ARIZONA (at Buffalo)
Typically offenses don't play as well on the road, but look for the Cardinals to buck that trend this week. Buffalo's defense was a disappointment last year, and it was a disaster in Week 2, letting the Jets march up and down the field. Arizona, meanwhile, has shown some ability to put up big numbers away from Glendale. They scored at least 39 points in half of their road games last year, and they scored 34 and 27 points in two of the other four games. We see this as one of the league's best offenses, and we're thinking it will put up better-than-usual numbers this week. ... Carson Palmer had the meltdown game in the playoffs last year and had a few errant balls in the preseason, but he's still a capable passer at the helm of one of the league's great offenses. Now he gets to take on a defense that couldn't stop a similar kind of offense last week (the Jets also have a veteran quarterback, three good wide receivers and a big, multi-purpose tailback). Ryan Fitzpatrick threw for 374 yards against this defense. The Bills allowed 30 TD passes last year, and the defense is probably even worse now. A good chance, it seems, that Palmer will throw for about 300 and 2-3 TDs. ... Buffalo couldn't stop New York's big wide receivers last week, and Arizona has two that look pretty similar to those guys. Larry Fitzgerald is in top form, with 81 yards in each game, with 3 TDs. Michael Floyd is pretty similar -- doesn't catch as many passes but has more downfield potential. And Floyd can catch the short ones too. He caught a 1-yard touchdown last week and had a diving catch that looked like it was straight out of Fitzgerald's playbook. Floyd and Fitzgerald might both be top-20 wide receivers this week. It was a three-receiver mix last year, ...
This report is taken from today's Week 3 edition of Fantasy Index Weekly. The newsletter includes our player rankings and 18 pages of camp reports, plus stat projections and custom rankings for the games being played this weekend.
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... but there's a gap down to the No. 3 spot now. John Brown is healthy, but they moved him into a reserve role last week. Jaron Brown started, and John Brown wasn't on the field at all for the first two possessions. He rotated in later and ended up playing the same number of offensive snaps. Jaron Brown was the better of the two, with 51- and 27-yard catches (including a touchdown) but he's not up there with Fitzgerald or Floyd yet. The two Browns likely will split time in some form this week. ... David Johnson looks very good. He's a runner and a receiver, and he's facing a defense that clearly will be focused on trying to improve against the pass -- it needs better coverage and it needs more pass rush. Johnson is a younger, faster version of Matt Forte, who killed this defense last week, with 109 total yards and 3 TDs. Johnson finished with 4 fewer carries than Chris Johnson last week, but that was a function of the Cardinals blowing out the Bucs 40-7 (they sat down their starters for the entire fourth quarter). Young Johnson should get at least three times as many touches as Old Johnson. ... We have no interest in Arizona's tight ends. Darren Fells, Jermaine Gresham and Troy Niklas are all playing, but they're primarily blockers. Arizona's tight ends ranked in the bottom-5 last year in catches and yards. ... With kickers, the best ones tend to come from the teams that are winning by the most. Using that theory, Chandler Catanzaro should be a top-5 kicker this week. ... The matchup doesn't look particularly good for the Cardinals Defense. It should finish above-average in sacks; it has a strong pass rush, while Tyrod Taylor tends to hang onto the ball and try to scramble out of trouble. But Taylor doesn't force many passes. In 16 starts the last two years, he's thrown only 7 interceptions and lost only one fumble.
