2022 Arizona Cardinals Odds, Schedule, & Fantasy Football Team Preview
Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals are going to have to score points in 2022 to compensate for their weak defense. In this article we’ll get to the bottom of the impacts of this for sports betting and fantasy football drafts, so that you can profit this year on the top DFS sites.
Using RotoGrinders NFL 2022 projections, we review all 32 NFL Teams this summer and uncover all the best bets and league-winning picks we can find. Among the questions we will look at to answer in this article:
- Arizona Cardinals Betting Odds: Can they win games early without Hopkins to overcome a tougher second half?
- Team Matchup Overview: Do we want to target offensive players against this questionable defense?
- Fantasy Football Drafts: Will Game Scripts force Kyler Murray into uptempo situations, and make him more attractive in drafts?
Be sure to check out all the great sports betting, fantasy football, and DFS content available on RotoGrinders leading up to kickoff. We’ll be covering fantasy football for BestBall with Spike Week, rankings and projections, DFS preseason with RotoGrinders Premium, and RotoGrinders Premium and Sports betting at RG and ScoresAndOdds.
2022 Arizona Cardinals Schedule, Lines, and Best Bets
Projected Odds, derived & modified from data originally published by Sean Koerner here.
Win Total and Total Games Favored:
8.5 (-105) / 9 Games Favored ( 2 Big Favorites / 0 Big Dogs)
The Cardinals have a very tough schedule. They must face 12 offensive teams that have a rushing or passing unit graded as difficult. This includes 5 elite rushing offenses and 4 elite passing offenses.
They will also face 8 difficult rush and pass defenses. They are big favorites in just two games, and can boast just one of their four core units with a grade of “strong” or better.
Things only get more hairy once you add on the 6 game suspension for Deandre Hopkins and questions about the skill of their offensive line.
Best Bet: I prefer the under on 8.5 Wins, as they will have to outperform defensively on multiple occasions against the following award winnings Quarterbacks: Patrick Mahomes (MVP), Matthew Stafford 2X (Super Bowl MVP), Justin Herbert (Offensive Rookie of the Year), Tom Brady (All of Them), and Russell Wilson (Super Bowl Champion).
Winning even 3 of those games would still require a sweep of soft matchups plus multiple wins against New England, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Minnesota, and San Francisco (2X). It’s the under all day from my perspective.
Arizona Cardinals Props
PrizePicks is a site where you can use your fantasy knowledge to make prop parlays and win cash. It’s also perfect if you love player props but aren’t in a state with legal sports betting.
Favorite Prop: Kyler Murray is going to be dropping back to pass late in games, and that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to result in amazing passing performances every week. However, I do think it will lead to more scrambling. I think it makes a lot of sense to favor the over 450.5 rushing yards for him this season, and that is the current line on Prize Picks. I’ll take over.
Arizona Cardinals Fantasy Football Projections
Offense Ranks:Rank 13/ Below Average Rush / Strong Pass/ Rank 14 Points For)
Defense Ranks:Rank 22/ Average Rush / Below Average pass / Rank 15 Points Allowed)
Opponent Strength – Rushing:8 difficult vs. rush. 4 soft vs. rush.
Opponent Strength – Passing:8 difficult vs. pass. 5 soft vs. pass.
The schedule for this team is tough from a betting perspective, as they should be in constant close games. When you combine this with a fast pace of play and a potent offense, we could be looking at a bunch of overs hitting in games that won’t have high totals.
For fantasy football, this is a very good situation. We do mind that the defensive matchups will tough, but that is nothing compared to the potential opportunity for an increase in uptempo offense from a team that is already the leagues most voluminous (in terms of total plays executed, last two seasons).
The combination is going to have us salivating often in DFS to say the least.
Arizona Cardinals Top Fantasy Football Plays & Picks
Noteworthy Depth Chart
QB: Kyler Murray – Underdog Rank: 58 (ADP 61 – 5.17% ADP Gap)
RB: James Conner – Underdog Rank: 32 (ADP 33 – 3.13% ADP Gap)
RB: Darrel Williams – Underdog Rank: 181 (ADP 155 – -14.36% ADP Gap)
WR: Marquise Brown – Underdog Rank: 36 (ADP 34 – -5.56% ADP Gap)
WR: DeAndre Hopkins – Underdog Rank: 81 (ADP 75 – -7.41% ADP Gap)
WR: Rondale Moore – Underdog Rank: 127 (ADP 117 – -7.87% ADP Gap)
TE: Zach Ertz – Underdog Rank: 116 (ADP 111 – -4.31% ADP Gap)
*Note: Premium Subscribers can find updated rankings for Underdog Fantasy in the content schedule here.
New Additions of Note: Marquise Brown
Departures of Note: Chase Edmonds
Kyler Murray wants to be paid like a king, and this season will certainly be his opportunity to prove his worth. We have discussed the potential for upside with this offense, and Kyler possesses the dual threat skills to finish as QB1. Having zero access to Murray in fantasy seems bad, and I plan to get some quality exposure in Best Ball.
James Conner must get the job done with a rather lowly looking offensive line, but will have the windfall of a Chase Edmonds exit to help propel him towards fantasy opportunity. I’m not sold we’ll see the same incredible success as 2021, but I would stop well short of betting heavily against it. The opportunity figures to be massive, and this is more than enough to keep him squarely on the radar when he fits the momentum of your draft.
Deandre Hopkins will miss 6 games, and return to a team that will have Marquise Brown featured as a number 1 against the softest portion of their schedule. I am quite bearish on his current ADP 75, and even more so than the rank of 81 currently assigned in our fantasy projections. The schedule just isn’t very appealing and the weaponry in the passing game may lower him from his previous incarnations in the 26% of team targets range.
Rondale Moore is a high upside play that many drafters are paying up for, and I don’t blame a single one of them. You can’t accurately use a median outcome to describe why to like him in drafts, and it’s likely our rankings will slowly rise as the offseason reveals more reasons to increase confidence.
Taking any portion of the offense is defensible, and I’ll be focused on Kyler Murray and Rondale Moore as the most interesting options for the price.
Image Credit: Imagn