Monday Night Football preview: What to expect fantasy-wise from Cardinals at Cowboys

The Arizona Cardinals and Dallas Cowboys face off on Monday Night Football tonight and I’m here to breakdown the two teams and who offers the best fantasy football value this week.

Cardinals

Quarterback Kyler Murray enters Week 6’s Monday Night Football showdown as fantasy’s overall QB5 in scoring. Although the talk of the fantasy-town is Murray’s massive increase in rushing usage from 2019 to the first five weeks of 2020—Murray’s halfway to his yardage total and already matched his four rushing scores from last year—the 2nd-year signal caller has drastically improved in the passing department. His 1.5% Completion Percentage Above Expectation as a rookie was underwhelming, but albeit understandable. The 4.5% CPAE that he’s hung on the league in his sophomore campaign, 6th-best in the league, should silence his doubters as to whether or not he’s the man for the Cardinals’ long term quarterback concerns. Facing Dallas’s lacking pass defense that’s average 248.6 passing yards allowed, 12th-most in the league, Murray is this week’s overall QB3.

Despite his hilarious, pee wee league-esque eight average targeted air yards, DeAndre Hopkins is .5PPR’s overall WR4. Against a team like Dallas that’s been obliterated by opposing wide receivers, fantasy managers should expect more of the same from Hopkins.

In Weeks 4 and 5, running back Chase Edmonds and wide receiver Christian Kirk have found themselves as big time target-getters, which bodes very well for their Week 6 prospects. While it’s true the Larry Fitzgerald is the 2nd-most targeted player on the team, his .5PPR point total of 21.3 ranks him 91st in .5PPR scoring. If he has a chance to make noise in the box score, one might think that Dallas is the time. But he’s had four straight weeks working against the hapless secondaries of Washington, Carolina, Detroit, and the New York Jets. Leave him in free agency. Kirk can be started as an exciting flex play while Chase Edmonds finds himself ranked ahead of nominal running back starter Kenyan Drake in consecutive weeks, as a back-end RB2. Drake is a just flex play as his lack of passing game usage severely inhibits his ability to produce.

Wide receiver Andy Isabella is tragically underused. He’s just a low-level boom/bust flex option.

Wide receiver KeeSean Johnson and tight end Dan Arnold are just not used enough to warrant fantasy consideration.

Cowboys

Quarterback-needy teams should be adding Andy Dalton ahead of this evening’s match-up as quickly as possible. The Cowboys rest-of-season schedule is a dream with just two imposing foes (Baltimore and Pittsburgh) through Week 16. Dalton is likely the best backup in the league and his offensive coordinator, Kellen Moore, drives a fast pace that creates a QB-friendly environment. Trust Dalton as this week’s premier QB2, taking the overall QB13 ranking—a mark that should remain his floor, outside of the two aforementioned tough spots.

The jump in snaps from backup receivers Noah Brown and Cedrick Wilson, that started in Week 3, dent the prospects of Dallas’s 3-wide starting group of Amari Cooper, CeeDee Lamb, and Michael Gallup. While Cooper is still one of the best receivers in the league, he must be dropped to the back-end of the Top 12. Still, fantasy managers have a rock-solid asset on their hands. Lamb will continue to run his easy-to-see slot routes, keeping his floor as a steady WR2. Michael Gallup’s unfortunate variance is likely to continue with the downgrade a quarterback though. He’s a pendulum-style boom/bust flex option.

At times in his Bengals career, Dalton found success targeting tight ends Jermaine Gresham and Tyler Eifert. Despite not being part of the game plan through the offseason, tight end Dalton Schultz has become the 4th-most targeted Cowboy overall, while asserting himself as the team’s go-to in the red zone. The loss of Dak Prescott is sure to hurt him to some degree but fantasy managers will be hard pressed to find a tight end more regularly incorporated into weekly game plans than the Cowboys’ Schultz. He remains a Top 12 option despite the replacement at quarterback.

Ezekiel Elliott is this week’s overall RB1. The loss of Dak Prescott will likely means Zeke sees an slight increase in the number of stacked boxes he faces but the scheme will keep defenses mostly spread out and Elliott’s workload should somewhat increase as the focal point of the team’s offense.