touchdowns this year trending up and i i do think this is not a team that's drafted the position well at all they haven't had a tight end of note really since like Jackie Smith dating myself here. I do think in two or three years, you're going to look at this Cardinal team. He's going to be one of the five to seven best players on the roster. That's the buzz about him.

But we have to take it with a grain of salt right now in 2022 because Urch is still very much established. He's not going to give snaps away in the one tight end sets. But they, Tray McBride is not going to ride the bench this year. And I'll give Cliff Kingsbury credit. He plays rookies. plays offensive rookies, unlike defensive coordinator, Vance Joseph, like, they will find a role if you're talented enough for you

offensively. One of those rookies last year, and I want to hit this quickly because we've really touched on so much. What happened to Ronnell Moore? Obviously, you guys know, I mean, for a wide receiver, his average depth of target was staggeringly low. Yeah. What's his role going to be this season? They used him too much as a gimmick player, and he was leading the team through the first, I

think five weeks of the season in receiving yards. And he was a threat down the field. He had a phenomenal catch and run against the Minnesota Vikings. He looked good against the Jaguars. And then he got a little bit dinged up. And then Cliff Kingsbury, and he's admitted this, he became too much of a, let's just give him a screen pass and see him manufacture yards at the line of scrimmage. And team started to sniff that out.

It's the NFL. Everybody tackles well. And he got dinged up. And he really hasn't been fully healthy since you hate to. to say it. It's freshman year in the Big Ten in like 2018. So yeah, Purdue. So I think that they need to find a vertical route tree for him, something in the intermediate passing game for him to be able to separate downfield. And they're going to do that. He will have, I think, Christian Kurt's route tree. Christian Kirk played the slot last year. That's Rondell Moore's role right now. And then you've got

Hollywood Brown and DeAndre Hopkins when he comes back as the two outside receivers. That's the perfect scenario for Rondell to be able to operate underneath. Can he hold up? We'll see. I don't think he'll ever be, you know, the quintessential 80 plus catch kind of guy with, you know, over 1,000 yards every year. But I do think that between the value he gives in the passing game, mix him in a little bit, you know, jet sweeps in the run game, sparingly, but you can do it. And then in the return game, he will be an explosive player. It's just can they can they get a healthy 17 games from somebody that size? It's like the Cardinals have all these explosive playmakers,

Hollywood and Rondale and Kyler Murray, but they're all small, right? And so that's concerning. And that might be part of the reason why you get to some of these colder months and they have to go to Seattle and they have to play these tougher teams that, you know, play in the Midwest and Frigit Weather, they're out east, right? They just, they can't hold up physically. They get pushed around. It's one of the reasons the Rams do so well.

against them is the Rams are so big and physical, right? Aaron Donald up the middle just exposes what the Cardinals are. And the Cardinals are like that, that Corvette, that sports car at the beginning of the year that's taken turns fast and does really well. And then you try to take it on a, you know, a back road somewhere on gravel and it just, it flips over. That's, that's probably the best analogy for the Cardinals. So I've been asking everybody at the end of these podcast, Johnny, to kind of give me a fantasy sleeper. And I know yours is coming from the Hardinels backfield. Let's just take a like a macro view of this backfield. Obviously, they're paying James Connor big money. But they also brought in, um, Darrell Williams and

free agency drafted Keonté Ingram still have Eno Benjamin. Beyond James Connor, what are your expectations for this backfield? I think it's just, it's up for grabs. They have talked up, you know, Benjamin like he is going to be a part of this backfield. And credit to him, he was a seventh round pick that was very much like a Homer pick. Here's this kid out of Arizona State. We've got an extra late seventh. Let's draft him. He's almost cut his first year. He's stuck around the 53-man roster. It looks like three straight seasons.

That's to be commended. He had a really nice game against the San Francisco 49ers last year. I had a big truck and run over Drake or Patrick. It sounds like he's going to compete with Darrell Williams for that number two job. Now, Darrell Williams called Cliff, or excuse me, Patrick Mahomes called Cliff Kingsbury this off season and said, you've got to try out my guy, Darrell Williams. He's a great guy. He's somebody that's underrated. We didn't re-sign him.

They're giving their backfield to Clyde Edwards Helaire. The Cardinals did. They like what they saw. They're bringing him in. He's much more big and physical. He kind of fits that James Connor mold, but he's much more of a past catching back. He's somebody that can help on third down. I think Darrell Williams will spell James Connor a couple series a game, whereas I think,

you know, Benjamin is the true kind of change of pace, third back in line. So if anything happens to James Connor, who was fantastic last year, but he gets a It's hurt. You missed a couple games last year. You missed a bunch of games with the Pittsburgh Steelers. That's not, that's why he wasn't resigned there. They will give Darrell Williams the starting job. And so if you're from a fantasy perspective, if you're hitching your wagon, this James Connor, who had 18 touchdowns last year, you better make sure you have Darrell Williams as your backup. I also think he's just going to be productive anyway. Cliff Kingsbury for all the heat he takes. He's always had productive running games, Kenyon Drake, right? He's made guys productive, kind of seemingly out of nowhere. and it's one of Cliffs' kind of underrated traits in the NFL being able to do that.

So he's not Kyle Shanahan in that sense, but I do think Darrell Williams is going to surprise a lot of people this season. He is the appropriately named Johnny Venerable. He covers the Arizona Cardinals and hosts the podcast on P HNX. He is the co-host of that great podcast. You can obviously tell that that is a podcast you must be listening to if you have any interest in the Arizona Cardinals. Johnny, thank you so much for joining the franchise focus podcast series. It was wonderful talking with you. You broke down the entire offense about as well as could possibly be broke down.

I just really appreciate you coming on. Of course, Joe. Thanks for having me. Love to be back anytime. Again, follow him on Twitter at Johnny Venerable. You can follow me on Twitter at FG underscore Dolan. We'll release the Cleveland Browns podcast whenever we get the news on Deshawn Watson. Heck, maybe it's out by the time you're actually listening to this podcast because I'm recording this on July 26.

But whatever the case, our franchise focus series is wrapped up at Fantasy Points. I greatly appreciate everybody for turning in for all 32 of these podcasts. We battled through COVID. We battled through scheduling errors. We battled through technical issues. But it is done. And now it's time for training camp in the preseason. Thank you so much, everybody, for indulging me on this journey.

And I really appreciate everybody tuning in. And I hope you're with Fantasy Points throughout the 2022. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points Podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform, and come join the roster at fantasypoints.com.